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Sebastian Munster: La Table des Isles neusues, lesquelles on appelle isles d'occident & d'Indie pour divers regardz. [America & Japan]
Title: La Table des Isles neusues, lesquelles on appelle isles d'occident & d'Indie pour divers regardz. [America & Japan] Map Maker: Sebastian Munster
Description: Early French edition of Sebastian Munster's seminal map of America, first published in 1540. Munster's map of America is one of the most important and influential maps of the 16th Century. The map is the earliest map to show all of North and South America in a true continental form, the first map to name the Pacific Ocean (Mare Pacificum). The map is also the first map to show Japan, based entirely upon the accounts of Marco Polo and other early travelers (pre-dating the first modern European contacts with Japan). The first edition of the map appeared in Munster's Geographia, first published in 1540. It was the map's inclusion in the 1544 edition of Munster's Cosmographia that forever caused America to be the name of the New World, perpetuating Waldseemuller's choice of names in a popular and widely disseminated work. The map includes a host of firsts, too many to include in this description. It is one of the earliest depictions of the Straits of Magellan, and includes an illustration of Magellan’s ship Victoria in the Pacific. The Yucatan Peninsula is shown as an Island. Lake Temistan (not named in this state of the map) empties into the Caribbean. The depiction of North America is dominated by one of the most dramatic geographic misconceptions to be found on early maps—the so-called Sea of Verrazzano. The Pacific cuts deeply into North America so that the part of the coastline at this point is a narrow isthmus between two oceans. This was the result of Verrazzano mistaking the waters to the west of the Outer Banks, the long barrier islands along North Carolina as the Pacific. The division of the New World between Spain and Portugal Spain and Portugal is recognized on the map by the Castille and Leon flag planted in Puerto Rico, called Sciana. Condition Description: Stray ink line in title, else a very nice example References: Schwartz/Ehrenberg, pp. 43, 45, 50; Cortazzi, H. Isles of Gold, pl. 12; Tooley, R.V. Maps and Mapmakers, p. 112, pl. 80; Burden 12.
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