1587 / 1589 Ortelius Map of America (English Colonies in North America)

This is Abraham Ortelius' map of the Americas in an attractive, early example of the 1587 third plate, printed in 1589. It represents the state-of-the-art mapping of the Western Hemisphere during the initial period of European Colonization. It is significant as the first printed map to illustrate the Chesapeake Bay, predating John White's 1590 map of Virginia.

The First Mapping of the Virginia Colony

Nestled between Nova Francia in the north and La Floridain the south are new details revealing this as the first printed map to show the Chesapeake Bay, predating the 1590 White / De Bry America nunc pars, nunc Virginia. This iteration of Ortelius' map included an inlet in the vicinity of the Chesapeake, which did not appear on the earlier versions of this map or any other. Although the bay is not named, it appears within the region named Wingandekoa, which was the Native American word for the territory around the Chesapeake Bay, as reported by Sir Walter Raleigh's 1584 expedition. This knowledge almost certainly reached Ortelius from Jacob Cole, his nephew, who corresponded with his uncle while living in London. The surviving correspondence referred specifically to Wingandekoa, a placename that appeared on no map before this one.

Trimming Patagonia

The most obvious update over the two earlier plates is a correction of the 'Potato-shaped' bulge in the Chilean coast of South America, derived from Mercator's 1569 world map. The resulting, much more recognizable coastline may have been inspired by the report of new Pacific islands off the South American coast, necessitating a reassessment of the coastline. Absent from earlier versions, this third plate includes the islands of St. Nabor (Ambor) and S. Felix, sighted by Juan Férnandez in 1574 (here misdated 1572). It was likely the report of these islands that alerted Ortelius to errors in earlier mappings.

The west coast of North America also has been updated. The placename 'California' is a new addition. B. de los Primeros appears, and, in northern Mexico, Culiacan is newly named. In central Mexico, an entirely new river system appears. Many islands in the Pacific west of California also have been added. In the South Pacific, Ortelius has added the Solomon Islands.

The overall outline of the American continent is otherwise retained. The American Northeast is dominated by Nova Francia and the St. Lawrence, with new data from Cartier's voyages. The Strait of Magellan is shown, though Tierra del Fuego appears not as an island but as part of the speculative southern continent 'Terre Australis' extending all the way to New Guinea. The Pacific Ocean is optimistically narrower than is correct, with New Guinea appearing south of Quivira and the strait of Anian.

In Mexico and the Southwest, Coronado's placenames of Cevola (Cibola), Tiguex, and Quivira, all supposed kingdoms of gold, appear.

Ortelius' Sources

The number of place names appearing in Spanish suggests the bulk of Ortelius' finer details were derived from Spanish sources - itself a remarkable accomplishment, as the Spanish and Portuguese were famously reticent to publish their discoveries, particularly in the New World. These sources, naturally, are nameless - but the sharp detail of the parts of the Americas within the Spanish sphere gives the game away. The Pacific coast, Mexico, the Caribbean and the Gulf, and South America all reveal details from a source familiar with the Spanish journeys.

Zeno's Mark on the North

As was the case with Ortelius' world map and map of Scandinavia, this work includes the long-lived yet spurious cartography of the Venetian Nicolo Zeno the Younger. This can be seen in the upper-right-hand extreme of the map, in the imaginary islands of Frisland, Icaria, and Deogeo. Importantly, Zeno's placename 'Estotiland' appears on the Labrador coast. That name had been applied, on the original 1558 Zeno map, to a land depicted with only a partial coastline. Here, Estotiland is unambiguously portrayed as part of the American mainland. A believer in Zeno's concocted tale of his ancestors' arctic explorations would be led, by this map, to the conclusion that the Venetian's forbears had discovered America in the fourteenth century, well ahead of the Genoese.

Zeno's 1558 mapping of the north parts of the world came to Mercator and Ortelius via Girolamo Ruscell's 1561 Ptolemy. Through that conduit and its acceptance by authorities like Ortelius, Zeno's fraudulent islands would remain on maps of the North for over a century.

Elegant and Distinctive

In addition to the improvements of its geographical detail, the third plate of Ortelius' America benefitted aesthetically as well. Ortelius retained the garlanded, strapwork cartouche of earlier versions, the winged lions, and the vines gracing the corner panels. The stippled oceans, however, are here decorated with flotillas of ships, their profusion indicating the explosion of voyages during the sixteenth century.

Publication History and Census

This third plate of Americae first appeared in the 1587 French edition of the Theatrum, and remained in all subsequent editions. The wording of Ortelius' imprint - 'Ab. Ortelius delineab. Et excudeb. 1587.' - suggests that he engraved the map himself. The verso text conforms to the 1589 German edition of the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. The map appears on the market and is reasonably well represented in institutional collections; this 1589 edition is cataloged in only two examples in OCLC.