Search Maps

  • Map
    Jiangxi quan sheng tu shui
    江西全省圖說
    This lively and colorful volume contains a collection of 37 maps of Jiangxi province from the Ming dynasty: a general map (26 by 56 centimeters) and 36 maps of individual prefectures and counties (each 28 by 26 centimeters). The work is the earliest extant map of Jiangxi province and constitutes a valuable resource for researching pre-modern Chinese maps and the geography of Jiangxi. It...

  • Map
    Yu di zong tu
    輿地總圖
    The author of this work is unknown. The name of the person who copied the manuscript appears at the end of the work, signed Zhou Yousheng. Some have attributed authorship to Ai Nanying (1583--1646), a late-Ming essayist and literary critic, who wrote a work entitled Yu Gong tu zhu (Explanatory text to the map of the Yu Gong), the central concept of which was...
    • Contributor: Zhou, Yousheng
    • Date: 1550
  • Map
    The Island and City of Metropolitan Goa of India.
    A ilha e cidade de Goa metropolitana da India
    Jan Huyghen van Linschoten (1563-1611) was a Dutch traveler and explorer who spent six years (1583-89) in Goa, an important trading center on the west coast of India that Portugal annexed in 1510 and was to occupy for the next 450 years. Linschoten was employed as bookkeeper to the local archbishop. After returning to the Netherlands, he wrote two books containing valuable information about...
    • Contributor: Linschoten, Jan Huygen Van
    • Date: 1595-01-01
    • Resource: - 1 page
  • Map
    New Map of the Wonderful, Large and Rich Land of Guiana.
    Nieuwe caerte van het wonderbaer ende goudrycke Landt Guiana
    This hand-colored map of Guiana (present-day French Guyana, Suriname, and Guyana) is the work of Jodocus Hondius (1563-1612), the patriarch of one of the most famous Dutch mapmaking families. The map includes annotations in Dutch about the indigenous peoples of northern South America, along with fantastic illustrations of South American animals. The Amazon and Orinoco rivers are both well depicted on the map.
    • Contributor: Hondius, Jodocus
    • Date: 1598-01-01
    • Resource: - 1 page
  • Map
    Muchitlan, Tlaxcala, Mexico. This map from Zumpango del Río in the present-day state of Guerrero, Mexico, is from the Relaciones Geográficas collection in the Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas at Austin. Dating from between 1578 and 1586, the Relaciones Geográficas are responses to a questionnaire initiated by the Spanish crown in 1577, requesting information about Spanish-held territories in the Americas. The questionnaires covered...
  • Map
    Cempoala, Mexico. This map from Zempoala in the present-day state of Veracruz, Mexico, is from the Relaciones Geográficas collection in the Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas at Austin. Dating from between 1578 and 1586, the Relaciones Geográficas are responses to a questionnaire initiated by the Spanish crown in 1577, requesting information about Spanish-held territories in the Americas. The questionnaires covered such topics...
  • Map
    Culhuacán, Mexico. This map from Culhuacán in the present-day Delegación de Ixtapalapa, Mexico City, is from the Relaciones Geográficas collection in the Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas at Austin. Dating from between 1578 and 1586, the Relaciones Geográficas are responses to a questionnaire initiated by the Spanish crown in 1577, requesting information about Spanish-held territories in the Americas. The questionnaires covered such...
  • Map
    Ixcatlán, Santa María, Mexico. This map from Ixcatlán, Santa María, in the present-day state of Oaxaca, Mexico, is from the Relaciones Geográficas collection in the Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas at Austin. Dating from between 1578 and 1586, the Relaciones Geográficas are responses to a questionnaire initiated by the Spanish crown in 1577, requesting information about Spanish-held territories in the Americas. The questionnaires covered...
  • Map
    Cholula, Tlaxcala, Mexico. This map from Cholula in the present-day state of Puebla, Mexico, is from the Relaciones Geográficas collection in the Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas at Austin. Dating from between 1578 and 1586, the Relaciones Geográficas are responses to a questionnaire initiated by the Spanish crown in 1577, requesting information about Spanish-held territories in the Americas. The questionnaires covered such topics...
