First detailed map of Southeast Asia based on empirical data

Giacomo Gastaldi, 1548 :
India Tercera Nova Tabula. Excellent. $2200.

The only edition of this rare little maps of the Southeast Asian islands and East Indies. Giacomo Gastaldi (ca. 1500-1565) was the most respected cosmographer of his day. As cosmographer to the Republic of Venice his work was extremely influential, being copied by numerous other makers. His edition of Ptolemy (from which the present work comes) ranks as among the most important of the sixteenth century. With it the art of the copperplate engraving of maps was resurrected in Italy. In the words of Nordenskiold, the maps were handsomely engraved on copper by the famous cosmographer Gastaldi and a whole series of plates of the New World is here met with, for the first time, and some of them are of no slight interest to the history of cartography. His Ptolemy was issued in only one edition and hence is rare. Gastaldi's theories were of enormous influence, particularly as regards the connection of the Northwest Coast to Asia.