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Imagining the West

 
  Tabula Nouarum Insularum, [1540]   [Sebastian Münster]
Tabula Nouarum Insularum …Occidentales & Indianas Uocant [Map of the New Islands… Called Western and Indian]
[Basel: Henricum Petrum, 1540]
NYPL, Humanities and Social Sciences Library, Map Division, Lawrence H. Slaughter Collection 766 		 
 
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In the 16th century, European wheeler-dealers wanted America not to be an obstacle on the way to Asia, and the earliest maps of the New World often reflect that hope of an easy passage to the wealth of the Orient. This 1540 map by Sebastian Münster, the first separate map of the entire North and South American landmass, imagines a clear, open waterway from Europe to Asia. In the narrow Pacific, Marco Polo's 7,448 islands are indicated, as is Zipangri [Japan], just off the coast of America.

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