View this map

Paolo del Pozzo Toscanelli
ca. 1450

Covering the world known to Europeans about 40 years before Columbus sailed to the New World (with Europe, Africa, and Asia), this map shows Toscanelli's belief that there was a relatively small sea to the west of Europe across which lay Asia. A later map by Toscanelli, showing just the sea he believed separated Europe from Asia, was sent to Christopher Columbus who carried it with on his first trip to the new world.

View this map

Martin Waldseemüller
1507

Martin Waldseemüller's Universalis Cosmographia is the first record of the name 'America' referring to the newly-discovered continents in the western hemisphere. The largest map of the world up to that time (printed on 12 sheets it measures 4 x 7 feet when assembled), it was intended by Waldseemüller to be a tribute to the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci. It seems Waldseemüller believed Vespucci had discovered the new world, and on the map he labels the new lands "America" (shown in South America), the first time the name appears on a printed map, and writes in the text accompanying the map:

"I do not see why anyone would rightly forbid calling it (after the discoverer Americus...) 'Amerige,' that is, land of Americus, or 'America'"

In 1516 Waldseemüller published another map of the world removing the name America, having decided Vespucci no longer deserved the honor, but by then the name had stuck.

The depiction of the new world on the map is notable for many geographical features: even though no European explorer is believed to have known of the existence of the Pacific Ocean, the western coast of South America is drawn with some degree of accuracy, and the Pacific Ocean is represented as a vast body of water separating the new world from Asia. Another mystery is that the peninsula of Florida seems to be represented on the map, even though the official discovery of Florida took place later, in 1513, by Ponce de León.

View this map

Battista Agnese
ca. 1544

Agnese's map of the world, in oval projection surrounded by cherubs representing compass directions, shows the route of Magellan's expedition around the world. Also shown is the route of Spanish treasure galleons from Spain to Peru. North America is depicted with a vast inland sea, perpetuating Verrazano's misconception that beyond the Outer Banks of North Carolina lay a great sea. The map also contains the first portrayal of Baja California, with the Gulf of California depicted in red (originally named the Vermillion Sea, to distinguish it from the Red Sea, also depicted in red on the map). The Aztec capitol of Tenochtitlan is shown as a blue circle in Mexico, as are numerous Inca cities in South America.

View this map

(The new Islands lie beyond Spain towards the Orient near India)

Sebastian Münster
ca. 1550

Münster's map of the western hemisphere is the first printed map to show North and South America as completely separate from Asia. The land mass in the upper left is labeled 'India', and the island of 'Zipangri', or Japan, is shown off the west coast of Central America. The Strait of Magellan is labeled off the southern tip of South America, and Magellan's ship Victoria is shown in the Pacific Ocean. The map also shows the Sea of Verrazano in North America, a great inland sea thought by the Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazano to lie to the west of the Outer Banks of North Carolina before the mainland in that area had been explored. The new world was still a strange and unusual place to the Europeans: a forest in Brazil with a human leg hanging from a tree is shown with the label 'Canibali', or Cannibals, and the region of Argentina is labeled 'Regio Gigantum', or Land of Giants.

View this map

(New and Exact Map of America, or Quarter of the World)

Diego Gutiérrez
1562

Gutiérrez's map is the largest of the western hemisphere printed in the 16th century. As an employee of the Spanish Casa de Contración (Board of Trade), Gutiérrez most likely made use of the latest geographic data sent back to Spain by the numerous Spanish naval pilots exploring the western hemisphere. Spain's claims to the territory are made clear by the two coats of arms in the cartouche in the upper left corner, representing King Phillip II and his half sister Princess Margarite, as well as the depiction of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (Charles I of Spain) speeding across the Atlantic in a sea chariot. The map is notable for the high level of geographic detail (including an understanding of the greater Amazon River basin, and the first use of the name California on a map), as well as the many mythical representations, such as cannibals in Brazil, giants in Patagonia, and numerous mermaids and other sea creatures.

View this map

(Universal Description of the Known World)

Paolo Forlani
1565

This beautifully executed map of the world is a prime example of the Italian printing style, and shows a vast land covering the southernmost region of the world. The continent at the South Pole was still only hypothesized in the 16th century, and this map shows the conception at that time was of a land far larger and extending much further north than in reality. The land at the South Pole is populated with both real and mythical creatures, including an elephant, camel, unicorn, and griffin, among others. The seas are full of sailing vessels and fanciful sea creatures. The map also shows the western part North America connected directly to Asia, a belief that persisted among some cartographers throughout the 16th century.

View this map

(Accurate Description of the Voyage Round the World)

Jodocus Hondius
ca. 1595

After his circumnavigation of the world from 1577 to 1580, Francis Drake presented Queen Elizabeth I with a map detailing his route. The map was destroyed by fire in 1698, but Dutch mapmakers made copies of Drake's map before it perished, including Hondius. This map shows the routes around the world of both Drake's voyage and that of Thomas Cavendish between 1586 and 1588. A portait of Queen Elizabeth is shown below the royal coat of arms, and numerous inset drawings of the Golden Hind (the only ship to survive the voyage) in various locations are shown around the map, including the landing at New Albion (thought to be California, but now believed to be Acapulco in Mexico) and Java, and two views showing Drake's welcome at Moluccas (Indonesia).

View this map

(The Islands in the Continents of the West Indies)

Joan Vinckeboons
ca. 1639

Trade was an important factor in the creation of European colonies in the new world. In 1621 the Dutch West India Company was granted a trade monopoly to the West Indies by the Dutch government as well as jurisdiction over areas of North America and Brazil. By 1639 Vinckeboons compiled an atlas of Dutch interests in the new world for the Dutch West India Company in the form of navigation charts, showing areas from the Caribbean up the east coast of North America to New England. This map shows the coasts of North America and South America from Virginia through the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico to Guiana in South America, with Cuba, the island of Hispaniola and the West Indies.

Browse all Vinckeboons maps

Johann Baptist Homann
ca. 1716

Guillaume Delisle
1720

Gilles Robert de Vaugondy
1743

Carington Bowles
1780

William Faden
1786

William Faden
1786

Thomas Kitchen
1799

Robert Laurie & James Whittle
1808