The Earliest Obtainable Map to Focus on California
Fine example of Wyfliet's seminal map of California and the Southwest.
Wytfliet's map is 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 myth of the 7 cities originated in from a narrative of Fray Marcos de Niza in 1539. The lake was based upon reports received from Espejo's rescue party in 1582, sent to locate 3 missing Franciscan Missionaries. Much of the nomenclature on Wytfliet's map finds its origins with the explorations of Coronado.
The map is largely based upon Plancius' world map of 1592. The Tropic of Capricorn is incorrectly shown.
As seminal map for collectors of California and the Southwest.
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.