PBA Galleries

[xxxii], 398, [2] pp. Historiated woodcut initial letters. 33 woodcut maps, most folding. (12mo) 15x9.8 cm. (6x3¾"), period blindstamped pigskin, all edges stained red.

Pomponius Mela, who wrote around AD 43, was the earliest Roman geographer. He was born in Tingentera (Algeciras) and died c 45 CE. The general views of the De situ orbis mainly agree with those current among Greek writers from Eratosthenes to Strabo; the latter was probably unknown to Mela. But Pomponius is unique among ancient geographers in that, after dividing the earth into five zones, of which two only were habitable, he asserts the existence of antichthones, inhabiting the southern temperate zone inaccessible to the folk of the northern temperate regions from the unbearable heat of the intervening torrid belt.