Americae et Proximar Regionum Orae Descriptio

This extremely rare map by a Venetian mapmaker Giovanni Battista Mazza is part of a set of four sixteenth-century maps of the Americas which show both continents and the Pacific Ocean; two of the others are by Ortelius and one is by Hogenberg. Of the group, this map contains far more geographic detail and textual annotations, and clearly shows the relationship between the landmasses of the Americas and Asia, across the expanse of the Pacific Ocean. All four of the maps are rare, but the Mazza map was the only one of the series that the JCB did not own until its purchase in 2018. This series of four maps– the relationships between them and their sources of geographical information - has been the subject of much scholarship, and their presence at the JCB allows new researchers to undertake this scholarship at one location, with ease.