The atlas was transferred to the Library of Congress from the U.S. War Department in 1929. Pacific Coast 5. This Portuguese atlas of Sri Lanka contains precise, delicate pen drawings of cities, ports, fortifications, pagodas, and a map of the island. Map was prepared during the Portuguese occupation that ended in 1658. Map is oriented with east at top.
Volume is bound in vellum.
Note describing atlas is attached. 10 colored charts. This is a sumptuous well-executed Venetian illuminated manuscript atlas which includes maps reflecting the latest geographic knowledge as observed primarily by Spanish and Portuguese explorers in the first half of the sixteenth century. In a mere fifty years following Columbus' historic voyage, new information based on direct and fresh observation was rapidly changing the European vision of the world. Sheet 5 shows the Gulf of California discovered in 1539, Yucatan as an island, and partial segments of the east and west coasts of South America.