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The first map of the continent of America

La tables des neufues lesquelles ou appelle isles d'occident & d'Indie pour divers regards.

Basle: Henri Petri, 1568, French edition. Coloured woodcut, sheet 295 x 400mm.
Stock #:  25503

£5,250.00

1 in stock

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Description

Munster's landmark map, the first to attempt to show America as a continent, yet demonstrating how little was known. On the map a narrow isthmus divides the Atlantic and Pacific in the region of the Carolinas, based on Verrazzano, and Yucatan is an island. The large island of Zipangri off the west coast is not California but Japan, based on the narrative of Marco Polo but a few years before any recorded visit to the islands by Europeans. The Philippines appear as an 'archipelago of 7448 islands'. The large vignette ship is the 'Victoria', the only survivor of Magellan's fleet of four. This map, published in Munster's 'Cosmographiae Universalis', contained two 'firsts': it was the first atlas map to depict North and South America together and to use the name 'Pacific' (as 'pacificum'). This example omits 'isles' from 'des Isles neufes' in the title.

Condition:

Old ink pagination in top corners, slight damp staining.

References:

BURDEN: 12, state 11 of 13.

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