Age of Discovery
There had been many voyages of discovery immediately before Ruysch created his map :
- Dias’ rounding of the horn of Africa (1487)
- the rediscovery of Newfoundland by John Cabot (1497) (rediscovery, as the Norse had been to Newfoundland centuries before and settled there)
- Vasco da Gama’s travel to India (1499)
- the explorations of the Caribbean and South America by Columbus (1492-93, 1493-94, 1498, 1502-04)
- visits to the Caribbean and South America by Vespucci (1499, 1501-02)
Although there had been maps created after these voyages, such as Juan de la Cosa’s map of the world in 1500 (based on Columbus' second voyage) and the Cantino world map (circa 1502), the information on these maps was closely held and guarded as state secrets. Often a limited number of copies were made.
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