Asia partiu orbis maxima. MDXCVIII.

Description

hand-coloured copper engraving, without verso text – RARE.

Important map from “Geographisch Handtbuch”, here in the rare state WITHOUT verso text.. This general map of Asia extends from the eastern Mediterranean to Japan, the latter indicated as a single, large island with one or two smaller islets dotted about its shores. Some of the mythical lakes still cover the interior of China. New Guinea is indicated by a land mass labelled “Tierra Baixa”. Quad, basing many of his works on de Jode – as in this one – intended to compete with Ortelius et al via a smaller and thus cheaper atlas version.