1574 Tabula Asiae IX
By: Girolamo Ruscelli
Date: 1574 (published) Venice
Dimensions: 7.25 x 10.25 inches (18.42 x 26.04 cm) plate size
This Ruscelli map on trapezoidal projection is from his work La Geografia di Claudio Tolomeo Alessandrino. It is based on the work of both Ptolemy and Giacomo Gastaldi, and bears a strong resemblance to Munster’s map of the same region dated 1552.
The map focuses on eastern Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan as they were known in Ptolemaic times, covering the region between ancient Parthia and the Indus River valley, and between Herat and the Indian Ocean. The mountainous regions of western Iran are remarkably accurately drawn as is the Indus River system and its delta where it empties into the Arabian Sea near Karachi. Many place names are denoted as they were by Ptolemy in antiquity.
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 superb A condition. Well inked plate resulting in a sharp clear impression. Descriptive Italian text on the verso.
Inventory #11878
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