17th century map of the Empire of Prester John

A small format map of Abyssinia, decorated with a strapwork cartouche containing the title and scale. It was published in the 'Historia mundi, or, Mercator's Atlas. Containing his Cosmographical Description of the Fabricke and Figure of the World', in which all the maps were printed laterally to the text. The 'Atlas Minor', the pocket version of the Mercator atlas, was first published in 1607, with several editions up to 1621. Soon afterwards the printing plates were sold to a London publisher, and were used to illustrate 'Hakluytus Posthumus, or Purchas his Pilgrimes' by Samuel Purchas in 1625. A decade later this 'Historia mundi' was the first English edition of the 'Atlas Minor'.