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Summary:

Earliest known separate map of the Americas, with the two continents as an integral landmass. Magellan's ship Victoria is in the Pacific, and there is a grim scene of cannibalism in Brazil showing the cannibal's hut with a leg and head hanging off it for a midnight snack. The estuaries of both the Amazon and the Rio del Plata are displayed in South America, while North America reflects Verrazzano's misapprehension of a large inland sea bordered by a narrow isthmus, with the Pacific and Japan (Zipangri) just beyond.

Author/Creator:

Münster, Sebastian, 1489-1552

Languages:

German
Latin

Language Notes:

Item content: German, Latin

Main Work:

Die Neüwen Inseln so hinder Hispanien gegen Orient bey dem Landt Indie ligen [by Münster, S.]

Subjects:

America — Discovery and exploration — Maps

Discoveries in geography

Western Hemisphere

America

Genres:

Woodcuts (prints) — 16th century — Switzerland

Printed maps — 16th century

EV001

Maps

General Notes:

Text on verso within ornamental border.
Relief shown pictorially.
The map appeared first in the 1540 Münster/Ptolemy published by Henircus Petri, and then in later editions of the Cosmographia.
Title, some text in German, most labels in Latin.
Goss, 6
Schwartz & Ehrenberg, 18
Single sheet, later archival backing.

Physical Description:

1 map : woodblock print ; 26 x 34 cm on sheet 32 x 39 cm

Physical Characteristics:

wood

Call Numbers:

G3290 1540 .M8 1540z

OCLC Numbers:

1052989739
21808928 [Invalid]