Quad's First Atlas of the Whole World; First Edition with this Title, Early Variant.

Small folio (10.75 x 7.75 inches). 20th-century calf antique, spine gilt (very slightly rubbed). Engraved title and 82 double-page engraved maps (3 hand-colored) with German text on verso. Early variant with the maps of Germania and Waldeck not yet replaced by new ones, also the 2 leaves with dedication and preface including engraved coat of arms are not yet included. World map and engraved title colored (few colors only), 2 further maps with borders of the cartouche, town symbols colored in green. Mounted on guards when bound.

All maps with German text on verso. Contains World Map (Shirley 197), continents, area maps of Africa (1), Asia (5), America (3), North Pole & North America. Winds map, other European countries (including Cyprus and Asia Minor, Navari 47 & 48) and German regional maps. The two maps 11 and 33 (Germania after Ortelius and Waldeck, QUA 2 and 21) are not yet replaced by the new maps QUA 76 and 77; on map 66 (Greece) the initial "E" is still printed inverted (corrected later).

Meurer, page 202, noting the importance of the atlas in Quad oeuvre:

Mit diesem Weltatlas mit 82 Karten geht er über den bisher vorgegebenen Rahmen hinaus. Diesem Werk kommt in der Kartengeschichte eine eminente Bedeutung zu. Es ist dies der erste Atlas in der von den niederländischen Editoren entwickelten Form, der in originaldeutscher Sprache erschienen ist.

[With this 82-map World Atlas, he goes beyond the limits set previously, and this work has eminent importance in the history of the map, being the first atlas in the form developed by the Dutch and published first in the German language.]

Manuscript ownership note: "M. Nicodemi Sitzlini (?)" dated 1612.