''Americae Sive Quartae Orbis Partis Nova Et Exactissima Descriptio'' ( Latin: ''A New and Most Exact Description of America or The Fourth Part of the World'') is an ornate geographical map of the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

, made in 1562 by Spanish cartographer Diego Gutiérrez and Flemish artist

Hieronymus Cock Hieronymus Cock, or Hieronymus Wellens de Cock (1518 – 3 October 1570) was a Flemish painter and etcher as well as a publisher and distributor of prints.

. The map encompasses the eastern coast of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, the entire

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

and South America and parts of the western coasts of Europe and Africa. ''Americae Sive Quartae Orbis Partis Nova Et Exactissima Descriptio'' is the earliest

scale Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number ...

wall map of the New World and the first to use the name "California". The map consists of six neatly-joined engraved sheets. Measuring 93×86 cm, it remained the largest map of America for a century. It has a longitude grid, the

equator The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can als ...

, the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, but no latitude grid. The map also lacks the

Tordesillas meridian The Treaty of Tordesillas, ; pt, Tratado de Tordesilhas . signed in Tordesillas, Spain on 7 June 1494, and authenticated in Setúbal, Portugal, divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between the Portuguese Empire and the Spanish Emp ...

, demarcating the Spanish and Portuguese possessions in the New World. Along with mermaids and other sea creatures, the map features objects that had been popularized in Europe after the first voyage of Christopher Columbus, such as parrots, cannibals,

Patagonian giants The Patagones or Patagonian giants were a race of giant humans rumoured to be living in Patagonia and described in early European accounts. They were said to have exceeded at least double normal human height, with some accounts giving heights of ...

, and an erupting volcano in central Mexico. One of the depicted Patagonian giants is handing a bow to a

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, O ...

. The top left corner features the goddess Victoria behind the arms of Spain and France, which are carried by three putti. It is believed that the alliance between the two kingdoms, forged by the marriage of Philip II and Elisabeth of Valois, is the reason why two arms are positioned close to each other. The map uses the Classical Latin letter "V" instead of "U". There are two extant copies of the map, one in the Library of Congress (Washington, D.C.) and the other in the British Library (London).British Library
/ref> The actual total number of copies is not known. The Library of Congress's copy was formerly in the collection of the Duke of Gotha until its sale at a 1932 auction in Munich. It was then acquired by an American book dealer who in turn sold it to

Lessing J. Rosenwald Lessing Julius Rosenwald (February 10, 1891 – June 24, 1979) was an American businessman, a collector of rare books and art, a chess patron, and a philanthropist. Biography Born in Chicago, Lessing J. Rosenwald was the eldest son of Julius R ...

. In 1949 Rosenwald gave the map to the Library of Congress.

Details

File:1562 Americae-Gutierrez 03 01hrs-mid Deus-Marinae-Travelling-with-Animals.jpg, Deity of the seas in a chariot File:Americae Sive Quartae Orbis Partis Nova Et Exactissima Descriptio-Portuguese arms.jpg, Coat of arms of the Kingdom of Portugal File:Americae Sive Quartae Orbis Partis Nova Et Exactissima Descriptio-mermaids.jpg, Mermaids in the Pacific Ocean

References

{{reflist Historic maps of the Americas 1562 works 16th-century maps and globes Etymology of California