PTOLEMAEUS, Claudius. La Geografia di Claudio Tolomeo alessandrino.
Venezia, Giordano Ziletti, 1574 e 1573
4to, 225 x 150 mm. Bound in quarter vellum and boards, manuscript title on the spine. Three parts in one volume: “La Geografia”, 1574, 78 unnumbered pages, 2 blank, 350 (i.e. 352); “Espositioni et Introduttioni universali di Girolamo Ruscelli”, 1573, 52 unnumbered pages, 2 blank; “Discorso di M. Giuseppe Moleto”, 1573, 65 pages, 1 blank, 1 blank paper, 65 copper-engraved geographical maps on a double page, with text on the back, 27 Ptolemaic and 38 modern. Printer’s device on the title pages, full-page portrait of Ptolemy making astronomical observations, numerous diagrams and woodcut illustrations in the text. Slight traces of use, good copy. Occasional browning, restoration on the inner and outer margins of some maps.
A fine and refined edition of Girolamo Ruscelli's Italian translation of Ptolemy's "Geography". Most of the maps are enlarged copies of Gastaldi's maps from the 1548 Venice edition made by Giulio and Livio Sanuto. Ruscelli's translation introduces the important innovation of dividing the world map into two parts, one for the Old World and one for the New, as seen in the "Tavola Universale" which depicts the two hemispheres. The edition contains 27 Ptolemaic maps (Carta Universale antica, 10 Europa, 4 Africa, 12 Asia) and 38 new maps, ten of which are dedicated to the Americas.
Among the most notable: "Septemtronalum partium nova tabula", a reduced version of Nicolò Zeno's 1558 map of the North Atlantic Ocean and including many islands; "Tierra Nueva", a map of the east coast of North America showing the Hudson and St. Lawrence rivers; "Nueva Hispania Tabula Nova" showing Yucatan as a peninsula; other maps of America are "Tierra Nova showing South America, "Brasil New Tabula", "Isla Cuba Nova" and "Isla Española Nova"; India Tercera Nuova Tavola "shows the East Indies and "Orbis Discriptio" the twin hemisphere The new world map, which Shirley reports is the first of its kind to appear in an atlas, shows not only North and South America but also the islands of New Guinea. Maps not present in the earlier Gastaldi edition of 1548 are: Scandinavia (after Jacob Ziegler, 1532); Brazil (after Ramusio); the Arctic regions; South Africa; and a nautical chart of the world (Shirley 111). This edition also added a new map of the "Territories of Rome," based on a contemporary broad-sheet map. The edition, based on the 1561 edition, is edited by Giovanni Malombra, with corrections, small additions, and changes to some plates.
Adams P-2236; Alden e Landis 561/42; Burden 29, 30, e 31; Sabin 66503; Shirley 110 e 111; Philipps I, 380.