  • Map
    Tenochtitlán, 1521. This topographical map of Mexico City and its surroundings dates from around 1550, some three decades after the conquest of the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán by Hernán Cortés in 1521. Tenochtitlán was founded in the 14th century on an island in the salt lake of Texcoco. Upon occupying the city, the Spanish pulled down its central parts and replaced the Aztec temples with buildings...
  • Map
    Cosmographical Map or Universal Description of the World with the Actual Path of the Winds.
    Carte cosmographique ou universelle description du monde avec le vrai traict des vents
    This world map, made in Dieppe, northern France, in 1570, is thought to be the only extant map by Jean Cossin (also seen as Jehan and Johan Cossin), a hydrographer from Dieppe known in his time as an excellent maker of marine maps. It is entitled Carte cosmographique ou universelle description du monde avec le vrai traict des vents (Cosmographical map or universal description...
    • Contributor: Cossin, Jean
    • Date: 1570-01-01
    • Resource: - 2 pages

  • Map
    Atlas of the Azores and Madeira Islands.
    Atlas das Ilhas de Açores e Madeira
    This 16th-century pen-and-ink watercolor map, from an atlas of Madeira and the Azores, shows the island of Madeira. This island was discovered in 1419 by captains sailing for Prince Henry the Navigator and was colonized shortly thereafter. This detailed map shows the island's many ports.
  • Map
    Brazil.
    Brasil
    This early map of Brazil is by Jacopo Gastaldi (circa 1500-circa 1565), a Piedmontese cartographer who worked in Venice and rose to the position of cosmographer of the Venetian Republic. Gastaldi produced maps and illustrations for parts of Delle Navigationi et Viaggi (Travels and voyages), a compilation of travel writings by the Venetian diplomat and geographer Giovanni Battista Ramusio (1485-1557). Ramusio's work contained more...
    • Contributor: Ramusio, Giovanni Battista - Gastaldi, Giacomo
    • Date: 1565-01-01
    • Resource: - 1 page
  • Map
    Codex Totomixtlahuaca.
    Códice Totomixtlahuaca
    This indigenous pictographic document is a colonial-era map from the Mixtecan, Tlapaneca, and Nahua cultural area in the present-day state of Guerrero, Mexico. It refers, principally, to the settlement called Totomixtlahuacan and states that the document was written in 1584. It is an indigenous colonial map that makes abundant use of Mesoamerican pictorial conventions and includes many texts written in Nahuatl, the most widespread...
  • Map
    Journey and Life of the Patriarch Abraham.
    Abrahami Patriarchae peregrinatio et vita
    This map tracing the life of the patriarch Abraham was published in Antwerp in 1590 by Abraham Ortelius (1527-98), the Flemish publisher who created the world's first atlas. It is the first printing of a map by Tilemann Stella (circa 1525-89), a German cartographer, geographer, and mathematician. The inset map at the upper left shows Abraham's journey to the Holy Land from the land...
    • Contributor: Ortelius, Abraham - Stella, Tilemannus
    • Date: 1590-01-01
    • Resource: - 1 page
  • Map
    Description of the Holy Land.
    Beschreibung des Heiligen Landes
    This woodcut map of 1585 shows the Holy Land as it would have appeared at the time of Jesus, divided into Galilee, Samaria, and Judea. The map appeared in the Itinerarium Sacrae Scripturae (Travel book through Holy Scripture) of Heinrich Bünting (1545-1606). Bünting studied theology at the University of Wittenberg in Germany and became a Protestant pastor and theologian, but retired from the ministry...
    • Contributor: Bünting, Heinrich
    • Date: 1585-01-01
    • Resource: - 1 page
  • Map
    Sixth Map of Asia: Which Includes Arabia Felix, Carmania, and the Persian Gulf.
    Asiae Tabula VI: Arabiam Felicem, Carmaniam Ac Sinum Persicum
    This map from Ptolemy's Geographia was published in 1578 and reprinted on many occasions between 1584 and 1704. It is much more finely engraved than maps in previous Ptolemy editions. The map mentions several places in present-day Qatar (Abucei, Leaniti, Themi, Asateni, and Aegei). Names added to this edition of the map include Mesmites Sinus, Idicar, and a second Idicar, located in present-day Kuwait....
