Period

16th Century

Featured Items

Detail of Mundus Novus' title page which depicts two monkeys sitting by a tree, framed by plants and text in Latin.

Mundus novus

Amerigo Vespucci
1503
Detail of a colored manuscript map shows the Black Sea with labels. Decorative border includes red, blue, and green ink and gilded details.

Battista Agnese atlas

Battista Agnese
1543-1545
Detail of a frontispiece shows four animals grouped between two pillars. In the background, castles sit on either side of a harbor where ships wait. Text in Latin.

Biblia Sacra Hebraice, Chaldaice, Graece, & Latine Philippi II

1573
Detail of brown book binding shows the embossed details.

La istoria de las Indias. y Conquista de Mexico

López de Gómara
1552
Detail of gold JCB stamp on black binding.

Principall navigations, voiages, and discoveries of the English nation

Edward Wright
1598
Detail of a printed book shows a circular illustration and text in Spanish.

Suma de geographia...

Martin Fernandez de Enciso
1546
Detail of an engraved map shows mountainous topography and text in Italian.

Descrittione di tutto il Peru

Paulo di Forlani
circa 1564-1572
Detail of a hand colored, woodcut map shows Africa. Some details shown include labels in Latin and mountains.

Orbis Typus Vniversalis Iuxta Hydrographorum Traditionem

1513

Related

Doctrina Christiana en Lengua Guasteca (México, 1571), by Juan de la Cruz.
Collections Up Close

Early Mexican Imprints at the JCB

José Montelongo, January 15, 2023
An image of the map '“Delineatio Omnium Orarum Totius Australis Partis Americae'
Collections Up Close

Jan van Linschoten, “Delineatio Omnium Orarum Totius Australis Partis Americae …” in Itinerario, voyage ofte schipvaert…, Amsterdam: Cornelius Claesz, 1596

November 22, 2021
Engraving of two Nahua men speaking to one another. An angel hovers behind one of the men, preventing him from producing idolatrous speech, while the other has a snakes stemming from his mouth, which is representative of such language.
Fellow's Talk

"Brute animals" and "rational creatures": Defining humanity in the Indigenous-language vocabularies and pedagogies of New Spain

Image of an artificial flower clock, with two hands emerging from clouds on either side holding a numbered circle, and a thorn stemming from the flower's circle pointing at the time.
Fellow's Talk

Earthquakes and Timekeeping Practices in New England, 1600-1800

Detail from the Tovar Codex, showing a bearded Spanish man atop the symbol for house (calli), while holding a book that points to the letters of the Roman alphabet.
Fellow's Talk

Translating Late Medieval Classics into Nahuatl: The Imitatio Christi and How to Think About Latin-Nahuatl translation

Simple, printed map of the island of Sicily, showing Mount Etna, Palermo, Messina, Catania, and other cities, which have been labeled by the author.
Fellow's Talk

Comparative Colonialisms? Palermo and the Americas at the JCB

Three sixteenth-century maps. On the left is a map of the western coast of South America including Peru, on the top right a map of the southern part of North America from the Carolinas to the Mexican coast and on the bottom right a map of the northeastern part of Mexico.
Fellow's Talk

From South to North America: A New Perspective on Floridian Studies

A map showing the strait of Magellan
Fellow's Talk

The Strait of Magellan and the Construction of a Global habitability. Geopolitics and cosmography in the 16th century [in Spanish]

See Also

Asia

19th Century