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Description

Nice example of the extensively revised third state of Ruscelli's regional map of the Southern half of the United States and Mexico, including Florida and Texas.

Ruscelli's map is an enlarged version of Giacomo Gastaldi's map of 1548, except that the Yucatan is no longer shown as an Island. It is the second earliest obtainable map of the Southern half of the US. Not until Wyfliet's maps of 1597 would a better regional representation appear in a printed map. R. Spiritu Santu appears (Mississippi River). California is shown as a Peninsula. The R. Tontonteanc is either the Gila or the Colorado River. Florida and Cuba are named. The place names reflect the explorations of Pineda, Cabeza de Vaca, and Moscosso.

The third state of the map (1598 and after) can be quickly distinguished from earlier states by the addition of the sailing ship in the Pacific.

The map includes many new place names and topographical featueres, including Siera Nevad, Quivira Regno, Toton Teacr (?), C. del ingano, Calmifor, Mare Pacificum, Tolman Regno, Capas, Caligua, GH Tlaco and Golfo Mexicano. New geographical features include the additional islands south of Cabo San Lucas and in the Pacific.

In Mexico, the cities of Campostela, Masada, and Viario all appear for the first time, along with several new rivers extending to the Pacific Ocean. Atalia appears above Yucatan.

Reference
Martin & Martin Plate 3, Burden 31.
Girolamo Ruscelli Biography

Girolamo Ruscelli (1500-1566) was a cartographer, humanist, and scholar from Tuscany. Ruscelli was a prominent writer and editor in his time, writing about a wide variety of topics including the works of Giovanni Boccaccio and Francesco Petrarch, Italian language, Italian poetry, medicine, alchemy, and militia. One of his most notable works was a translation of Ptolemy’s Geographia which was published posthumously.

There is limited information available about Ruscelli’s life. He was born in the Tuscan city of Viterbo to a family of modest means. He was educated at the University of Padua and moved between Rome and Naples until 1548, when he moved to Naples to work in a publishing house as a writer and proofreader. He remained in the city until his death in 1566.