Gerard Mercator's lost wall map of the Americas, 1569

by: Philip D. Burden

The author, who works as a map and print dealer in Hertfordshire, is currently compiling a book to be titled The mapping of North America: a list of the printed maps 1511- 1670.

While doing some research for my proposed book at the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division in Washington DC, James Flatness [1] brought to my attention an unidentified map of the western half of South America. This copperplate engraved map had been in the Geography and Map Division of the Library since at least 1965.

The evidence points heavily towards this sheet being part of Gerard Mercator's wall map of the Americas and, although further study could shed more light on it, its discovery could not have been more timely in the year marking the 400th anniversary of Mercator's death.

Segment Gerard Mercator's wall map of Americas 1569
The newly discovered segment of Gerard Mercator's wall map of the Americas. (By courtesy of the Library of Congress)

The map, which measures 510 x 395mm. (approx. 20 x 15.5 in.), is linen backed and lacks a title. From its format it appears to have had bordering sheets on three sides. I suggest this would form a six-sheet map, two rows of three, covering the entire American continent and measuring some 1020 x 1185mm. (approx. 40 x 46 in.). It is feasible that it could be part of an unrecorded world map but a study of the longitudinal scale used would mean that it would be approximately 1020 x 2750mm., proportions which seem unusual. I therefore believe that this is part of a previously undiscovered wall map of the Americas.

The next question is by whom? The features of the Strait of Magellan and the bulge to the west coast of South America would date the map between the late 1560s and early 1580s. Cartographically it is classic Gerard Mercator following his world map of 1569. [2] The desire to identify this as his lost wall map of America, recorded in the Plantin Press records of the day, is irresistible. No other lost maps of the period are known.

Diagram suggesting the layout of the six-sheet map
A diagram by the author suggesting the layout of the full six-sheet map; the surviving segment being the middle one in the lower row.

Some confusion is caused, however, by the fact that two different wall maps by Mercator appear to be mentioned. There are references in the Plantin records, [3] appearing as late as 1593, to a fifteen-sheet map of America. This would not seem to refer to this item unless it later included side panels, which would, however, make it one of the earliest to do so. The fact that Michael Mercator's single-sheet map of America [4], published in 1595, still contains the bulk of this out-dated geography supports the existence of only one wall map by his grandfather: the inclusion of a bulge to the southwest coast of South America had by then been dropped by most of the cartographers of northern Europe.

The first references made to a map of the Americas by Mercator in the Plantin records [5] appear in December 1569. Curiously though, in correspondence to Abraham Ortelius on May 9, 1572 [6] Mercator says he "hopes that he may himself eventually make use of the results of Ortelius' labour and studies for the representation of the New India."

The best explanation for this is that he was updating the map, which arguably corresponds with the evidence on the single-sheet located. Many place names along the coast appear in a thicker engraved line, indicating the use of a different burin [7]; place names also appear over the dots representing the sea. What appears to be the original nomenclature is largely free of them. A close inspection of the calligraphy on the map section itself reveals numerous similarities with the famous Mercator italic or chancery script [8] giving further support to the attribution. The possible two states could therefore be identified as follows:-
State 1, 1569. Lacking many place names on the west coast of South America.
State 2, c.1573. With additional nomenclature, the most noticeable of which is possibly the naming of the two islands lying at the Tropic of Capricorn, S. Felicis and S Nabor.

In 1923 further proof of the six-sheet map's existence was discovered by Roberto Almagià [9] who found a separately-engraved frontispiece for a wall map of America. [10] It is entitled "AMERICA Sive India Noua Gerardi Mercatoris Illustrissimi Ducis Iuli... Cosmographi Duysburgi Typis Aeneis" and is kept at the Biblioteca Universitaria Allesandrina, Rome. The style of the cartouche on this frontispiece is similar to that on the newly-discovered segment. The Rome frontispiece was found in a folio atlas that originally contained five wall maps, all with accompanying title sheets. These were Mercator's map of the Americas, his 1564 map of the British Isles (the only one still remaining today), his world map of 1569, and his maps of Europe, 1554, and the Holy Land, 1537. The border design on the newly- found segment bears a resemblance to that on Mercator's map of the Holy Land. [11] The legend in the cartouche briefly describes South America as witnessed by the famous André Thevet. The year 1569 when the Americas map appeared also marks the approximate publication date of Giovanni Francesco Camocio's wall map of America published in Venice. [12]

References:

Head of Acquisitions, Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress.
R. Shirley, The mapping of the world: early printed maps 1472-1700. Entry 119. (London: Holland Press, 1983; reprinted in 1993).
Jan Denuce, Oud-Nederlansche kaartmakers in betrekking mit Plantijn (Antwerp and The Hague: 1912-13)I p.24; II pp.162-63, 287-88, 317-18, 321-33.
"America sive India Nova" in third volume of Atlantis pars Altera.
See Ref.3.
See J.H. Hessels, Abrahami Ortelii et virorum eruditorum ad eundem Epistulae (Cambridge: 1887, reprinted Osnabruck, 1969) no. 38.
The tool used to engrave in metal.
See A.S. Osley, "Calligraphy — an aid to cartography," in Imago Mundi 24, pp.65-75.
R. Almagià, The Geographical Journal, July 1923, pp.33-35.
R. Karrow Jr., Mapmakers of the sixteenth century and their maps (Chicago: Speculum Orbis Press, 1993) p.376-406, particularly p.393, plate 56.18 illustrates the separate title page.
G. Schilder, Monumenta Cartographica Neerlandica III (Amsterdam, 1990) p.115.
The map is untitled and survives in four examples of differing states. G. Caraci, Tabulae Geographicae Vetutiores Vol.I (Florence: Lange, 1926) pp.37-48.

COPYRIGHT September 1994 Philip D. Burden, All rights reserved.
No portion of this article nor the accompanying illustrations can or may be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.

The Mapping of North America - Philip Burden

This definitive work has since its publication in 1996 become the standard source of reference material on the subject. The book comprehensively describes for the first time all known, and many previously unrecorded, printed maps depicting any part of North America. Each one is accompanied by an illustration.

Arranged chronologically, the work is complemented by a full bibliography, and various appendices and charts including a title index and a list of first depictions in maps. The first volume covered the beginning to the year 1670. The second volume due for publication early in 2007 covers the period from 1671 to 1700, a very busy period in the cartographic history of North America.

The Mapping of North America was a finalist in the ILAB international Bibliography Prize in 1998.