Copper engraving, 360x465 mm., Contemporary colour. Latin text on the reverse. It depicts the vast kingdom of Alexander the Great; taken from Parergon, the first historical atlas published with original maps created by Ortelius himself (the first edition dates back to 1624, but some maps, including this one, had already been included as a historical appendix in “Theatrum Orbis Terrarum,” the first modern atlas, comprising maps of all areas of the world; Ortelius's brilliant intuition, later Latinized, was precisely this: before then, cartographic production had been irregular and local in terms of production, and the few atlases, the so-called “Lafrerian Atlases,” were compiled on request, collecting maps of some areas while ignoring others. Ortelius brought together the heterogeneous cartographic production of the period into a single corpus, forming the basis for an enormously successful publishing venture, published from 1570 to 1612. An excellent example in charming antique coloring.