This elegant woodcut was published in Paris to accompany the 1532 edition of Johann Huttich and Simon Grynaeus’s Novis Orbis Regionum. The map employs the double cordiform, or heart-like, projection that was adopted by Gerard Mercator for his famous world map of 1538.

The left half of this important map includes a small portion of North America with the place name "baccalar", referring to cod fish. The land mass is connected to the Asian continent, as it was in the Contarini-Rosselli and Ruysch maps. Columbus’s Caribbean and South American discoveries are shown; and, the names in Central America reflect the conquests of Cortés.

On the right half of the map, the word "America" appears on the South American continent. Adjacent to the southern tip of the continent, the name "Mare magellanicum" appears; this is one of the earliest assignments of that name. Much of this map section shows a large land mass at the pole, "Terra Australis" (Land of the south), recently discovered but not yet explored.

The border of the map is adorned with allegorical figures, and the French royal coat of arms is presented beneath the banner bearing the map’s title.

-- Dr. Seymour I. Schwartz, co-author of The Mapping of America and author of The French and Indian War, This Land is Your Land and The Mismapping of America