Girolamo Ruscelli (1500-1566) was a cartographer, humanist, and scholar from Tuscany. One of his most notable works was a translation of Ptolemy’s Geographia which was published posthumously. He was born in the Tuscan city of Viterbo to a family of modest means.

He was educated at the University of Padua and moved between Rome and Naples until 1548 when he moved to Naples to work in a publishing house as a writer and proofreader. He remained in Viterbo until his death in 1566.