All maps ©Sterling Memorial Library Map Collection.

Map of the world, Ruysch, 1507

Johannes Ruysch’s world map is only the third printed map known that attempts to depict the New World. The section here has Spagnola (Hispaniola) at the center; a scroll discreetly covers the unknown western territories of Cuba. To the south is the coast of South America.

Directly north of Spagnola are Terra Nova (Newfoundland) and Gruenlant (Greenland). In a visual expression of the Columbus fallacy, Ruysch has made both of these regions parts of Asia. On the landmass that extends west and southwest of Terra Nova, he has labels reading “Tebet,” “Cathaya,” and even “Gog” and “Magog”—lands of biblical prophecy that medieval Europeans often located in central Asia.