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Antique map of Cuba by Girolamo Ruscelli - circa 1561. This engraved map of Cuba is entitled Isola Cvba Nova, and is over 457 years old. A beautiful early woodblock. It shows modern day Cuba, Jamaica, Cayman Islands and NW Hispaniola. The back side of the map speaks to Cuba at that time. It is printed in Latin and was published in Venice, Italy by Vincenzo Valgrisi.
This map first appeared in the 1561 edition of Ruscelli's edition of Ptolemy's Geografia. Ruscelli's atlas is essentially an enlarged edition of the very rare Gastaldi edition of 1548. The atlas was first published in 1561, with revised editions in 1574 and again in 1598. It was in this final edition Ruscelli added additional modern maps and reworked most of the plates, adding ships and sea monsters to many of the maps.
The first edition of Girolamo Ruscelli's translation of Claudius Ptolemy's Geographia, published in Italian. It was printed by Vincenzo Valgrisi in Venice, with the text translated from Greek by Ruscelli. The 64 double page copperplate maps were partly based on those of Jacopo Gastaldo in the edition of 1548, with descriptive text on recto of first leaf and verso of last leaf. 27 Ptolemy maps and 37 'modern' map, including 3 world maps, 6 maps of America (South America, Mexico with Florida, Brazil, east coast of North America, Haiti, Cuba), 27 European maps (including the North-Atlantic map with parts of Labrador), 9 maps of Africa and 19 maps of Asia. Maps showing settlements, landmarks, rivers, mountains, ports, forests, illustrations of wildlife,etc. Includes index. Relief shown pictorially. Bound in half leather marbled paper covered boards, with title "Geografia di Tolomeo" on spine. Claudius Ptolemy (90-168 CE) was a Roman geographer and mathematician living in Egypt, who compiled his knowledge and theories about the world's geography into one seminal work. Although his maps did not survive, his mathematical projections and location coordinates did. Girolamo Ruscelli (c. 1504-1566) was a Venetian editor, whose maps are primarily based on those by Jacopo Gastaldi (1548) but with many of his own additions and reproduced on a larger scale. Ruscelli introduces several important innovations in this volume through his 37 "modern" maps, which cover Europe, Africa, Asia and the New World. Ruscelli includes a double hemisphere world map, which was the first of its kind to be used in an atlas, and "Carta Marina Nuova Tavola", a rare sea chart of the world.
This map measures 10 Inches wide x 7.5 Inches tall. Scale 1:6,000,000. This hand colored map is in fine condition and hard to find. Very minor foxing along the edges.
To learn more about this map, click here.
- Size: 10 Inches wide x 7.5 Inches tall
Scale 1:6,000,000
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