Cornerstone map of Southeast Asia and the Far East

Terza Tavola.
Giacomo Gastaldi / GB Ramusio, 1554 (1563). 11 x 15 inches. A mint example. $7500.

Gastaldis map first appeared in 1554, in the second edition of Volume 1 of G. B. Ramusios Delle navigationi et viaggi. The map is untitled except for being designated the third map (Terza Tavola) in the book. The Ramusio map was first printed from a woodblock, but that block, along with those of all the maps from the Navigationi except one of the Nile, were destroyed by a fire in the printing establishment of Tomaso Guinti in November of 1557. Curiously, while the woodblocks from the third volume of the Navigationi (covering America, plus one of Sumatra) were replaced by new, slightly rougher woodblocks, those from the first volume (such as the present map) were replaced by more costly copperplates, first used in the third issue of volume 1, 1563.

The map benefits from several new sources of data. Ramusio states in the preface to the Navigationi that the coasts of the map "are drawn according to the marine charts of the Portuguese, and the inland parts are added according to the descriptions contained in the first volume of this book." Ramusio cites the history of Asia being compiled by Joo de Barros in Lisbon, the Dcadas da sia. The second volume of this work, detailing Portuguese maritime adventures in the East from 1505-1515, had been published in 1553, just preceding the first appearance of Ramusios map in the Navigationi (volume one, published in 1552, covered the period from Prince Henry to 1505, and would have had little or no effect on Ramusios map). With Barros data, Ramusio believed, "a part of modern geography will be clearly illustrated, and it will no longer be necessary to struggle with the geography of Ptolemy." Comparison of nomenclature and geographic descriptions in the Dcadas with the map suggests that Ramusio used the work, but did not rely on it. River names, and the configuration of Lake Chiang Mai, for example, correspond generally, but not in detail.