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1574 Ruscelli Map of Russia (Muscovy) and Ukraine

Moschovia-porcacchi-1572
$200.00
Moschovia Nvova Tavola. - Main View
Moschovia Nvova Tavola. - Main View
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1574 Ruscelli Map of Russia (Muscovy) and Ukraine

Moschovia-porcacchi-1572

One of the earliest published maps of Russia.

Title

Moschovia Nvova Tavola.
  c. 1574 (undated)     7.5 x 9.5 in (19.05 x 24.13 cm)

Description

A beautiful example of Girolamo Ruscelli's c. 1574 map of Moscovie. Covers modern day Russia and the Ukraine from the Arctic to the Crimea and as far east as the Caspian Sea. Interest in this area peaked in Western Europe following the discoveries of Barentz, Hudson, and others in Russian Arctic which lead to the founding of the Muscovy Company in 1555. Traders, mostly English and Dutch, discovered they could access the wealth of Eastern and Central Asia by traveling south of Nova Zembla to the Karo Sea, then south some 600 miles by river to Moscow. At this time the Russian Tzar did not yet have access to the Baltic and consequently was at the mercy of the Hanseatic League, which controlled much of the region's trade. The opening of an Arctic route to Russia and the foundation of the Muscovy Company generated enormous wealth for the princes of Russia, eventually bringing the country into the fold of the western European community. Essentially a Ptolemaic style projection, this map was engraved by Girolamo Porro and published as part of Ruscelli's Italian translation of Ptolemy's Geographia. This map is considered one of the 'New Ptolemys,' that is, one of the 38 maps of the modern world drawn by Ruscelli's to supplement the original 27 maps that traditionally existed based upon Ptolemy's texts.

CartographerS

Girolamo Ruscelli (1500 - 1566) was an Italian polymath, humanist, editor, and cartographer active in Venice during the early 16th century. Born in Viterbo, Ruscelli lived in Aquileia, Padua, Rome and Naples before relocating to Venice, where he spent much of his life. Cartographically, Ruscelli is best known for his important revision of Ptolemy's Geographia, which was published posthumously in 1574. Ruscelli, basing his work on Gastaldi's 1548 expansion of Ptolemy, added some 37 new "Ptolemaic" maps to his Italian translation of the Geographia. Ruscelli is also listed as the editor to such important works as Boccaccio's Decameron, Petrarch's verse, Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, and various other works. In addition to his well-known cartographic work many scholars associate Ruscelli with Alexius Pedemontanus, author of the popular De' Secreti del R. D. Alessio Piemontese. This well-known work, or "Book of Secrets" was a compilation of scientific and quasi-scientific medical recipes, household advice, and technical commentary on a range of topics that included metallurgy, alchemy, dyeing, perfume making. Ruscelli, as Alexius, founded a "Academy of Secrets," a group of noblemen and humanists dedicated to unearthing "forbidden" scientific knowledge. This was the first known experimental scientific society and was later imitated by a number of other groups throughout Europe, including the Accademia dei Secreti of Naples. More by this mapmaker...


Girolamo Porro (1520 - 1604) was an Venetian engraver, humanist, illustrator, map maker, and publisher. Porro was born in Padua but lived most of his life in Venice. Porro worked with a number of important Venetian humanists including Camillo Camilli, Scipione Barbuo, Porcacchi, Ruscelli, and Ariosto. Cartographically Porro has produced only a few works, but these include such important works as the maps for Porcacchi's 1572 Isole piu Famose del Mondo (including the first obtainable specific map of North America), and the maps included with Ruscelli's 1574 Italian translation of Ptolemy's Geographia. Learn More...

Source

Ruscelli, G., La Geografia di Claudio Tolomeo Alessandrino…, (Venice: Giordano Ziletti) 1574.     Beginning in 1561, Girolamo Ruscelli published this important, expanded edition of Giacomo Gastaldi's 1548 Ptolemy. Its maps, engraved in Venice by Giulio Sanuto, were in the main based directly upon those in Gastaldi's 1548 work. The maps were larger format than Gastaldi's, however, and Sanuto's engraving was far clearer and more legible than those appearing in the 1548 work. There are some important additions that distinguish Ruscell's Ptolemy from Gastaldi's. Ruscelli's work contained a map of the habitable world according to Ptolemy, which the Gastaldi lacked; also, the double-hemisphere map appearing in the Ruscelli was new and did not appear in the Gastaldi. Ruscelli's modern map of England was based on the work of George Lily, rather than the Waldseemüller-derived map appearing in the Gastaldi; the Ruscelli is the earliest generally acquirable map of England based on knowledge from someone who lived there. In a fateful innovation, Ruscelli's work included Septentrionalium partium nova tabula,the first copy of Nicolo Zeno's 1558 fraud Carta da Navegar, which introduced a novel mapping of the north parts of the world, including the phantom islands of Frisland, Icaria, Drogeo and Estotiland. Had Ruscelli not copied the Zeno - which had a narrow, brief publication - this preposterous geography would have probably not taken hold. Its inclusion in Ruscelli's beautiful, authoritative and popular work would lead to the adoption of the Zeno map by Mercator, Ortelius, Plancius and their successors, baffling scholars for centuries. Ruscelli's Ptolemy had a long publication history, cementing the influence of the work. It appeared both in Italian and Latin editions, all printed in Venice, throughout the latter 16th century:
  • 1561 La Geographia di Claudio Tolomeo Alessandrino, Italian. Venice, Vincenzo Valgrisi.
    • 1562 Geographia Cl. Ptolemaei Alexandrini, Latin. Venice, Vincenzo Valgrisi.
      • 1564 La Geographia di Claudio Tolomeo Alessandrino, Italian. Venice, Giordano Ziletti.
        • 1564 Geographia Cl. Ptolemaei Alexandrini, Latin. Venice, Giordano Ziletti.
        Maps from the above four editions are distinguishable from later issues by their platemarks, which run off the top of the sheet. (The maps were engraved two-to-a-plate head-to-head, and printed simultaneously. Some exam[ples of the uncut sheets have survived.) There is some evidence that, during the course of the publication of the 1564 Latin edition, Ziletti had begun to divide the plates. The map of the ancient world in the above editions was based on Ptolemy's second, curvilinear projection; the Zeno map appears in its first plate.
        • 1574 La Geographia di Claudio Tolomeo Alessandrino, Italian. Venice, Giordano Ziletti.
        • 1598 Geographia di Claudio Tolomeo Alessandrino, Italian. Venice, heirs of Melchoir Sessa.
        • 1599 Geographia di Claudio Tolomeo Alessandrino, Italian. Venice, heirs of Melchoir Sessa.
        By 1574, all of the paired plates had been divided. The Ptolemaic world map is newly engraved, utilizing Ptolemy's first, trapezoidal projection. The Zeno map has also been replaced with a new copperplate engraving. Both the 1598 and 1599 Sessa editions can be distinguished from earlier editions by the presence of letterpress text in the upper border of the map sheets, and the addition of decorative engraving on many of the maps. We thank Eliane Dotson for accompanying us on this particular rabbit hole.

Condition

Very good. Minor centerfold toning. Italian text on verso.

References

Phillips (Atlases) 167.