Mapping the New Discoveries

Diego Gutiérrez, compiler
(active 1554-1570)
Hieronymous Cock, engraver
(1510-ca.1570)
Americae sive quartae orbis partis
nova et exactissima descriptio.
[Antwerp]: 1562
Geography & Map Division

For sixteenth-century Europeans, the most authoritative information about the Americas was obtained from returning explorers and navigators. Each pilot who accompanied a Spanish exploring expedition had to deposit the logs and charts with the Casa de Contratación (Board of Trade) in Seville, which became the repository for Spanish travel information about the Americas. This large map, one of only two existing copies, was compiled by Diego Gutiérrez--a chart and instrument maker and pilot who worked for the board. The map provided current information about the people, settlements, and other geographical features of the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of North America and all of Central and South America.