An elegant sea chart of the coastline of Ecuador and northern Peru, extending just south of Trujillo. Numerous place names are shown along the coast, as well as anchorages, soundings, and shoals. The equator is featured prominently towards the top of the chart, and Quito is depicted inland. The chart is embellished with Dudley's trademark calligraphic style, a strapwork title cartouche, a large compass rose, and a sailing ship. This is the second edition with Lo. 6. added to the title cartouche. Printed on two sheets, joined as issued.

Robert Dudley was the first Englishman to produce a sea atlas, Dell Arcano del Mare (Secrets of the Sea). A skilled mathematician and navigator, Dudley was exiled from England and settled in Florence where his atlas was published. He introduced a totally new style for sea charts in the atlas with only lines of latitude and longitude and no rhumb lines. The charts were meticulously compiled from original sources and were both scientific and accurate for the time. This important atlas was the first sea atlas of the whole world; the first to use Mercator's projection throughout; the earliest to show the prevailing winds, currents and magnetic deviation; and the first to expound the advantages of Great Circle Sailing. In an introductory leaf found in one copy in the British Library, the engraver states that he worked on the plates in seclusion for twelve years in an obscure Tuscan village, using no less than 5,000 pounds of copper for the printing plates. It was only issued in two editions and the maps are rarely seen on the market.

References: Shirley (BL Atlases) M.DUD-1b.

Condition: B+

Issued folding on watermarked paper with light toning along joint and in right blank margin.