Copper engraving,original color, mm 340x470; italian text and number 9 on verso. From the 1612 edition. Good condition in very early color, partly oxidated like usual for the italian 1612 edition. A very early map of the Spanish empire in the New World, made up of 3 maps on one sheet, the largest showing central and South America (Peru); the second showing Florida and the southeast; and the third, Guastecan (Huasteca), a northeastern province of Mexico. The map of Florida is important as it is the first regional map of the southeastern section of North America. The map revealed little information on the interior of North America, but the details presented have been definitely linked with known features. The village of Aijx undoubtedly became known to the Spaniards as Ais, and the Mississippi, though distorted, appeared as the R.de S.Spiritu , the name given it by early Spanish explorers. Tascalisa lies on the map as closely as possible to where today's Tuscaloosa, Alabama is. The Chaves map published by Ortelius was, therefore, one of the earliest printed maps of the territory based on actual observations. Burden 57: "(La Florida) is one of the very few maps printed in the sixteenth century that was based upon original Spanish sources. They were very protective of their knowledge of the Americas, a considerable source of their wealth. The author of this map, Geronimo de Chaves, was the Cosmographer Royal to Philip II of Spain". The map of Florida is considered to be the first to show any interior detail of the present day United States, and was set the standard for mapping the region for the century to come. V.d.Broecke 15; Martin & Martin: Maps of Texas and the Southwest: The first printed map of the Florida region; Cumming, Southeast, p.12,#5.