Giacomo Gastaldi (1500-1566) is considered the foremost Italian cartographer of the sixteenth century, alongside Paolo Forlani. His skills of compilation are comparable to those of Mercator and Ortelius, yet much less is known of his life than of his two contemporaries. Gastaldi was born in Villafranca, Piedmont, but had established himself in Venice by 1539. He originally worked as an engineer, but turned to mapmaking from the 1540s onward.
It was in Venice where he made his reputation as an engraver, geographer, and cosmographer; for example, he was asked to fresco maps of Asia and Africa in the Palace of the Doge, or the Council of Ten, Venice’s governmental body. He also frequently consulted on projects for the Savi sopra la Laguna, drawing maps for this body which oversaw the regulation of fresh and salt water around Venice.
His contemporaries also recognized his skill, as he was named cosmographer to the Republic of Venice, was a member of the Accademia Veneziana, and was a major source for other geographers and mapmakers including Camocio, Bertelli, Cock, Luchini, and Ortelius. He even had his own distinct style of copper engraving that made him a pioneer in his day and makes his works iconic today.
Gastaldi enjoyed an especially productive relationship with Giovanni Battista Ramusio, Secretary of the Venetian Senate, who used Gastaldi's maps for his famous travel account collection, Navigationi et Viaggi. Gastaldi also tutored Ramusio's son in cosmography.
![Il Disegno Della Terza Parte Dell' Asia [Gastaldi's Wall Map of SE Asia with extra panels!]](/map/small/30554hbp.jpg)
Final State of the Gastaldi's Wall Map of East Asia -- The First Great Wall Map of East Asia Fine example of Giacomo Gastaldi's rare 4-sheet wall map of Southeast Asia, China and India, perhaps the single most influential map of the region published...
Earliest Obtainable Italian World Map to Show the Continent of America by Italy's Premier Sixteenth-Century Mapmaker This is a fine example of Giacomo Gastaldi's map of the world, published in Venice in 1548. It is a reduced version of his first...
![Tabula Asiae XII [Sri Lanka]](/map/small/59207.jpg)
Striking example of Gastaldi's important map of Sri Lanka, based upon Ptolemy. Giacomo Gastaldi's Atlas of 1548 has been called the most comprehensive atlas produced between Martin Waldseemüller's Geographiae of 1513, and the Abraham Ortelius...
The First Printed Map of New England and New France A nice example of the first printed map devoted to New England and New France, showing the eastern seaboard from New York Bay to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This map appeared in Ramusio's highly...
One of the earliest separately published maps of Hispaniola, which first appeared in the 1548 edition of Gastaldi's edition of Ptolemy's Geografia. The map is one of the "modern" maps to appear in Giacomo Gastaldi's La Geografia. Gastaldi was the most...
One of the earliest obtainable modern maps of the British Isles. Fine example of Gastaldi's important early map of British Isles. Giacomo Gastaldi was one of the most important Italian mapmakers of the early 16th Century. His set of maps for the...
![[France] Europae Tabula III](/map/small/60010.jpg)
Fine example of Gastaldi's map of France, based upon Ptolemy. Giacomo Gastaldi is considered as the foremost Italian cartographer of the 16th century along with Paolo Forlani. From Piedmont, Gastaldi established his reputation in Venice and was...
![[Modern France] Gallia Nova Tabula](/map/small/60252.jpg)
Nice example of Gastaldi's modern map of France, one of the earliest reasonably obtainable maps of modern France available to collectors. Giacomo Gastaldi is considered as the foremost Italian cartographer of the 16th century along with Paolo Forlani....
Nice example of one of the earliest obtainable modern maps of Poland, Lithuania and Hungary, published in Venice by Gastaldi. Gastaldi's maps are considered important early maps for regional collectors. Giacomo Gastaldi was one of the most important...
One of the Earliest Obtainable Modern Maps of the Baltic Region Nice example of Gastaldi's map of the region bounded by the Vistula River and Prussia in the west, Livonia in the east, and Lithuania in the southeast. The map is centered on Riga and...
Fine unfolded example of Gastaldi's modern map of Russia, including Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Ukraine. Gastaldi's map is among the earliest modern maps of the region. Based upon the 1546 map of Sigmund Herberstein, it extends further to the north...
![Europae Tabula VIII [Russia, Ukraine, Baltic, Scandinavia]](/map/small/44610.jpg)
Nice example of Gastaldi's map of the region bounded by the Baltic in the North and the Black Sea in the south, based upon Ptolemy. Giacomo Gastaldi is considered as the foremost Italian cartographer of the 16th century along with Paolo Forlani. From...
![Desciptione de la Moscovia per Giacomo Gastaldo piamo[n]tese, Cosmographo in Venetia MDL](/map/small/31057.jpg)
Extremely rare map of Russia, engraved by Gastaldi, based upon the work of Baron Sigismund von Herberstein. Herberstein, a diplomat from the Austrian Imperial Court, was sent to Russia twice between 1516-26, during which time he gathered enough...
![[Russia, Sweden, Finland, Estonia Latvia and Lithuania].](/map/small/36638.jpg)
A fine wide margined example of the northern sheet of the first edition of Gastaldi's 2-sheet map covering Russia, Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, published in Venice in 1562. The present offering is the northern sheet only (of 2) of...
Fine example of Gastaldi's map of Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Armenia and neighboring regions, based upon the work of Claudius Ptolemy. Giacomo Gastaldi's Atlas of 1548 has been called the most comprehensive atlas produced between Martin...
Important early modern map of Scandinavia, Iceland, and the Baltic, published in Venice by Giacomo Gastaldi. Gastaldi's modern map of Scandinavia and environs "built upon previous publications, in particular, the representation was based on the map of...
