A world map as an allegory of the corruption of Stuart London

A strange and unusual map of the world, engraved by Pieter van den Keere for 'Mundus alter et idem sive Terra Australis ante hac semper incognita longis itineribus peregrini academici nuperrime lustrata', written by Bishop Joseph Hall (1574-1656) under the pseudonym 'The British Mercury'. It depicts the world on Mercator's Projection, In a rudimental way, but with a completely invented Great Southern Continent. 'Mundus alter et idem' is a satire of London under the Stuarts, disguised as an account of the voyage of the 'Fantasia', into the South Seas. The narratror visits Crapulia, Viraginia, Moronia and Lavernia (the homes of gluttons, nags, fools and thieves) and the island of Hermaphrodites. Hall, who became bishop of both Exeter and Norwich, did not intend for his book to be widely distributed; it was only in 1674, after he had died, that he was identified as the author.