Mela, Pomponius:

$22,500 · Offered by William Reese Company

POMPONII MELLE COSMOGRAPHIA DE SITU ORBIS.... Noted scholar Boies Penrose's copy, with his bookplate on the front free endpaper. Pomponius Mela is often taken as an accurate sum of European geographical knowledge before the discovery of the New World. De Situ Orbis was written by Mela, a native of Roman Spain, sometime around the year 43, and represents the only surviving geographical treatise of classical antiquity. The rediscovery and publication of this work, which served as a primary source for Pliny, was of the key factors in the revival of geographical study in the Renaissance and did much to spur interest in world exploration. This handsome Venetian edition is one of two printed in the city in that year, and they are among the earliest published geographical works.

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