Second state of Salamanca’s cordiform map of the world, published by Antonio Lafreri, and based on Gerard Mercator’s world map of 1538.

The map was first published by Antonio Salamanca in around 1550 and is a faithful copy of Gerard Mercator’s double-cordiform world map published in 1538. Mercator’s map took as its template Oronce Fine’s double cordiform map of circa 1531. Mercator added several novel and original features. For the first time the name America is applied to both North and South America, and both parts of the New World are unambiguously linked as one continent. Unlike many of Mercator’s predecessors, the contents of Asia and America are shown separated. North America is said to have been conquered by Spain in 1530; Florida is marked and the mouth of the Hudson River, discovered by Verrazzano in 1524 is marked, although no mention of the later voyages of Jacques Cartier, 1534 and 1535, are made. A large polar ice cap is shown at the north pole.

In South America, the River Plate is shown, as is Peru which is said to be a ‘highly civilised and rich country’; to the south is Patagonia referenced here as the ‘region of giants’. Below Patagonia the Straits of Magellan are named, dividing South America from the large Antarctic continent. As for the rest of the geographical information on the map, little has changed from previous works, as much of the latest information relating to India and Southeast Asia was closely guarded by the Portuguese.
T
he present map is the second state of the work, with Lafreri’s name replacing that of Salamanca in the imprint. Lafreri is know to have taken control of the publishing business in 1563, and so the editions are believed to date from around that time.