Published in the Venice edition of Mela’s 'Cosmographi Geographica, sive De Situs Orbis', Tony Campbell (1998) suggests that the edition’s printer, 

, which may have been the map maker responsible, since this and his T-O map of 1480 are the two earliest woodcut maps printed in Italy.

This map illustrated an early edition of 

's 'Cosmographi Geographica, sive De Situ Orbis', published in 14 July 1482. The labelling system is characteristically sparse, naming only the three known continents of Asia, Africa, and Europe, and the Indian Ocean ('Pelagus Indicum'). Interestingly, the markings to identify mountains and rivers resemble those on medieval maps such as the Psalter World Map (BL Add. MS 68281, fol. 9r, c.1250) or the Tournai Maps (BL Add. MS 10049, fol. 64r-v, c.1150). The conical map is set within a decorative but nondescript architectural border,  framed by four Corinthian columns and a coffered ceiling. The title is taken from a Latin motto: 'If, in this new age, man seeks to follow the winding paths of geography, he is bound to find the flowers that belong there, for he deserves them.' The cardinal winds are represented by sixteen windheads which surround the map, their names provided in letterpress. 

This map was published in the same year as 

’s celebrated 'Cosmographia'. Ratdolt’s edition of Mela’s world map shows Europe, a large part of Africa, and Asia including Sri Lanka with a keyhole-shaped bay. Notably, this was the first map to depict contemporary Portuguese knowledge of the west coast of Africa, six years later leading to the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope. The depiction of the Nile is also noteworthy: the source of which is in the mountains south of two unnamed lakes, which roughly correspond to Lakes Albert and Victoria. Another obvious addition is the presence of Scandinavia and, for the first time, the Orkney Islands off the northeast coast of Scotland.

The Sunderland Collection

This lyrical map shows the world on a Ptolemaic projection hanging in space, amid four Corinthian pillars. Although the map is quite simple and small in scale, it is packed with interesting content and charming decorative details. Its title captures the expeditionary zeitgeist of the Early Modern world: ‘If, in this new age, man seeks to follow the winding paths of geography, he is bound to find the flowers that grow there, for he deserves them.'

The map illustrated an early printed edition of the ‘Cosmographi Geographica, sive De Situ Orbis’ ('Geographical Cosmographia, or On the Situation of the World'), composed by Pomponius Mela around 43 CE.

Pomponius Mela is the earliest known Roman geographer. For centuries, his 'Cosmographia' remained the only formal geographical treatise available in Latin before the translation of Ptolemy’s ‘Geographia’ in 1406–7. Mela’s work was rarely illustrated with a map before the early fifteenth century.

His work was particularly important in the last quarter of the fifteenth century. It guided a number of expeditions, most famously serving as one of the principle works consulted by the Columbus brothers as they planned for their first voyage in 1492. In particular, Mela’s climatic theory and the proposition of a southern temperate zone with an inhabited continent ‘Antichthon’ ('counter-earth') had tremendous influence on Columbus's journey. It was also the first map to depict contemporary Portuguese knowledge of the west coast of Africa.

The first map to depict contemporary Portuguese knowledge of the west coast of Africa, it was consulted by the Columbus brothers before they set out on their first voyage in 1492. It was also the primary source for many contemporary cartographic works, such as Hartmann Schedel’s hugely influential world map from 'Liber Chronicarum,' or the ‘Nuremberg Chronicle’ of 1493.

A Bijoux World Map from Mela's 'Cosmographia'