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Woodcut map. 25.5x34 cm (10x13½").

One of the most influential early maps of the Americas, first issued as part of a series of modern, up to date maps in Münster's 1540 edition of Ptolemy's Geography, and included by him in his Cosmographia Universalis, first published in 1544. Although it was not the first map to use "America" as a designation for the New World, it was the appearance of the name in the Cosmographia, an immensely popular work which went into some forty editions over the next one hundred years, that cemented the usage for all time. Burden calls this continental map of America (as opposed to just portions) "the earliest of any note." Burden goes on to describe its various features in some detail: "The Portuguese flag is shown flying over the South Atlantic and the Spanish one over her possessions in the Caribbean. The Strait of Magellan are named again, and Mare pacificum appears for the first time on a printed map. Magellan’s ship Victoria, the only survivor of five vessels, appears for the first time on a printed map. Marco Polo’s influence can be seen with Zipangri (Japan) appearing three years before the earliest known contact with Europeans, and also his Archipelagus 7448 insularu. The Yucatan is still shown as an island and the lake at Temistitan is depicted emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. North America is not shown as accurately as the southern half of the continent, it had to a large extent been neglected so far by explorers. When Giovanni de Verrazzano, in the service of Francis I of France, passed by the Outer Banks of the Carolinas in 1524 he mistook Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds for the `Oriental Sea’ that led to Cathay and the rich Spice Islands. Here Münster perpetuates this error and through the success of this book provided a huge impetus to the exploration of the region. The only placenames appearing here are C. Britonum, marking England’s early explorations, Corterati, probably Newfoundland after the Corte Reals, and Terra florida. Francisca is named in honor of Francis I.” The present copy of the map is from the 1545 German edition of Cosmographia (the maps were identical in each edition), with the title as stated above, p.xxciii on rhe reverse, the phrase “Insula Atlantica quam uocant Brasilii / & Americam” in South America, Temistitan is named in Mexico, Panuco present in the Gulf of Mexico, Scania beneath the Spanish flag, "Die newe/ weldt der grossen" in the first two lines on the reverse. An important and captivating map. Burden 12.