The first printed map devoted to California and the Southwestern U.S., from the first atlas devoted solely to America. One of the map's most interesting features is the depiction of many of the fabled mythical places in the region, including the 7 cities of Cibola, Septme ciuitaum Patria, shown around a lake, out of which flows a river which empties into the Gulf of California. The 7 cities originated in from a narrative of Fray Marcos de Niza in 1539. The lake was based upon Espejo's rescue party in 1582, sent to locate 3 missing Franciscan Missionaries. Much of the nomenclature originates with Coronado. The map is largely based upon Plancius' world map of 1592. The Tropic of Capricorni is incorrectly shown. There is only one state of the map. An minor offsetting, otherwise a nice example of this seminal collector's map. Burden 106, Wagner 188, Wheat 29.
Cornelius de Wytfliet (ca.1550-ca. 1597) was a Flemish cartographer most famous for his Descriptionis Ptolemaicae Augmentum. The work was published in Louvain, Belgium, and had nineteen maps of the Americas.