Terza Tavola

Giacomo Gastaldi was one of the most important Italian cartographers of the mid-sixteenth century, and his work played a central role in reshaping European ideas about Asia and the East Indies. This map of Southeast Asia commonly referred to as the “Ramusio map, ” was published in 1554 in the second edition of vol. 1 of Giovanni Battista Ramusio’s Delle navigationi et viaggi (352), the great Venetian collection of travel accounts. Ramusio was a Venetian diplomat and secretary to the Council of Ten, the governing body of the Venetian Republic.

Ramusio’s compilation appeared in three volumes: vol. 1 was first published in 1550, but without maps until the 1554 second edition; vol. 3 appeared in 1556/57; and vol. 2 followed in 1559. The maps added to the 1554 edition of vol. 1 were printed from woodblocks, but these were destroyed in a fire in 1557. Later editions of vol. 1 therefore used newly prepared copperplate versions, including the 1563 map also held in the collection (29). The map is oriented with south at the top, signalled by the directional labels around the border: ostro at the top, tramontana at the bottom, levante at left, and ponente at right. It extends from Bengal and the Southeast Asian mainland to the Moluccas and the Philippines, and from southern China to Java and Timor. The composition is divided visually into two halves: the mainland and western archipelago on the right, and the South China Sea, Philippines, and Moluccas on the left.

According to Thomas Suarez, Gastaldi drew heavily on Antonio Pigafetta’s account of Ferdinand Magellan’s voyage for his depiction of the Philippines. The map is especially significant because it labels the archipelago Filipina, which Suarez identifies as the first appearance of “Philippines” on a European map. This shows how news from Magellan’s voyage entered Venetian printed maps. The map brings together several strands of mid-sixteenth-century geographical knowledge. On the mainland, Gastaldi includes Cochin China, Campa, Camboya, Siam, Pegu, Arracan, and Regno de Bengala. In the interior appears the influential but mythical Lago de Chiamay, shown as the source of major river systems. In the island world, the map includes Sumatra, Java, Borneo, the Moluccas, Timor, and the archipelago of St Lazarus, while the Philippines are labelled Filipina, one of the earliest uses of the name on a European map. Ships and sea creatures animate the surrounding waters and reinforce the map’s maritime character.

This is the first, 1554 woodcut issue. Within the collection, it should be compared directly with the later re-engraved copperplate version (29). It should also be read alongside Gastaldi’s earlier modern Southeast Asia map, India tercera nova tabula (57), and his Ptolemaic Tabula Asiae XI (58), which together show the shift from classical to more contemporary geographical conceptions of the region.