MERCATOR, Rumold (1545-1599)
Orbis terrae Compendiosa Descriptio. [Duisberg], dated 1587 [but 1602 or later].Hand-colored engraved twin-hemispherical world map, image 288 x 523 mm (412 x 523 mm sheet). Strapwork borders, armillary sphere, compass rose, galleons and sea monsters, Latin text below in 4 columns, the first with 17 lines, with the heading "De mundi creatione ac constitutione brevis instructio" in Roman and Italic type. (Short tear to lower margin just touching letters repaired on verso, evidence of a crack in the copperplate between the Rs in "Terrae" in the title.) Gerard Mercator's world map first appeared in 1569; his son, Rumold, condensed it in double-hemisphere form, and first re-issued it in 1587. "The engraving is a model of clarity and neatness" (Shirley). Shirley 157.
