Nueva Hispania Tabula Nova

Creator

• Giacomo Gastaldi

Preview

Identifier

20112421

Description

Venetian Giacomo Gastaldi’s map Nueva Hispania Tabula Nova for his 1548 edition of Ptolemy’s Geography was one of the most important early printed maps to show the area that became Texas. It was the first printed map to focus on New Spain and the first map of the area to be printed by the new copperplate engraving method which would dominate the map trade for more than two and a half centuries. The place names on the highly influential map reflected the latest discoveries in the region, including the explorations of Pineda, Cabeza de Vaca, DeSoto and Moscosso. The “R[io]. Spiritu Santu” (Mississippi River) appears. California is shown as a peninsula -- one of the earliest depictions of California on a printed map (preceded on a printed world map by Sebastian Cabot in1544). The “R[io]. Tontonteanc” is either the Gila or the Colorado River. Florida and Cuba are named. The Yucatan peninsula appears as an island, which would later be corrected by fellow Venetian Girolamo Ruscelli's map of 1561, which otherwise is quite derivative. Gastaldi’s map was arguably the best printed map of the southwest dating from the mid16th century and his maps for Ptolemy’s Geography made him one of the most influential mapmakers of this period – a time when Italians still dominated European map printing. Not until 1570, with the publication of Abraham Ortelius’ Theatrum Orbis Terrarum in Antwerp did this begin to change, and not until 1597, with Cornelis Wytfliet’s map of New Spain, would there be a better regional representation on a printed map. [Gift of Jack Franke]

Archival Date

1548

Location

GA 50/47

Collection Name

Cartographic Connections

Collection Number

2019-403

Publisher

University of Texas at Arlington Libraries

Original Format

Map

File Format

JPG

Rights

Any use of content downloaded or printed from this site is limited to non-commercial personal or educational use, including fair use as directed by U.S. copyright laws. For more information or for reproduction requests, please contact Special Collections

Subjects

New Spain; Texas; Mexico; Florida; Cuba

Item Type

image