Period

16th Century

Featured Items

Printed text shows a circular diagram below text in Latin.

Breves in sphaeram meditatiunculae

Bartholomaeus Mercator

1563

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 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 a hand colored manuscript map shows flags and place names along a coastal region.

[Early representation of Newfoundland, Lower California, the Amazon, and the Ladrones]

António Pereira

circa 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 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 printed book shows a colored illustrated dragons on a circular diagram with text in Latin.

Astronomicum cæsareum

Peter Apian

1540

Detail of a printed text shows an illustration of four naked Natives surrounded by trees. One holds a cross bow and another holds a large stick. Text in Dutch is also visible.

Van der nieuwer werelt

Amerigo Vespucci

1509

Lecture

Historia del libro en lenguas originarias de América

Tuesday, October 27 at 2:00pm

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

Wednesday, February 13 at 4:00pm

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