The Map Room
Every map in the house — 27 masterworks, five collections, all centuries out of copyright.
The curated sets
N 0° — THE WHOLE EARTH
The Great World Maps
1507
The Waldseemüller Map
America's birth certificate.
modified Ptolemaic
1502
The Cantino Planisphere
A state secret, smuggled out of Portugal.
1570
Typus Orbis Terrarum
The world map from the first modern atlas.
1569
Mercator's World Map
The projection that let sailors steer a straight line.
Mercator
17th century
Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis
The Dutch Golden Age at its most magnificent.
double hemisphere
1627
A New and Accurat Map of the World
The great English world map, ringed with wonders.
double hemisphere
1513
The Piri Reis Map
An Ottoman admiral charts the New World.
W 74° — LANDFALL
The Continents
c. 1617
The Americas
The New World, framed with its cities and peoples.
c. 1617
Africa
The continent, gilded and imagined.
c. 1617
Asia
The road to the riches of the East.
c. 1617
Europe
The old world, at the height of its confidence.
1663
New Holland (Australia)
The first printed glimpse of Australia.
1595
The North Pole
A black magnetic mountain at the top of the world.
E 35° — INTO THE PAST
Mappæ Mundi
c. 1300
The Hereford Mappa Mundi
The largest medieval map of the world.
east-up
1375
The Catalan Atlas
The most beautiful map of the Middle Ages.
1154
The Tabula Rogeriana
The world's finest map — drawn upside down.
south-up
c. 1450
The Fra Mauro Map
A monk's crowdsourced world, on the eve of discovery.
south-up
1402
The Kangnido
The Korean map that saw farther than the West.
c. 1200 copy
The Peutinger Table
The road map of the Roman Empire.
E 4° — THE DREAM
Cartographic Wonders
1537 (later editions)
Europa Regina
Europe as a crowned queen.
west-up
1583 (later editions)
Leo Belgicus
The Low Countries as a rampant lion.
1654
The Carte de Tendre
A map of the country of love.
1531
The Heart-Shaped World
The whole Earth, drawn as a heart.
cordiform (heart-shaped)
c. 1650
California as an Island
The most beautiful mistake in cartography.
E 12° — SKYWARD
