A mid-18th century pocket atlas of the world

A rare first issue of this important pocket atlas, of which only three examples are listed by Roscoe, with an error on the Africa map & an errata engraved on the index page (corrected in the second issue, also 1758). Of interest are the ten regional maps of North America, published as the Seven Years' War was being fought, including a map of Cape Breton, marking Louisbourg the year the fortress was captured by the British. The 'Atlas Minimus' was his best known work of John Gibson (d.1792) and was highly influencial, with Mathew Carey publishing an American edition in 1798, forty years later. Despite its success Gibson spent time in debtor's prison in 1765.