Gerard Mercator’s edition of Ptolemy’s ‘Geography’ is highly acclaimed; he spent much of his life studying the work and even engraved the plates himself. The ‘Geographia’ is the earliest surviving geographical treatise. Much of Mercator’s efforts were spent projecting Ptolemy’s geography onto the projection which bears his name. Mercator is one of the world’s greatest cartographers and the ‘Claudii Ptolemaei Tabulae Geographicae Orbis Terrarum’ was first published in 1578. This map of north eastern Europe and Russia is in the third state with the addition of a latitude and longitude grid illustrating the projection. With an attractive scene of a camp upper right. The map extends southwards to the Black Sea. Koeman Me 5; Nordenskiold 234; Phillips, P.L. (Atlases) 384; Shirley BL T.Ptol-11a & 11k; Van der Krogt, P. (Atlantes) 1:501.