Period

17th Century

Featured Items

Detail of an engraved map of Virginia and Maryland shows "Baltemore county," a compass rose, and labels in English.

Virginia and Maryland As it is planted and Inhabited this present Year 1670

Augustine Herrman
1673
Detail from an engraved, hand colored map shows vivid illustrations of celestial sphere with their constellations and zodiac signs around the sun. Labels in Dutch read "Taurus," "Orion," and "Saittarius."

The sea-atlas or the watter-world

Hendrick Doncker
1626-1699
Printed title page includes decorative border and text in English reading "The Whole Book of Psalmes Faithfully translated into English metre." Left side of the page shows manuscript notations.

The whole booke of Psalmes faithfully translated into English metre

1640
Detail of a printed book shows title of the book at the top of the page and the index with text in English.

Jewes in America. Part 1

Thomas Thorowgood
1652
Detail of hand colored, manuscript map shows rivers (outlined in green) and labels written in red ink. Near the large, red letters reading "Mor" there is a plantation notable for being labeled "Jews." Other plantations are labeled with surnames.

A discription of the coleny of Surranam in Guiana drawne in the year 1667

1667
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 a printed text shows full-page illustrations of tools for the preparation of hot chocolate.

Du Bon usage du thé, du caffé et du chocolat pour la preservation & pour la guerison des maladies.

Nicolas de Blegny
1687
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

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