A new exhibit at the Tampa Bay History Center will reveal a rare map that is thought to be the first to include Florida.
Hernán Cortés wrote a lengthy letter to Spain’s King Charles V, following his conquest of the Aztec Empire, in 1522, explaining his actions. This letter and a map were printed and bound in book form in Germany, two years later.
The map represents two great achievements in New World cartography. It is the first map to show any city in North America (the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlán).
The second feature on the map is that it is the earliest printed map with the name Florida and the first accurate map of the Gulf of Mexico.
The rare map, and book, will be unveiled to the public for the first time, in Florida, in a new exhibit called “Mapping the American Sea: A Cartographic History of the Gulf of Mexico.”
The exhibit opens August 3, at the Tampa Bay History Center on Water Street.
Purchase tickets here.
www.TampaBayHistoryCenter.org.