“ORBIS DESCRIPTIO” . Giacomo Gastaldi. Venice: Giordano Ziletti, 1561-64. Original copper-plate engraving for Giralamo Ruscelli’s edition of Ptolemy’s Geographica. State 1, Italian verso. (Ref: Shirley #110 - illustrated; Wolff (Prestel), America Early Maps of the New World, #94 - illustrated). (Paper: 212 x 282mm – 8 ½ x 11 ¼’’ Image: 165 x 260mm – 7 x 10 ¼ ’’)
This important early map depicts the Americas joined to Asia by a large land-bridge across the Northern Pacific (appropriately named Terra Incognito with a coast named Littus incognitum “unknown coast”), and to the North Pole, Greenland and Scandinavia and almost touching Scandinavia at Nova Zemlya.
A historic Map: One of the earliest published double hemisphere maps and “the first time that such a representation has been used in an atlas” (Shirley). One of the earliest maps to mark and name New Guinea (NVEVA GVINEA)!!
Presented in an archival 12 x 16'' mat