Copperplate engraving, hand-painted, 193x263 mm. Fascinating map depicting Scandinavia One of the earliest maps depicting northern Europe, combining Ptolemaic knowledge with modern cartographic information. Note that the famous mythical island of Thule turns out to be larger than Ireland. Taken from the Venetian edition of Ptolemy's “Geographia” edited by Ruscelli. The map is based on Gastaldi's 1548 map published in his edition of “Geography” a few years earlier. 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. Ptolemy, the greatest cartographer of antiquity, published The Geography in 150 AD; 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 fifteenth 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 was increased aware 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. Numerous editions were later published during the 16th century and beyond including those edited by Ruscelli, whose modern maps are Gastaldi's 1548 enlarged version. Very good copy with interesting and curious descriptive text in Italian on verso, well contrasted and embossed; slight halo at bottom. Ginsberg, printed maps of Scandinavia, 18