AMERICAS IN GENERAL
This introduces the fourth part of ‘Americae’ based on the text from Girolamo Benzoni’s ‘La Historia del Mondo Nuovo’ (ref. 3). In particular, it deals with the voyages of Columbus whose three ships are shown below, sailing to America in 1492. The Indians he encountered in the West Indies, along with the flora of the New World, decoratively surround the title panel.
Title Page
(30.1x21.1) to Part IV(g), first published in 1594 with German or Latin text: 
http://www.infoamerica.org/museo/expo_bry/bryxiii/bryxiii01.htm
[010] Map: ‘Americae Sive Novus Orbis’
This map is based on the Western Hemisphere half of the Plancius world-map, first published in 1590, with a few minor alterations to the geography and nomenclature and an entirely different border. De Bry did not make any attempt to incorporate the geography of the maps published in the first three parts of the Grands Voyages, particularly the Virginia map [144] and the Florida map [098], both of which are cartographically important. He did, however, replace the decorative background to the Plancius world map with full-length portraits of the four men who were thought at the time to be key to the discovery and exploration of the Americas. Each of these is set against a maritime background in the four corners and shows: ‘Christophorus Columbus, Genuensis 1492’, ‘Americus Vesputus, Florentinus 1497’, ‘1519 Magellanus’ and ‘1526 Franciscus Pisard’, viz. Columbus, Vespucci, Magellan and Pizarro.
Map
(32.7x39.7), from Part VI(g), published in 1596 with Latin text, and in 1597
with German text. Also from Part XII(g), published in 1623 with German text and
1624 with Latin text:
http://www.civilization.ca/vmnf/cartes/small4-e.htm
[094] Map: ‘America Noviter Delineata’
The source of this map is often thought to be 1631 map by Hondius, with the same title, yet this, almost identical, map first appeared in print the previous year, with differences mainly in the decorations and cartouche. It gives a good indication of the extent of geographical knowledge at the time, which generally was confined to the coastal regions and rivers. It has detailed inset of the South Pole: ‘Terra Australis Incognita’ and the North Pole: ‘Borealiores Americæ …’ and the sea areas are embellished with sailing ships and sea monsters.
Map 1
(35.3x44.3), from Part XIV(g), first published in 1630 with German text and
Part XIII(g) in 1634 with Latin text:
The End of this Geographical Category