"Tab. III. Asiae, in qua Colchis, Iberia, Albania, ac Armenia Maior...", Ptolemy/Mercator

Lovely Ptolemaic map of the Caucasus region and what is now Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, eastern Turkey and northern Iran. Mercator originally published this map in his 1578 edition of Ptolemy's great Geography. Although he is most renowned today for the projection he popularized and for first using the term 'atlas' for a collection of maps, he devoted much of his life to his Ptolemaic maps. The maps were beautifully engraved as nearly as possible to their original form. The map is embellished with a fierce sea monster in the Black Sea and a strapwork title cartouche in the Caspian Sea.

References: Mickwitz & Miekkavaara #234-9.

Condition: A

A nice impression on watermarked paper with wide, original margins and light toning along sheet edges.