Lorenz Fries, Oceani Occidentalis Seu Terrae Novae Tabula (The Admiral’s Map), 1541

A very nice example of the Lorenz Fries’s edition of Martin Waldseemuller’s “Admiral’s Map” of 1513. The map features a depiction of the Atlantic Ocean and the newly discovered lands of the Americas, referred to as “Terra Nova.”

The Waldseemuller map was the first printed atlas map to focus on the New World. It is preceded only by the small map of the Spanish Main by Peter Martyr in Seville, 1511, which is virtually unobtainable. Fries adds to the work of Waldseemuller with an inscription about Columbus not found in the 1513 version of the map and adds vignettes of Indians and a possum.

The map shows a continuous coastline between North and South America, with the lengthy east-west coastline of South America being the map’s single largest feature. In the Caribbean, the islands of Cuba (named Isabella Ins. after Queen Isabella of Spain), Hispaniola (Spgnoha), and Puerto Rico (Boriguem) are shown, along with numerous other islands. A Spanish flag is shown in Cuba. North America is plotted to beyond the mouth of the St. Lawrence; at the correct latitude of the St. Lawrence there is a river named Caninor, quite possibly the St. Lawrence.

This region had almost certainly been explored by various Bristol expeditions. Placenames are shown on the North American Coastline, primarily from Portuguese sources.

The depiction of Florida pre-dates any recorded European contact, as does the mapping of the Gulf of Mexico prior to Pineda’s voyage of 1519, suggesting Waldseemuller had access to the reports of unrecorded voyages prior to 1513. Both Waldseemuller and Fries credit Columbus in annotations on the map. Waldseemuller had previously credited Amerigo Vespucci with the discovery of America and was apparently trying to correct this error. In the text to his 1513 edition of Ptolemy, Waldseemuller refers to the Admiral as the source of the map. While it has been generally assumed that this is a reference to Columbus, it is much more likely that it references Cavieri’s map of 1505, which according to Henry Stevens had been sent out for engraving. A copy of the Cavieri exists in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.

Lorenz Fries’s work was of great importance. Among his most important accomplishments, it was his sketch of the original 1507 Waldseemuller World Map which was copied by Peter Apian in Apian’s World Map of 1520, which for more than 100 years was believed to be the oldest surviving map to name America, prior to the re-discovery of the original 1507 Waldseemuller map at the beginning of the 20th Century.

Lorenz (Laurent) Fries was born in Alsace in about 1490. He studied medicine, apparently spending time at the universities of Pavia, Piacenza, Montpellier and Vienna. After completing his education, Fries worked as a physician in several places, before settling in Strassburg, in about 1519. While in Strassburg, Fries met the Strasbourg printer and publisher Johann Grüninger, an associate of the St. Die group of scholars formed by, among others, Walter Lud, Martin Ringmann and Martin Waldseemuller.