1574 Tabula Asiae VI
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 and Giacomo Gastaldi, and depicts Arabia, an early empire on the largely uninhabitable Arabian Peninsula. The Islamic prophet Muhammad was born in Meccas and founded a new unified polity on the peninsula which rather early on saw expanded influence extending across vast territories of Eurasia, but by medieval times, Arabia’s primary influence was spiritual rather than political. In addition to the peninsula and the waters surrounding it, portions of both Asia and northeast Africa are included in the map.
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, with a sharp impression on clean paper. Descriptive Italian text on the verso.
Inventory # 11880
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