Antique map of the World by Gerard and Rumold Mercator c. 1587
Orbis Terrae Compendiosa Descriptio, quam ex magna universali Gerardi Mercatoris Domini Gartho, geographie ac ceterarum bonarum artium amatori ac fautori summo, in veteris amicitie ac familiaritatis memoria Rumoldus Mercator fieri curabat A° M.D.MXXXVII.
Item Number: 15397 Authenticity Guarantee
Category: Antique maps > World and Polar
Antique map of the World by Gerard and Rumold Mercator.
Date of the first edition: 1587
Date of this map: c. 1587
Copper engraving
Size: 29 x 52.5cm (11.3 x 20.5 inches)
Verso: Blank
Condition: Contemporary coloured, excellent.
Condition Rating: A+
References: Shirley (World), 157; Van der Krogt 1, 0001:1A; Karrow, 56/17.10.
Separate publication.
Without the cracks. ("By 1603 cracks had developed in the top edge of the plate and by the 1620s these had extended in two places almost completely across the top box containing the title." (Shirley)). Early edition with text below.
Gerard Mercator's great world map of 1569 was condensed into double hemispherical form by his son Rumold. According to Shirley, it first appeared in Isaac Casaubon's edition of Strabo's Geographia published in Geneva in 1587 with columns of text beneath the map. Later Rumold's map was incorporated into editions of Mercator's long-lived and influential Atlas from 1595 onwards.
This copy was bound in an Ortelius atlas 1570 (first edition). The binding was original, which does not prove that it was bound exactly in 1570, but in any case very early. It could be the very first edition of this map.