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Cosmographi, H. Glareani compendiaria descriptio orbis terrarum
Parisiis, Apud Ioan. Libert, 1619 Shown here is the titlepage
from a reprint of the Roman geographer Pomponius Mela's
Description of the World. He described the world as it was
perceived by the ancient Romans. His work is presented as a
circumnavigation of the known world at that time, including the
continents of Africa, Asia and Europe. The outer edges of all
the continents remained unfamiliar to the Romans, and it was
here that creatures of mythology were believed to exist. Mela
included historical, cultural, mythological as well as
geographical information in his work, and numerous copies and
translations circulated throughout Europe during this age of
Geography Rectified: or, A Description of the World, In all its
Kingdoms … London: Robert Morden and Thomas Cockeril, 1680
Robert Morden was a geographer and a prolific maker of