Orbis Terrae Compendiosa Descriptio ex ... Rumoldus Mercator ... Hieron: Porro redact

Beautiful old hand coloured world map based on Rumold Mercator's world map of 1587. The map shows the classical late 16th Century configuration of the world with a large "Terrae Australis" in the south, the Northwest passage with unusual shape of the North Pole and the bulky west coast of South America. Also the mythical islands in the Atlantic are present. From the 1604 Cologne edition of "Enchiridion cosmographicum" by Matthias Quad.

This map with another title was also use in Giovanni Magini's Ptolemy edition from 1596 and was engraved by Girolamo Porro. "It's the artist's credit that so much detail have been represented with such fineness and clarity... This small Mercator-Porro map is a worthwhile collector's item, particularly as the larger Mercator world map is becoming increasingly scarce." (R. Shirley)

Minor soiling in margin. Otherwise perfect.

Rumold Mercator, the son of Gerard Mercator was also Geographer and responsible for the first complete edition of the Mercator Atlas in 1595. He was born 1541 in Louvain and died 1600 in Duisburg.