24 A HISTORY OF AMERICA IN 100 MAPS
THE HEMISPHERE TAKES SHAPE
By 1540 European geographers and mapmakers
acknowledged that the landmasses of the western
hemisphere were separate from Asia. Though
debate persisted as to whether a narrow land bridge
connected the two, this geographical consensus
marked a shift toward a more accurate depiction of
the Americas. This consensus is apparent in Sebastian
Münster’s “Novae Insulae,” the first separate map
of the western hemisphere. Münster was a German
scholar at the University of Basel who closely followed
the voyages of exploration. In 1540 he issued Universal
Geography, with dozens of maps drawn from the
Ptolemaic world as well as from modern geographical
discoveries. With its wide circulation, the volume
became one of the most accessible geographical
pictures of the New World at the time.
As the map shows, contemporary understandings
of North and South America remained highly fluid.
Münster outlined a continuous coastline for the
Americas, and gave them a somewhat recognizable
shape. Throughout the map, older knowledge
appears alongside newer discoveries. At the western
edge of the map is a depiction of “Zipangri” (Japan)
and the “7448” islands derived directly from the
narratives of Marco Polo. Directly south, though, we
see the oversized Victoria at sea, the sole surviving
ship in Ferdinand Magellan’s circumnavigation of
the globe from 1519 to 1522. The Straits of Magellan
are marked at the southern tip of the map, while
further up the coast a fantastical depiction of
cannibalism dominates what is now Brazil. To the
northeast Münster identifies a fully enclosed Gulf of
Mexico near Temistitan (Tenochtitlan), an explicit
acknowledgment of the expeditions (and invasions)
of Alonzo Álvarez Pineda and Hernán Cortés.
The discovery of an enclosed gulf ended the
hope of a navigable passage through Mexico to the
Pacific. Most of these hopes centered on Mexico,
the Caribbean, and South America, which meant
that areas further north were largely left unexplored.
Once the Gulf of Mexico was understood to offer no
passage, Europeans began to pin their fantasies of a
passage to the Far East on North America. Münster’s
map reflects that shift of attention. The eastern coast
of the North America bore some resemblance to its
actual geographical contour, thanks to Giovanni da
Verrazzano’s explorations of the Atlantic coast on
behalf of the French king in 1524. Like most explorers,
Sebastian Münster, “Novae Insulae
XVII Nova Tabula,” 1540