Munster World Map 1540

MUNSTER, Sebastian (1489-1552).
La Table des Isles Neufues, Lesquelles on Appelle Isles d'Occident & d'Indie pour Diuers Regardz.
Engraved map from Ptolemy's Geographica.
Basel:1540 (French Text, State 11, 1568).
11 1/2" x 15" sheet, 23" x 26 1/2" framed.
This map of the New World is often credited with popularizing the name America due to the popularity of Munster's Cosmographia and the numerous editions published in the sixteenth century. The influence of Marco Polo's 13th century explorations in Asia are evident with the 7448 islands in the North Pacific and Zipangri (Japan) shown only a short distance off the western coast of North America. The North American continent is very oddly shaped without a California landmass and the eastern region is nearly bisected by a body of water, known as the Sea of Verrazzano. (Burden, 12 & Plate 18 in Schwartz / Ehrenberg "The Mapping of America".)