Period

16th Century

Featured Items

Detail of a colored manuscript atlas shows a coastal region and labels in Latin. Other details include drawings of castles and mountains.

[Portolan atlas] / Vesconte de Maiolo ciuis Janue conposuy

Vesconte Maggiolo
1511
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 printed book shows full-page illustrations of plants. Text in Latin also visible.

Aromatum, et simplicium aliquot medicamentorum apud Indos

Garcia de Orta
1567
Detail of brown book binding shows the embossed details.

La istoria de las Indias. y Conquista de Mexico

López de Gómara
1552
Detail of a printed book shows an illustration of a woman with long hair, elaborate drawings on her body, and holding a spear.

A briefe and true report of the new found land of Virginia.

Thomas Harriot
1590
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
Detail of a colored, engraved map shows "Florida," "Virginia," and partial view of frontispiece with text in English.

The famouse West Indian voyadge made by the Englishe fleete of 23 shippes and Barkes wherin weare gotten the townes of St. Iago, Sto. Domingo, Cartagena and St. Augustines

Baptista Boazio
1589
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

Related

Image of Peruvian Print Shop
Lecture

Historia del libro en lenguas originarias de América

Image of Guaxtepec (relaciones geograficas)

New Digital Item-of-the-Month series begins this week

October 5, 2020
Native Americans of present-day Mexico dance around two drummers

Picturing the Past: Indigenous Expressions in Colonial Mexico

Spring 2020
engraved map of the island of Hispaniola with present-day Haiti and Santo Domingo, including sea monsters, ships, and a compass
Collections Up Close

L'isole piu famose del mondo…, 1572

February 25, 2020
JCB Fellow Juan Cobo Betancourt views an exhibition at the John Carter Brown Library
Our Fellows

Juan Cobo Betancourt, Donald L. Saunders Fellow

November 25, 2019
Plan of the fort of the French in Guanabara Bay
Fellow's Talk

How French Poems Become English

America Meredith (Cherokee), London Calling 1762 (2012)
Lecture

Indigenous London: Native Travelers at the Heart of Empire

black and white image of the virgen
Fellow's Talk

Guadalupe: Text, Context, and the Virgilian Tradition

See Also

15th Century

Mohawk