MAP OF THE WORLD. Reproduced in Facsimile from Photographs Obtained by Arthur James Weise in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana of Milan in April, 1903.
The Hispanic Society of America: NY, 1905. Item #97-6965
Title sheet plus four sheets of maps in coor, 26 x 21. Ex lib with minimal markings (reverse of title sheet), sheets have soiling, toning, tears, chipping, title sheet and one map have a couple of small pieces missing out of side margins, two (of four) tissue guards lacking, remaining tissue guards are torn, creased, chipped else good/very good. Colors in maps are bright and sharp. Facsimile of original 1527 manuscript on vellum of North and South America and the Pacific Ocean, now part of the collection of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan Maiollo was made the master navigational cartographer for Genoa in 1519. The original map (on two sheets, together about 71.25 x 24) was a companion to one he did in 1519. This later map was apparently stored in a drawer and was not discovered until 1881. Drawn with south at the top, continents are shown from the Straits of Magellan to the 35th parallel North. Details include a presumed small strait across what is now Honduras, with the eastern coast of North America arcing around the Gulf of Mexico and the extending northeast, apparently based on accounts by Giovanni da Verrazano. The vastness of the Pacific Ocean disagreed with contemporary theories that America was part of Asia. Territorial notations include the French flag and Italian versions of French names on the North American east coast, the Spanish flag near the Straits of Magellan, and Portuguese control of Brazil and much of South America. The western coast of South America is vague, indicating the map was drawn before reports of Pizarro or Cabrillo; the St. Lawrence was still to be discovered by Cartier (in 1534) amd the Philippine Islands bear their pre-1542 name of Isola De Serola.
Price: $250.00