1574 Tabula Europae I
DESCRIPTION
This is a intriguing map is one of the earliest obtainable maps of the British Isles, taken from the 3rd edition of Girolamo Ruscelli's translation of Claudius Ptolemy's "Geographia."
In this map, the British Isles owe their interesting shape to the mathematician, astronomer and geographer, Claudius Ptolemy. Laid on a trapezoidal projection present-day Scotland juts out towards the east and Irelands is depicted much too far north. Since the geography was drawn from the era of Ptolemy, many of the place names we are familiar with today do not appear on the map.
This map was printed from a finely engraved copper plate, which was a major advancement in map printing technology. Copper plates proved to be were a great improvement over the rather crude woodcut maps in many of the earlier editions. The timing of this map and others from the atlas are representative of the advances in geographic knowledge taking place in this great era of exploration.
Claudius Ptolemaeus (c. 100 – c. 170 AD) was a most remarkable and intelligent man, not only for his time, but in any era. His work included a vast system of coordinates meant to pinpoint the location of numerous cities around the known world. Despite the technological advantages of map makers more than a millennia after his death, his notes were remarkable accurate. His writings were kept alive by Arabic scholars during the Middle Ages and reemerged in Europe during the Renaissance where they would utilized by many map makers including Girolamo Ruscelli.
Girolamo Ruscelli (1518–1566) was an Italian mathematician and cartographer active in Venice during the early 16th century. He lived in Aquilea, then in Padua, and later in Rome where in 1541 he founded the "Accademia dello Sdegno". He later moved to Naples, and finally in 1548 he moved to Venice where he published the atlas to which this map originates.
CONDITION
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