1574 Tabula Asiae X
By: Girolamo Ruscelli
Date: 1574 (published) Venice
Dimensions: 7.25 x 10.25 inches (18.42 x 26.04 cm) plate size
This is a fine example of Ruscelli’s map on trapezoidal projection from his work La Geografia di Claudio Tolomeo Alessandrino. It is based on the work of Ptolemy, Giacomo Gastaldi, and Sebastian Munster and depicts roughly the area between the Indus River valley and the Ganges, and includes the Himalayan Range in which so many river systems in Asia have their origin, along with myriad river systems. It is remarkably accurate in places, while in others remarkably confusing. There is descriptive Italian text on the verso.
Girolamo Ruscelli (1500-1566) was an Italian cartographer, polymath, humanist and editor, active in Venice during the early 16th century. Ruscelli is best known for his important revision of Ptolemy's Geographia, published posthumously in 1574.
Claudius Ptolemy (85-165 CE), a Roman citizen of Greek descent from Alexandria, was the most influential of Greek astronomers and geographers of his time. He propounded the geocentric theory of the solar system which was to prevail for the next 1400 years.
Giacomo Gastaldi (c.1500-1566) was an Italian astronomer, cartographer and engineer from Villafranca in Piedmont. Many of Ruscelli’s maps are essentially enlarged versions of some of Gastaldi’s maps.
Condition: This map is in A- condition. There is slight fading in the lower right corner of the border and minor offsetting in an area of some of the Indus River tributaries.
Inventory #11879
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