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Title

Arrangement structure

Item (linked) part of

America: Western Hemisphere [cartographic material] (R11981-3-1-E)

Date(s)

1541]

Place of creation

Germany

Publisher

Gaspard Trechsel

Extent

Scope and content

This is Lorenz Fries' slightly reduced, and more decorative, version of Waldseemüller's landmark map covering the Atlantic coastline of the Americas. It is one of the earliest maps available to collectors of American maps. Waldseemüller's map is often referred to as the Admiral Map because Waldseemüller's attributed his source of information on the New World to 'the Admiral' referring to Columbus. The geography follows that of the 1513 Waldseemuller and delineates the Atlantic from latitudes 35° south to 55° north, with a surprisingly accurate depiction of the American coastline. Fries added the Spanish flag flying over Cuba (named Isabella after the Queen of Spain) and a text block beneath Hispaniola describes the island and Christopher Columbus' discoveries in 1492. He also added graphic depictions of native cannibals and a fierce-looking opossum, both of which had been reported by Amerigo Vespucci. He retained the two famous lines of Latin text from the 1513 edition, which reads, "Hec terra cum adiacentib insulis inuenta est per Columbu ianuensem ex mandato Regis Castelle" (this land with its adjacent islands was discovered by Columbus, sent by authority of the King of Castile).

Conditions of access

Terms of use

Copyright expired.
Credit Library and Archives Canada.

Creator / Provenance

Fries, Lorenz, ca. 1490-1531 .

Additional name(s)

Ptolemaeus, Claudius.
Cartographer: Waldseemüller, Martin, 1470-1521.
Printer: Trechsel, Gaspard, fl. 1529-1549 .
Editor: Servetus, Michael, 1511?-1533.

Biography / Administrative history

Physician, astrologer and geographer from Colmar, Alsace. Studied medicine at several European universities, and worked in Strasbourg ca. 1519-1527. Produced a number of scientific instruments and revived a method of projectiion recorded by an Andalusian astronomer. Reworked most of the maps of Martin Waldseemuller. Worked with Peter Apain on the preparation of Tipus orbis univesalis , 1520 (based on Waldseemuller's world map of 1507, published in J. Camers's Solini Enerrationes, Vienna 1520, also in Pomponius Mela's De situ orbis, Basle 1522) ; The major project that Fries and Gruninger worked on was a new edition of the Geographia of Claudius Ptolemy, which was published by Johann Koberger in 1522. Here again, Fries evidently edited the maps, in most cases simply producing a reduction of the equivalent map from the 1513 edition of the Geographie Opus Novissima, printed by Johann Schott. Fries also prepare three new maps for the Geographie: maps of South-East Asia and the East Indies, China and the World, but the geography of these derives from Waldseemuller's world map of 1507. (the maps were re-used in versions edited by W. Pirkheimer, published Strasbourg, J. Gruninger, Nuremberg, J. Koberger 1525, Lyons, M & G Trechsel 1535, Lyons, G. Trechsel 1541 etc.).

Additional information

Subject heading

1. Western hemisphere - Maps - Early works to 1800.
2. Atlantic Ocean - Maps - Early works to 1800.
3. North America - Maps - Early works to 1800.
4. South America - Maps - Early works to 1800.

Source

Private

Other system control no.

CARTO34994

MIKAN no.

4153255