La geografia di Claudio Tolomeo alessandrino, nuovamente tradotta di greco in italiano, da Ieronimo Ruscelli, con Espositioni del medesimo, particolari di luogo in luogo, [...] Et con nuove & bellissime figure in istampe di rame, ove, oltre alle XXVI antiche di Tolomeo, se ne son'aggiunte XXXVI altre delle moderne. Con la carta da navicare, & col modo d'intenderla, & d'adoperarla. Aggiuntovi un pieno discorso di M. Gioseppe Moleto matematico. Nel quale si dichiarano tutti i termini & le regole appartenenti alla geografia. Et con vna nuova & copiosa Tavola

WITH 64 ENGRAVED MAPS

Three parts (each with a separate title page) in one volume, 4to (mm 212x152). Geografia: [8], 358, [2] pp.; Espositioni et introduttioni universali di Girolamo Ruscelli sopra tutta la Geografia di Tolomeo: [28] leaves, [4: Tavola universale, con la descrittione di tutto il mondo] pp., 27 and XXXVI engraved numbered double plates; Discorso universale di M. Giuseppe Moleto matematico: 47, [49] pp. Signatures:  *⁴ A-YY⁴; α-η⁴ +² 1-27² (²A-²Z² A1-D4²) I-XXXVI² (³A-Nn²); ⁴A-⁴F4 ⁵A-⁵F4. The edition contains several woodcut diagrams and illustrations in the text (including two portraits of Ptolemy), and overall 64 engraved double-page maps, of which 27 are Ptolemaic and 37 are new. Ziletti's device on title pages, Valgrisi's device after plate XXXVI (l. Nn4v). Later vellum with inked title on spine (endleaves renewed). Tear anciently repaired to l. η4 with no loss, slightly uniformly browned, some light occasional marginal foxing and staining, short margins, but overall a good copy.

Second Ruscelli edition of Ptolemy's Geography, a reprint of the first issued by Vincenzo Valgrisi in 1561. A third edition, revised and corrected by Giovanni Malombra and with the addition of a map (Territoria di Roma), was printed by Ziletti in 1574.

Ruscelli was responsible for the Italian translation of the text and for the maps, which he drew reproducing on a larger scale those published by Gastaldi in his 8vo edition of Ptolemy's Geography appeared in 1548. The most important innovation introduced by Ruscelli is the division of the modern globe into two circular hemispheres depicting the New World and the Old World; a feature previously used only by François de Malines in 1528 and later become popular with the famous Mercator globe of 1587. Particularly innovative is also the map of the Arctic regions, in which Ruscelli correctly separates Greenland from Norway, usually depicted as forming a single land.

When in 1559 Pius IV commissioned Pirro Ligorio to have a gallery in the Vatican painted with geographical maps, Ruscelli's modern maps were chosen as models for the frescoes.

Girolamo Ruscelli, of humble origins, was born in Viterbo and became one of the leading editors of the Cinquecento. He was first active in Rome, where he founded the Accademia dello Sdegno together with Tommaso Spica and Giovanni Andrea dell'Anguillara. He later settled in Venice working for such publishers as Sessa and Valgrisi. He was a friend of Bernardo and Torquato Tasso, Lodovico Dolce and Pietro Aretino. The last two were to become his rivals in several bitter controversies. He edited the works of Boccaccio, Petrarch and Ariosto and translated Ptolemaeus' treatise on geography. While in Venice he had contact with other academies (della Fratta, dei Dubbiosi, della Veniera and della Fama), and was interested in issues such as the systematization of the Italian language (cf. P. Procaccioli, ‘Costui chi e' si sia'. Appunti per la biografia, il profilo professionale, la fortuna di Girolamo Ruscelli, in: “Girolamo Ruscelli. Dall'accademia alla corte alla tipografia. Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi, Viterbo, 6-8 ottobre 2011, Roma, 2012”, pp. 13-76; and C. Di Filippo Bareggi, Il mestiere di scrivere: lavoro intellettuale e mercato librario a Venezia nel Cinquecento, Rome, 1988, pp. 78-80; 296-301).

Giuseppe Moleti, born in Messina, Sicily, was an Italian mathematician who held the chair of mathematics at the University of Padua before Galileo (cf. A. Carugo, Giuseppe Moleti: mathematics and the Aristotelian theory of science at Padua in the second half of the 16^th-century Italy, in: “Aristotelismo veneto e scienza moderna. Atti del 25° anno accademico del Centro per la storia della tradizione aristotelica nel Veneto”, L. Olivieri, ed., Padua, 1983, I, pp. 509-517). He also played a key role in the reform of the calendar promoted by Pope Gregory XIII. Moleti also wrote an important dialogue on mechanics and in 1562 (Venice, Valgrisi) published his own edition of Ptolemy's Geography, mainly based on Ruscelli's 1561 edition.

Edit 16, CNCE41068; N. Broc, La geografia del Rinascimento, Modena, 1986, pp. 114 and 130; Sabin, 66504.

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