    • Contributor: Ptolemy, 2nd Century
    • Date: 1578-01-01
    • Resource: - 1 page
  • Map
    Arabia. This 1616 map is a reprint of a map originally published in 1598 by Jodocus Hondius (1563-1612), a Flemish cartographer and engraver who settled in Amsterdam in about 1593 and established a business that produced globes and the first large maps of the world. The map covers the territory from west of the Gulf of Suez to the eastern side of the Arabian Peninsula,...
    • Contributor: Hondius, Jodocus
    • Date: 1598-01-01
    • Resource: - 1 page
  • Map
    Map of the Sea. The Carta marina of the Swedish geographer and historian Olaus Magnus is one of the earliest accurate cartographic depictions of the Scandinavian peninsula. Drafted in Rome in 1539, by one of the more prominent Scandinavian Catholics in higher ecclesiastical service, it contains detail that is lacking in many other early maps of the region. Originally intended for his Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus (A description...
    • Contributor: Magnus, Olaus
    • Date: 1572-01-01
    • Resource: - 1 page
  • Map
    The Sigüenza Map.
    El Mapa de Sigüenza
    This map is a cartographic history of the migration of the Aztec from Aztlán to Tenochtitlan. Created in the pictographic style typical of the central Mexican and Puebla valleys during the Post-Classical period, it is the only map of its kind known to exist. It is thought to date from the 16th century. The map shows the path of the migration, along with the...
  • Map
    Saint Augustine Map, 1589. This engraved hand-colored map or view-plan by Baptista Boazio depicts Sir Francis Drake's attack on Saint Augustine on May 28-29, 1586. Boazio, an Italian who worked in London from about 1585 to 1603, made maps to illustrate accounts of English expeditions and campaigns. He prepared a series of maps marking Drake's route for Walter Bigges' work on Drake's expedition to the West Indies, first...
    • Contributor: Boazio, Baptista - White, John
    • Date: 1589-01-01
    • Resource: - 1 page
  • Map
    A Modern and Complete Map of the World by the Royal Mathematician Oronce Fine of the Dauphiné.
    Recens et integra orbis descriptio. Orontius F[inaeus] Delph[inas], Regis[s] mathematic[us] facebiat
    An astronomer and mathematician, from 1531 the first chair of mathematics in the Collège Royal (the present-day Collège de France), Oronce Fine (1494--1555) was one of the first French scholars to work with cartography. His world map in the shape of a heart belongs to a group of 18 heart-shaped projection maps published between 1511 and 1566. Inspired by one of the projections described...
    • Contributor: Finé, Oronce
    • Date: 1534-01-01
    • Resource: - 1 page
  • Map
    Nautical Chart of the Mediterranean Basin.
    Carta nautica del bacino del Mediterraneo
    This portolan nautical chart, of Catalan origin, illustrates the coastal areas of the Mediterranean Sea with a wealth of detail, with toponyms of the inhabited areas shown without regard to political-territorial divisions. Nautical charts came into use on sailing vessels in the Mediterranean toward the end of the 13th century, coinciding with much broader seafaring activity and exploration. These charts supplemented the written instructions,...
    • Contributor: Prunes, Mateus, Flourished
    • Date: 1553-01-01
    • Resource: - 1 page
  • Map
    A New Depiction of the Whole of Hungary.
    Nova totius Ungariae
    This rare map of Hungary was produced by Matthias Zündt in 1567. Zündt (circa 1498--1572) was an engraver, sculptor, and goldsmith from Nuremberg who produced 13 copper-plate engraved maps and views between 1565 and 1571. The map originally appeared in six sheets arranged together. It shows colorful views of important cities, kingdoms, provinces, and bordering countries. Episcopal churches and Turkish religious buildings are shown,...
    • Contributor: Zündt, Matthias
    • Date: 1567-01-01
    • Resource: - 1 page
  • Map
    The Drawing of the Modern Geography of the Whole Africa.
    Il disegno della geografia moderna de tutta la parte dell'Africa
    This rare map from 1564 printed on eight copperplates is the finest and most important large-scale map of Africa produced in the 16th century. Earlier maps were mostly printed from woodcuts; copperplates allowed the engraver to reproduce much more detail and finesse. The map was made by the Italian cartographer, engineer, and astronomer Giacomo Gastaldi (circa 1500--66) and engraved by Fabricius Licinus (circa 1521--65)....
    • Contributor: Licinus, Fabricius - Gastaldi, Giacomo
    • Date: 1564-01-01
    • Resource: - 1 page