Copperplate engraving, hand-painted, mm 190x263. Taken from the Venetian edition of Ptolemy's "Geographia" edited by Ruscelli. This is the "ancient" map relating to the island of Ceylon, called Taprobana according to the Ptolemaic view, a famous island of spices and an important stop on the maritime trade routes between Europe and Asia; on the verso is a descriptive and curious text in Italian, which states "Taprobana, which today moderns call Samotra, and they say is the largest island in the whole world..." Indeed, some scholars attribute the depiction of the island to Sumatra, both in terms of hydrography and orography, and the islands all around would appear to be today's Nias, Enggano and Mentawis; other cartographic references, such as the similarity of the location of the cities would confirm that it is Sumatra.Ptolemy, the greatest cartographer of antiquity, published The Geography in 150 A.D.; in the Middle Ages it survived, thanks to Arab mediation, manuscripted in Greek and was later translated into Latin by Jacopo D'Angelo; from the beginning of the 15th century it gained increasing notoriety and in 1477 the first printed illustrated edition including only maps of the ancient world was published in Bologna, immediately followed by other editions in 1478, - 80, - 82 that already featured some maps of the modern world. With the succession of editions, the number of modern maps increased conscious that the world was quite different from Ptolemy's, leading up to Waldseemueller's famous 1513 edition, the first modern atlas, consisting of 20 new maps in addition to the ancient ones. During the 16th century and beyond, numerous editions were then published. Girolamo Ruscelli (1500-1566) was born in Viterbo and was an important writer and publisher, who after studying in Padua spent his career between Rome and Naples, where he died. Excellent copy in charming Ptolemaic-style coloring.