Orbis Terrae Compendiosa Descriptio Quam ex Magna Universali Mercatoris, 1595

Fantastic full original hand-color example of the true 1595 edition of Rumold Mercator’s map of the world, first printed in Geneva in 1587. The map is based on Gerard Mercator’s celebrated 1569 world map and was made while Gerard was still alive (1512- 1594). This is the only collectible world map with direct input from Gerard Mercator, the greatest geographer of his era. Both his 1538 and 1569 world maps are unobtainable rarities. This example is from 1595, the first year of publication of the Mercator Atlas. The map is readily distinguishable from the later atlas editions dating from the beginning of the seventeenth century, which include first one and then two cracks in the copperplate, both in the title. After the text was changed below the image in 1595, it was thereafter discontinued in editions after 1603. The present work is a reduced version of the 1569 wall map of the world, on which the revolutionary Mercator Projection was introduced. Oddly, this folio version recast the map into a double-hemisphere format; Rumold chose not to employ his father’s namesake projection. To the left is the wester

Date

1595

Mapmaker / publisher

Gerard Mercator / Isaac Casaubon

Archive

Wikimedia Commons

Type

map

Original size

12,533 × 9,667 pixels

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