Description des Indes Occidentales, qu’on appelle aujourdhuy le Nouvelle Monde

Attribution:

Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas

Date:

1622

Description:

Despite earlier accounts that recognized California as a peninsula, the 1622 publication of Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas’ Descripción de las Indias Occidentales (1601) included the first map of California as an island in an inset map of the Americas. Published alongside other important works on the circumnavigation of the globe and histories of the Americas, the engraved title page to Herrera’s work includes depictions from Indigenous codices of various Mexica deities, a temple, and Acamapichtli, the first ruler (tlatoani) of Mexico-Tenochtitlan.

Bib. Reference:

Amsterdam: Chez M. Colin

Bancroft call number:

f E141.H53

Digital image courtesy of:

Abe Books