Juan de la Cosa, World Chart (1500)

Juan de la Cosa was a Spanish pilot and navigator who sailed to the Americas seven times, including on the first three of Columbus’s famous voyages. He likely created this map in 1500 for the Spanish crown, to highlight their newly discovered territories in the western hemisphere. The map is in two parts, the first representing the “Old World,” which included a rather accurate depiction of the Europe and West Africa, well charted by Portuguese explorers by that time, and a distorted depiction of the Indian Ocean and Far East, also typical for the time. However, the second part of the map, depicting the “New World,” is one of the first to show North and South America across the Atlantic Ocean. Scholars differ on whether the map shows the Americas as a separate landmass or attached to Asia, as Columbus believed, but there is evidence to indicate that de la Cosa challenged the assumption that Cuba was a part of Asia by the third Columbian voyage. The most notable part of this map is its accurate depiction of the geography  Caribbean islands, with which de la Cosa was intimately familiar. For a tour of this map, click here.  You can also view a Google Arts & Culture tour here.