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1572 (dated)
1 : 12900000
Description
This is a scarce and important 1571 map of the world by Benedict Arias Montanus. Finely engraved and prepared for the eight-volume
Plantin Polyglot Bible, this elegant map was intended to bring the new discoveries of the Americas into a coherent religious context. It further established the Native American population as Hebrew descendants of Noah, and thus Children of God whom the dedicatee of the
Polyglot, Philip II of Spain, was obliged to convert. Although its alleged revelations of Australian geography have long been the map s
cause celebre, these are overshadowed by the map s actual significance as a cartographic justification of Spanish Imperialism.