POMPONIUS MELA / ORONCE FINE. - Pomponii Melae De Orbis Situ Libri tres…[with Oronce Fine double-cordiform worldmap].

Third edition with the commentary of Joachim Vadian with some contemporary notes in Latin, issued with the first edition of Oronce Fine full-sheet woodcut map of the world dated 1531.

INCLUDING THE FIRST STATE of Fine's influential double-cordiform projection, the first printed map to depict the world from the poles. Its influence can be seen in Mercator's world map of 1538, and derivatives, including Floriano's world map of 1555, as well as with later maps such de Jode's.
The map is significant for a number of reasons: the four islands at the north pole and the depiction of the European, Asian and American continents as "a contiguous landmass, here the American mainland discoveries apparently shown as the north-eastern extremity of Asia, rather than as a separate continent, along the lines of Contarini and Ruysch, but monumental discoveries have forever altered the coastlines. Fine has extended the eastern coast of North America southward beyond the discoveries of Gomes and Ayllon to a peninsular outline of Florida, which is named, and a reasonable representation of the Gulf coast as described by Pineda in 1519. The South American continent is admirably depicted incorporating discoveries by the Portuguese, including Ferdinand Magellan" (Benevento).

The right hand "heart" is dominated by the large southern continent labelled "Terra Australis recenter inventa, sed nondu[m] plene cognita" (literally "southern land recently found, but not yet fully known"). This comment has caused all sorts of trouble, as the earliest recognised discoverer of the south pole is the Russian Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen in 1820; Captain Cook came close but was thwarted by the dreadful weather when he made his attempt. The alleged similarity of the continent depicted to the rock coastline of Antarctica (rather than the overlying ice boundary) has led more fanciful writers to postulate knowledge of the region being passed to Fine from maritime cultures who explored the region before the ice formed residents of the lost city of Atlantis, or alien visitors.

References : Shirley, R. The Mapping of the World Early Printed World Maps 1472-1700. London 1987 :: 66. Mickwitz & Miekkavaara, The A.E. Nordenskiold Collection of Maps up to 1800 Helsinki 1979-1995 :: pp. 74, 90, 106, Pl. XLI(2).Sabin, J. A Dictionary of Books Relating to America, from its Discovery to the Present Time. New York. (1936) 1967 :: 27539 (state 3). Suarez, T. Early Mapping of Southeast Asia. Singapore 1999: p.98, ill. Fig. 53, ill. Fig. 52, detail. National Library Australia, Mapping Our World. Canberra 2013: p.83, ill. p.82, 84-85.