[14], 419, [61], 70 pp. plus eight geometrical diagrams. Engraved frontis. 12mo. Contemporary vellum, manuscript title on spine. Old book advertisement on front pastedown.
Later edition of Mela's geography, after many earlier editions stretching back to 1471. This edition is the second to include observations by Vossius. The first was printed at The Hague in 1658. This text includes American references, which first appeared in the 1498 Salamanca edition. Mela's work is the only formal treatise on the subject, written in classical Latin by the first Roman geographer. Mela divides the earth into five sections, two of which he deems uninhabitable, and declares the existence of "antichthones" which inhabit the southern zone, the climate of which would prove unbearable for the population of the northern regions.
Donated by William Reese Company, New Haven, CT.