Tabula Asiae VIII (Scythia extra Imaum and Serica) in Gastaldi’s 1548 Venice Ptolemy (La geografia di Claudio Ptolemeo)
Tabula Asiae VIII. (to accompany) Ptolemeo. La geografia di Claudio Ptolemeo alessandrino ... In Venetia, ... per Gioan. Baptista Pedrezano ... Anni x. M.D.XLVIII (1548).
Ptolemy; Giacomo Gastaldi (maps); Venice, G. B. Pedrezano, 1548
How we know
compilation Assembled from earlier sources. The author did not observe it directly.
Retrospective transmission of the Ptolemaic table (as L007/Rome 1478) in the first pocket Ptolemy, engraved on copper by Gastaldi.
Research notes
- Same Ptolemaic content as the 1478 and 1482 editions; Gastaldi re-drew the plates at small scale. Not an independent witness.
- Rumsey note: Engraved ancient map of Central Asia includes the northern reaches of the Ganges in northern India and part of China. Shows settlements, towns, landmarks, rivers and mountains. Relief shown pictoriall
Why it matters
Sixteenth-century Venetian state of the Scythia/Serica tables (Gastaldi 1548) between the Ulm/Rome incunable Ptolemies and Ortelius; the 1548 edition also pairs ancient tables with 'modern' tables, the editorial device that let 'Tartaria' replace 'Scythia'. Gastaldi's separate 1559-61 three-sheet Asia was not located in the searched collections (see candidates).
Places named
Scythia extra Imaum; Serica; northern India; part of China (per Rumsey note)
Who copied whom
- Cosmographia M031, 1482same work (stated)Both editions of Ptolemy's Geography maps
Keep exploring
The maps drawn just before and just after this one.
