DE SITU ORBIS BY POMPONIUS MELA 1722 VELLUM-BOUND

[MELA, POMPONIUS]. Pomponii Melae De situ orbis libri III. Cum notis integris Hermolai Barbari, Petri Joannis Olivarii, Fredenandi Nonii Pintiani, Petri Ciacconii, Andreae Schotti, Isaci Vossii, & Jacobi Gronovii. Accedunt Julii Honorii oratoris Excerpta Cosmographiae. Cosmographia falso Aethicum auctorem praeferens, cum variis lectionibus ex MS. Ravennatis Anonymi Geographia, ex MS. Leidensis suppleta, curante Abrahamo Gronovio. Lugduni Batavorum, Ex officina Samuelis Luchtmans, MDCCXXII [1722].

Leather-bound. Hardcover. Thick octavo (210 x 130 x 60 mm.). Pp. (80), 811, (36 index), (1 blank), with frontispiece and folding map. Latin text. Bound in contemporary full vellum. Red speckled page edges. Initial and terminal blanks present. The frontispiece, designed by H. van der My and etched by F. Bleyswyck, depicts a cartographer drawing a map of the world, in the foreground 2 women, one is a cartographer inspecting a map with rule and compass, the other is an archaeologist busy inspecting ancient treasure. Title-page printed in red and black. The folding map of the earth according to Mela at the beginning of the text is by 'P. Bertius, christianissimi regis geographus'. Engraved text illustrations of coins. 1 full page illustration of 2 sculptured scenes from reliefs 'in hortis Mattheis' (p. 117). The first 304 pages contain the text and commentary. The rest of the book is filled with the annotations of earlier important scholars, especially Isaac Vossius. His observationes fill the pages 316-606. At the end we find Julius Honorius' 'Excerpta quae ad Cosmographiam pertinent' (p. 685-702), the 'Cosmographia antehac temere Aetico adscripta' (p. 703-733), and the 'Ravennatis Anonymi Geographiae libri quinque' (737-811). Condition: The binding is solid but there is some spine damage with a portion of vellum absent from the top of the spine. Covers slightly soiled. The interior is largely well-preserved with some light marginal staining, plus some foxing to the endpapers. A sound copy of this classic.

Notes: Pomponius Mela, a geographer from the South of Spain, wrote in 43/44 under Claudius the first surviving work on geography in Latin. His work was meant for the educated and curious Roman public. The work was known in the Middle Ages, and in the following centuries he was read at school. The Dutch classical scholar Abraham Gronovius, 1695-1775, acted as librarian at Leyden University from 1741 until his death. He edited editions of the 'Historiae Philippicae' of Justinus, and two editions of Aelianus. He showed interest in geographical matters and published at Leiden in 1739 his 'Varia Geographica'. He based this new 'Variorum' edition of the geographer Mela Pomponius on an edition which was previously published in 1696 by his father Jacobus Gronovius, 1645-1716, who was professor Greek of the University of Leiden. (Ref: STCN ppn 238632024; Schweiger 2,611; Brunet 4,801; Dibdin 2,356; Graesse 5,402/403; Ebert 13632; Spoelder p. 683, Utrecht 3).