Il disegno della prima parte dell'Asia... Giacomo Gastaldi (c. 1500 - 1566). Engraved Map by Jacob Bos, on two sheets. Rome: Antonio Lafreri, 1561.
Il disegno della seconda parte dell'Asia...Engraved Map by Fabio Licinio, on two sheets. Venice: Giacomo Gastaldi, 1561.
Il disegno della terza parte dell'Asia... Engraved Map by Fabio Licinio, on two sheets. Venice: Giacomo Gastaldi, 1561.
Ref: Karrow, nos. 30/85.1, 30/91 & 30/92; Nordenskiold II, 130 57, 51 & 62. Very Rare set of Three Highly Important Maps of Asia by the greatest master of Venetian Cartography.
Having been established in the city for two decades, by the late 1550s Gastaldi, the 'cosmographer to the Republic of Venice', was devising the large-scale monumental masterpieces that would confirm his legacy. These three maps represent elements of an intended colossal map of Asia, a project so ambitious that it was never realized, though geographically they are based on the small-scale maps Gastaldi previously made of the continent for Giambattista Ramusio's Navigationi et viaggi. The first map is a faithful second edition of Gastaldi's 1559 original work, produced by Antonio Lafreri, the French-born publisher based in Rome. The image is centred on Persia, and the curious depiction of the Caspian Sea in the ovoid form it invariably assumed until the 1730s. The artistic virtuosity of the engraving betrays the hand of Jacob Bos, who enlivens the maritime spaces with numerous ships, and the Steppes with Tartars' tents. The second map, in the first state, was produced by Gastaldi himself and was finely engraved by Fabio Licinio. It is centred on the Arabian Peninsula, and encompasses the area from the Nile valley to the mouth of the Indus. The third map, by the same producer and engraver, is without the two additional southern sections on flaps, but nevertheless provides a magnificent perspective of India, the Malay Peninsula and southern China. Unusually, it contains a gazetteer of place names.