1574 Tabula Asiae VIII

This interesting Ruscelli map, a trapezoid projected onto a sphere, is from his work La Geografia di Claudio Tolomeo Alessandrino.  Based on the work of Ptolemy, it depicts a northern portion of the Indian subcontinent and part of Asia, including a region entitled ‘Sina Regio’, meaning Chinese Region. Various peoples are named on the map such as Scythians, the Hippophagi, a group of nomads thus named by Ptolemy for their eating of horseflesh. Mountain ranges are indicated pictorially. A number of major river systems are depicted, including a portion of the Ganges and many of its tributaries flowing from their sources in the Himalayas. Girolamo Ruscelli (1500-1566) was an Italian cartographer, polymath, humanist and editor, active in Venice during the early 16th century. Ruscelli is best known for his important revision of Ptolemy's Geographia, published posthumously in 1574. Claudius Ptolemy (85-165 CE), a Roman citizen of Greek descent from Alexandria, was the most influential of Gree