World (La Mer des histoires).

The World map was, in its basis and design mediaeval, with the World compressed into the circular frame of the 'T-O' form. The world is portrayed in pictorial form thus, the Pope can be seen in the lower left quadrant, enthroned in Rome, with the Pillars of Hercules positioned at the very foot, with Spain, and then the British Isles just above.
Over 100 places-names and geographic features are identified, with towns and countries named. Each country is represented as a separate hill accompanied by either a figure of the sovereign or several small buildings representing towns.
Many of the hills are surrounded by water, and there are numerous trees, buildings, historical and religious figures scattered throughout. “It is unlikely that the mapmaker intended his readers to treat too literally the relationship of distance and direction between one country and another,” according to Tony Campbell, “Crete and Cyprus, for example, are shown to the northeast of France and Rome is to the south of it.” Nevertheless, this remarkable map provides us with one of the earliest, and certainly the most complete, depictions of Europe’s medieval conception of the world.

Early and famous wood cut map of the world, first published in the Rudimentum novitiorum at Lubeck 1475, a popular universal history. The book was re-issued with new maps first in Paris 1488, and again in Lyons 1491. The latter woodcuts were used in the subsequent ed. up to 1555, with the changes as mentioned by Sh., e.g. 'Trabobata' separated from 'Trabobana' and with 'Le royaue. des femes'. The present copy comes from the ed. of 1536 by Dupré, according to the title-page of the second volume. The obvious differences to the map illustrated by Shirley are: additional lettering outside the frame incl. wind directions and small notes on Europe, Africa and Asia, furthermore with numbering 49/50 of the "fueillets".Included in "Rudimentum novitiorum" or in French "La mer des histoires". One of the rarest of French illustrated incunables. The Mer des histoires (‘A sea of stories’) is the French adaptation of the Latin Rudimentum novitiorum, an abridged history of the world, first published at Lübeck in 1475.
This famous volume contained the first detailed printed maps ever produced. Two separate blocks of the world map were made for French issues of the Mer de Hystoires, the first in Paris in 1488 and the second in Lyons in 1491.
“Whereas the earlier La Mer des Hystoires map of 1488 remained close to the Rudimentum Novitiorum prototype, this second (and reduced) derivation of 1491 betrays the work of a thinking individual” -- Campbell. A number of mistakes have been corrected.