Period

17th Century

Featured Items

Detail of a printed book shows a full-page map and text at the of the page reading "America."

Historia Mundi: or Mercator’s Atlas...

Gerhard Mercator
1635
Detail of printed frontispiece shows two men on either side of French title.

Le miroir de la tyrannie espagnole perpetrée aux Indes Occidentales

Bartolomé de las Casas
1620
Detail of a printed map shows decorative elements such a sun, a person carrying arrows, ships and fish at sea, a scale, and a key with text in French at the bottom of the map.

Carte geographique de la Nouvelle France

Samuel de Champlain
1612
Detail of a printed book shows a page with text in Dutch.

Pertinent en waarachtig verhaal van alle de handelingen en directie van Pedro Van Belle

1689
Detail of a printed book shows engraved title page depicting women, ships, and animals. Text in Dutch.

Engelsch edelmans, zeldzaame en gedenkwaardige zee- en land-reizen

Eduward Meltons
1681
Detail of a colored engraved map shows latitude and longitude lines and label in English over New England written as "Nieu Engelant."

Pas caarte van Nieu Nederlandt

Arnold Colom
1656
Detail of a manuscript, hand-colored map depicting the Great Lakes, scattered trees depicted on surrounding land, and text in French.

Nouvelle Découverte de plusieurs Nations Dans la Nouvelle France en l'année 1673 et 1674

Louis Joliet
1673-1674
Detail of an engraved title page shows medallion portraits at the border, a coat of arms, and text in Spanish.

Historia general de las conquistas del nuevo reyno de Granada

Lucas Fernández de Piedrahita
1688

Related

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

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

Cartouche of the map “La Louisiane…”  made in 1695 by Vincenzo Coronelli
Collections Up Close

Vincenzo Coronelli, “Partie occidentale du Canada ou de la Nouvelle France…” Paris : Chez J.B. Nolin, 1688

June 30, 2021
Image of Peruvian Print Shop
Lecture

Historia del libro en lenguas originarias de América

Native Americans of present-day Mexico dance around two drummers

Picturing the Past: Indigenous Expressions in Colonial Mexico

Spring 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

See Also

Colonial Law

Dutch