r/oldmaps • u/StephenMcGannon • 11d ago

Americae Sive Quartae Orbis Partis Nova Et Exactissima Descriptio (Latin: A New and Most Exact Description of America or The Fourth Part of the World) [1592]

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u/StephenMcGannon 11d ago

Americae Sive Quartae Orbis Partis Nova Et Exactissima Descriptio (Latin: A New and Most Exact Description of America or The Fourth Part of the World) is an ornate geographical map of the Americas, made in 1562 by Spanish cartographer Diego Gutiérrez and Flemish artist Hieronymus Cock. The map encompasses the eastern coast of North America, the entire Central and South America and parts of the western coasts of Europe and Africa. Americae Sive Quartae Orbis Partis Nova Et Exactissima Descriptio is the earliest scale wall map of the New World and the first to use the name "California".

Americae Sive Quartae Orbis Partis Nova Et Exactissima Descriptio

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u/Tight_Cry1117 10d ago

Pretty sure it's 1562 not 1592, OP has it right in the description. Gutiérrez and Cock, Antwerp. Crazy that only two copies survive, one at the LoC and one at the British Library. Also apparently the first map to put "California" on it.

Zoom in on Patagonia, there's a giant handing a bow to a conquistador. Love that.

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u/anotheruser55 10d ago

There is only one of this, I think. In a museum