Lot 385
385
ASIA -- "ASIA ex magna orbis terræ descriptione Gerardi Mercatoris desumta, studio et industria G.M. Iunioris". (Duisburg, Mercator Heirs, 1595). Engr. map w. cartouche in beautiful handcolouring. 375 x 465 mm. (Professionally remargined).
Derived from the elder Mercator's world map of 1569, this map of Asia was engraved by his grandson Gerard. Rare early edition of the map, with no text on v°, only "Asia", a decorated cartouche and "D". It has a number of interesting features: Japan still has an oval shape with a chain of islands to the south, despite the inclusion of a much more accurate map of Japan in the same atlas; a mysterious island marked "Polus Magnetis" appears above the Straits of Anian, away from a Polar land mass; and, perhaps most intriguingly of all, north-west America appears with two towns marked within the kingdom of "Quivira". - Koeman Me12 (1595B); V.d. Krogt I, 8000:1A (1:011/012).€ 800
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