The atlas contains twenty-eight Ptolemaic maps and thirty-six 'modern' maps, which include two world maps and seven related to new 'discoveries' in the Americas. Some of Ruscelli’s maps are enlarged, exact copies of those by Giulio and Livio Sanuto of Giacomo Gastaldi (dated c.1547-1548), except for the the world map 'Universale Novo', which Ruscelli re-drew on a new double-hemisphere projection and named 'Orbis Descriptio'.

Some of the important maps in this atlas include: 'Septemtronalum Partium Nova Tabula', a reduced version of the Nicolò and Antonio Zeno map of the North Atlantic Ocean of 1558 showing many fictitious islands; 'Tierra Nueva', a map of the east coast of North America showing the Hudson and St. Lawrence Rivers; 'Nueva Hispania Tabula Nova' showing the Yucatan as a peninsula. Other maps of America are: 'Tierra Nova' showing South America; ‘Brasil Nuova Tavola’; ‘Isola Cuba Nova’; ‘Isola Spagnola Nova’. The map titled ‘India Tercera Nuova Tavola’ shows the East Indies.

The new 'modern' maps in this atlas are of Scandinavia (after Jacob Ziegler, 1532), Brazil (after Giovanni Ramusio, 1485–1557), the Arctic regions, South Africa, and a navigational chart of the world, known as the 'Carta Marina' (by Olaus Magnus 1539).

The Sunderland Collection

This elegant little atlas contains a new vernacular Italian translation of Claudius Ptolemy’s ‘Geographia’ by Girolamo Ruscelli. He wanted to bridge a gap in scholarship as the previous translation dated back to the fifteenth century (Francisco Berlinghieri's 1482 edition). The atlas was intended for popular use, rather than for the elite and for this reason, not only is the text in Italian instead of Latin, but the atlas is in a smaller format than the grand, folio atlases of the time.

Ruscelli’s edition of the 'Geographia' contains both traditional Ptolemaic maps and 'modern' maps showing the latest ‘discoveries’ in the New World. Among them is a double-hemisphere world map, the ‘Orbis Descriptio’ ('Description of the World') – the earliest of its kind to appear in an atlas, showing North and South America as well as the islands of New Guinea. The atlas also contains a new navigational chart of the Scandinavia and the North Atlantic made by Olaus Magnus in 1539, known as the ‘Carta Marina’.

The first translation of Ptolemy’s ‘Geographia’ from Greek into Latin was by Jacobus Angelus in 1406–7. Berlinghieri subsequently produced his famous edition of the 'Geographia' in Italian verse in 1482. Ruscelli’s translation is an attempt to update the text and provide a vernacular Italian edition, thereby addressing what he saw as a lack of progress.

Cartouche

Cartographical Instrument

A device to calculate the classical compass winds

Claudius Ptolemy's 1st Conic Projection

Claudius Ptolemy's 2nd Conic Porjection

Diagram showing how to project the 3D globe from a single point

Globe surrounded by windheads

Circular diagram showing perspectival lines projecting from a single point

The first atlas map of the World to use a double hemisphere projection

World map using Ptolemy's 2nd projection

Ptolemaic map #1 of Europe showing Great Britain

Ptolemaic map #2 of Europe showing Spain

Ptolemaic map #3 of Europe showing France (Gaul)

Ptolemaic map #4 of Europe showing Germany

Ptolemaic map #5 of of Europe showing Solvenia and part of Italy

Ptolemaic map #6 of Europe showing Italy

Ptolemaic map #7 of Europe showing Sardinia and Sicily 

Ptolemaic map #8 of Europe showing the Northeast including Poland, the Batlic, Russia, Ukraine 

Ptolemaic map #9 of Europe showing the Balkans including Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia

Ptolemiac map #10 of Europe showing Greece including Macedonia, Crete and Cyprus 

Ptolemaic map #1 of Africa showing Northwest Africa and the Balearic Islands + the Western tip of the Mediterrean 

Ptolemaic map #2 of Africa showing the North of Central Africa including Lybia, Tunisia and the Mediterrean Sea

Ptolemaic map #3 of Africa showing Egypt

Ptolemaic map #4 of Africa showing central Africa including Ethiopia, Lybia, and Egypt

Ptolemaic map #1 of Asia showing Turkey and Cyprus 

Ptolemaic map #2 of Asia showing Samartia (Black Sea region)

Ptolemaic map #3 of Asia showing Caspian Sea including Armenia, Turkey, and Georgia 

Ptolemaic map #4 of Asia showing Palestine, Syria, and Cyprus

Ptolemaic map #5 of Asia showing Modern Iran 

Ptolemaic map #6 of Asia showing modern Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Oman

Ptolemaic map #7 of Asia showing modern Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan 

Ptolemaic map #8 of Asia shwoing modern China and Mongolia 

Ptolemaic map #9 of Asia showing modern Pakistan and Afghanistan 

Ptolemaic map #10 of Asia showing modern India 

Ptolemaic map #11 of Asia showing Southeast Asia

Ptolemaic map #12 of Asia showing modern Sri Lanka 

Frontispiece

Illustration of a globe

Map of the British Isles 

Map of Spain

Map of Gaul 

Map of Germany

Map of Flanders 

Map of Italy

Map of Scandanavia 

Map of Scicly and Sardinia

Map of Poland and Hungary 

Map of Livonia

Map of Russia and Ukraine 

Map of the Piedmont region

Map of Venice 

Map of Ancona 

Map of Tuscany

Map of Greece

Map of West Africa

Map of Africa Minor

Map of North Africa

Map of North Egypt and the Delta River 

Map of Southern Africa

Map of Asia Minor 

Map of the Levant and Cyprus

Map of Persia

Map of Arabia

Map of India 

Map of South East Asia

Map of South America 

Map of Brazil, oriented west at top

Map of New Spain, Florida and Gulf of Mexico

Map of New England

Map of Cuba

Map of Hispaniola

Map of Scandinavia, Iceland, Greenland

World map for navigation, one of the earliest depictions of the Peninsula of California

Ruscelli's atlas contains the first map of the world on a double-hemisphere projection, and uses the cartography of Giacomo Gastaldi. This is a handsome example of the atlas in excellent with a complete set of maps and illustrations.

The Geography of Claudius Ptolemy of Alexandria

La Geografia di Claudio Tolomeo Alessandrino

Ruscelli's 'Geographia'

Newly Translated from Greek into Italian,...With Expositions of the Same, Particulars of Place, & Universal Over the Book, and Over the Whole Geography, or Way of Being the Description of the Whole World

Nuovamente tradotta di Greco in Italiano,… Con Espositioni del Medesimo, Particolari di Luogo, & Universali Sopra il Libro, et Sopra Tutta la Geografia, o Modo di sar la Descrittione di Tutto il Mondo