The Fries map of the New World


Martin Waldseemüller / Lorenz Fries, 1522 (1535) :
Oceani Occidentalis Seu Terrae Novae Tabula. Excellent. 29 x 38 cm

$14,000.

Lorenz Fries' re-cutting and emendation of the 1513 Waldseemuller “Terre Nove.”

The Waldseemüller prototype was the first printed atlas map specifically devoted to the New World. As an attempt to specifically chart the New World, this work is preceded only by the small map of the Spanish Main done by Peter Martyr in Seville, 1511, known in only a handful of extant copies. Waldseemuller’s is the first map of specifically of America to chart this full latitudinal breadth, and the first to appear in an atlas.

Fries has taken the Waldseemuller map, added an inscription about Columbus not found on the 1513 version, and added vignettes of Indians and a possum, which he borrowed from a world map Waldseemuller had made in the interim, in 1516. Fries also made the latitude markings more legible, abandoning Waldseemuller's ‘5’s that looked like ‘4’s.

The most interesting difference between the Waldseemuller and Fries renderings is that Fries revives Columbus’ use of Parias for North America, using it to designate all of the mainland above the Caribbean, rather than in South America.

The map charts a continuous coastline between North and South America, with the shoulder of South America being the map's single largest feature. The continent is depicted south to approximately where the mouth of the Rio de la Plata lies. In the Spanish Main are the islands of Cuba, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico, among others. The Spanish standard is planted in Cuba.

Extending south from North America is a peninsula which is generally presumed to be Florida; Spanish expeditions probably sighted the peninsula when veering north from the Caribbean to catch favorable winds for their return to Europe. It is conceivable, as some historians have suggested, that this North American geography ultimately derives from mappings of India, having been transplanted from earlier prototypes which dealt with North America as the eastern extremities of Asia. Were this to be correct, what appears to be the Florida peninsula would then in fact probably be a Ptolemaic depiction of Southern Asia.

Continuing north, North America is plotted to beyond the mouth of the St. Lawrence; at the correct latitude of the St. Lawrence there is a river named Caninor, quite possibly the St. Lawrence. This region had almost certainly been already explored by various Bristol expeditions.