Bidspirit auction | [SCIENCE AND MEDICINE] – MELA

[SCIENCE AND MEDICINE] – MELA Pomponius (15 - 43 CE) – De Situ Orbis — The First Latin Geography - Pomponius Mela. De situ orbis. Venice: Simone Bevilacqua, 1498.

4to. (199X145) 38 ll 18th century cardboard binding. A rare Venetian edition of the De situ orbis of Pomponius Mela, the earliest surviving Latin treatise on geography, composed in the first century AD. In three books (Liber Primus, Secundus, Tertius).

Roman type, woodcut initials. All leaves professionally restored against worm damage; a few pages with small losses affecting single letters, yet the text remains legible. Complete. Despite these restorations, the edition is of great rarity: ISTC records only 22 surviving copies worldwide.

Pomponius Mela’s De situ orbis is the only formal treatise on geography in classical Latin literature, predating the rediscovery of Ptolemy’s Geographia. Its concise, systematic account of the known world ensured its profound influence on medieval and Renaissance scholarship.