De Situ Orbis

1748

Shoults Lb 1748 M

[Leyden: Samuel Luchtmans]

Born in Spain, Pomponius Mela (died c. 45 BC) wrote De Situ Orbis (also known as de Chorographia or de Cosmographia) in the fourth decade of the 1st century. Describing three of the continents known in his time – Africa, Asia and Europe – his work is the first geographical treatise in Latin. Mela recognised that the earth was round and he makes reference to China, Sri Lanka, India and the Orkney Islands, which he called the Orcades. This map, drawn by Petrus Bertius, the Flemish cartographer in 1628, is a depiction of the world as described by Mela. According to Mela the large landmass at the bottom was inhabited by the Antichthones and unreachable by those from the north ‘because of the heat of the intervening expanse’ (transl. Romer).