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Description

Very rare first edition of Ramusio's map of China, Southeast Asia, Japan and the Philippines, being the third of three maps intended by Ramusio to extend from Asia to Africa. The map draws heavily from the voyage of Magellan. It provides an update from Gastaldi's of 1548, based upon new sources which became available during the intervening years. Suarez notes that Ramusio's treatment of the region is a great advance from the 1548 map, relying upon Portugese charts and the works of Joao de Barros as principal sources for the updates. Suarez discusses this map, the 1548 Geographia map and a later Lafreri map of 1561 in Chapter 11 of his work on the Mapping of Southeast Asia. Among other important features of the map is that it is the first appearance of the name Philippines (Filipina) in any form on a European map. This map, which does not show Luzon, bears the name Filipina, applied to a narrow island to the east of Mindanao. The Spanish expedition leader Ruy Lopez de Villalobos bestowed the name Felipina on Leyte in honor of the young Crown Prince Philip (later Philip II) in 1543. The map first appeared in the second edition of Volume I of Giovanni Battista Ramusio's Delle Navigation e Viaggi. The 1554 Ramusio-Gastaldi map not only benefited from Antonio Pigafetta's account of Magellan's voyage for its mapping of the Philippines but also relied on newly published sources at the time. Among these sources is the account of the voyage from Mexico to the Philippines by Juan Gaytan and Villalobos. Giovanni Ramusio was Secretary to the Council of Ten in Venice for 43 years and his collection of reports on voyages among the most important works of the period. A nice example, with the usual thinning along the centerfold, but generally a fine dark impression. Suarez, Chapter 11;

Giovanni Battista Ramusio Biography

Giovanni Battista Ramusio (1485-1557) was an Italian geographer who worked within the Venetian Empire. His father had been a magistrate and he himself served as a civil servant to Venice. He served throughout Europe, allowing him to build up a network of informants and a collection of travel materials. He compiled this information into his enduring masterpiece, Navigationi et Viaggi, in 1550 (first volume) and 1556 (third volume). The second volume appeared after his death in 1559, as the original manuscript had been destroyed by a fire.