The first plate of Ortelius’s classic world map

A fine example of one of the most famous antique maps of the world, published in the 'Theatrum Orbis Terrarum', the first regularly produced atlas of the world. This example was printed from the first plate of three: the copper plate had cracked across the bottom left corner almost immediately and went through six states before being discarded and replaced by a new plate. Ortelius's projection is oval, and shows extensive land masses at the north and south poles, the latter named 'Terra Australis Nondum Cognita', South America has a distinctive bulge (removed in the third state of the second plate). The contemporary colour is particularly fine.