One of the great sea charts in Dudley's 'Arcano del Mare'. It is the first printed English nautical atlas. It was superior to any previous work in that the charts illustrated the whole world, the first time any outside of Europe had been included. It was the first atlas to use Mercator's projection throughout, and the earliest to show the prevailing winds, currents and magnetic deviation. Dudley improved upon the theory of navigating by the ‘Great Circle', the shortest distance between two points on a globe. It would be the eighteenth century before cartographers used the projection consistently. During the great Dutch period not one atlas was produced using it. This chart of Iceland includes to the south west the fictitious island of Frisland, to the south east lie the Faroe Islands. Iceland itself bears a wonderful volcano spouting lava. The chart is copies from a Dutch model, as it says on the chart itself, and the source is the map by Joris Carolus. Shirley BL Atlases M.Dud-1a no. 69.