Digital Image: 1574 Ruscelli Map of Mexico, California, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico

NuevaHispania-ruscelli-1561_d
Nueva Hispania Tabula Nova. - Main View
Nueva Hispania Tabula Nova. - Main View
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Digital Image: 1574 Ruscelli Map of Mexico, California, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico

NuevaHispania-ruscelli-1561_d

This is a downloadable product.
  • Nueva Hispania Tabula Nova.
  • Added: Wed, 26 Mar 2025 11:03:00
  • Original Document Scale: 1 : 19000000
Early Glimpses of Mexico, California and the Gulf Coast.
$50.00
Go To Original Antique Map

(w/ historical analysis)

Title

Nueva Hispania Tabula Nova.
  1561 (undated)     7.5 x 9.5 in (19.05 x 24.13 cm)     1 : 19000000

Description

FOR THE ORIGINAL ANTIQUE MAP, WITH HISTORICAL ANALYSIS, CLICK HERE.

Digital Map Information

Geographicus maintains an archive of high-resolution rare map scans. We scan our maps at 300 DPI or higher, with newer images being 600 DPI, (either TIFF or JPEG, depending on when the scan was done) which is most cases in suitable for enlargement and printing.

Delivery

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Credit and Scope of Use

You can use your digial image any way you want! Our digital images are unrestricted by copyright and can be used, modified, and published freely. The textual description that accompanies the original antique map is not included in the sale of digital images and remains protected by copyright. That said, we put significant care and effort into scanning and editing these maps, and we’d appreciate a credit when possible. Should you wish to credit us, please use the following credit line:

Courtesy of Geographicus Rare Antique Maps (http://www.geographicus.com).

How Large Can I Print?

In general, at 300 DPI, you should at least be able to double the size of the actual image, more so with our 600 DPI images. So, if the original was 10 x 12 inches, you can print at 20 x 24 inches, without quality loss. If your display requirements can accommodate some loss in image quality, you can make it even larger. That being said, no quality of scan will allow you to blow up at 10 x 12 inch map to wall size without significant quality loss. For more information, it is best consult a printer or reprographics specialist.

Refunds

If the high resolution image you ordered is unavailable, we will fully refund your purchase. Otherwise, digital images scans are a service, not a tangible product, and cannot be returned or refunded once the download link is used.

Cartographer S

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...


Giulio Sanuto (fl. 1540 – 1580) was a Venetian engraver. He was born the illegitimate son of Cavaliere Francesco di Angelo Sanuto; With his brother, the cartographer and scientific instrument maker Livio Sanuto (1520 – 1576) he produced an array of some of the most important geographical works produced in Venice during the second half of the sixteenth century. These included a 27-inch globe and the 1588 12-sheet atlas, Geografia della Africa. Giulio's career is singluar among Venice's engraves in that it appears to have been equally based on artistic, figurative work as well as his cartographic works. Giulio is more broadly known for a small but sought-after selection of decorative engravings; no more than twelve of these can be attributed confidently to him, including the monumental Apollo and Marsyas, measuring over 1.30 meters wide. Whilst Sanuto's engravings were generally based upon the designs of other artists, his work was both ambitious and grand, and he often signed these works. 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.

References

Burden, P., The Mapping of North America, #31. OCLC 500422218.