1574 Hispania Nova Tabula
This fine Ruscelli map is from his work La Geografia di Claudio Tolomeo Alessandrino. Based on the work of Ptolemy, it depicts the Iberian Peninsula and the northwestern edge of Africa. Ruscelli rendered the topography in detail, including not only the great Pyrenees Mountain range between Spain and France, but other mountains as well. All major river systems are denoted. Islands on all sides of the peninsula are depicted. Cities and many ports are included and regions are named.
Girolamo Ruscelli (1500-1566) was an Italian polymath, humanist, editor, alchemist and cartographer 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.