Descrittione dell’isola et terra di santa croce, overo : mondo nuovo

This map is a map by Thomaso Porcacchi of the New World – “Mondo Nuovo.” As you can see, it is part of a larger page, a page that would have been in a book of maps, and he was famous for a collection of what he basically called his collection “Islands of the World.” Well, he included continents in that category as well. So, here we have North America, and North America is in a distorted shape that one would have some trouble recognizing today, but there it is.

There’s a little blob in the middle representing Florida. One can go up the coast all the way to Labrador. On the western side, we see California- Baja California, and it is attached to the North American continent. As is the case with several later maps, California gets disconnected from the North American continent, but the early-most mapmakers got it right, and there it is.