1574 Flandra, Brabantia, et Holanda Nuova
By: Girolamo Ruscelli
Date: 1574 (published) Venice
Dimensions: 7.4 x 10.4 inches (18.8 x 26.42 cm) plate size
This interesting 16th century map is from Ruscelli’s work La Geografia di Claudio Tolomeo Alessandrino. Ruscelli based much of his work on that of Claudius Ptolemy and the atlas maps of Giacomo Gastaldi. The map depicts Belgium with Brügge, Gent, Antwerp and Brussel and the Netherlands with Rotterdam. Regions of France are shown including the cities Arques, Calais, Boulogne and the area of Germany where the city of Cologne is located. A portion of England is also included.
The map is highly detailed, depicting fortresses, towns, cities with miniature images of them, mountainous or hilly regions are denoted pictorially as is a large forested region in Germany, shown with a miniature forest. River systems are denoted and the lowlands and islands off the coast of Flanders and the Brabant are also rendered in detail. Altogether the map is a detailed study of the region. The seas and other large bodies of water are stippled. 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. The title contains some engraving issues.
Inventory #11834
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