world map

first printed map to show the discoveries of the Portuguese along the coast of Africa, the first on which India is drawn as a triangular projection from the south coast of Asia, and the first map showing Greenland as an island and not connected to Europe.

The voyages of Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, and Amerigo Vespucci dramatically changed the world map. One of the earliest printed maps to incorporate this new world view was Johann Ruysch's map which is found in the 1507 reprinting of the 1490 Rome edition of Ptolemy's Geographia, both of which are represented in the division. (Atlas Collection)