1574 Tabula Europae II

This highly desirable Ruscelli map in trapezoid form is from his work La Geografia di Claudio Tolomeo Alessandrino.  Based on the works of Claudius Ptolemy and the atlas  of Giacomo Gastaldi, it focuses on the major river systems of the Iberian Peninsula, and on the Pyrenees Mountains, which create a natural border between Spain and France. The map includes Mauritania, the northwestern portion of Africa on which is located one of the pillars of Hercules. A portion of southwestern France is included. Many cities are denoted and portrayed pictorially, sized according to their population and importance. Islands on all sides of the peninsula are depicted and named. The Iberian Peninsula has been home to countless civilizations throughout the millennia, from prehistoric times to the present. It was named for the Iberians, one of the early groups settling there, but has also been home to a host of others, including the seagoing Phoenicians, whose most famous colony became the city of Cadiz,