Ramusio (1485-1557) was a Venetian publisher who compiled a great collection of voyages and Gastaldi (ca.1500-ca.1565) made a number of the maps which accompany this work. This woodcut of the Western Hemisphere is the first published map to show placenames given by the explorer Francisco Coronado, names such as Axa, Cicuich, Cucho, Quivira and Tiguas. The Coronado expedition wandered through the Southwest in 1540 searching for the "vast riches" mentioned in reports by Cabeza de Vaca and Fr. Marcos de Niza. On this map, as on earlier Gastaldi maps, North America and Asia are joined and Baja California is correctly shown as a peninsula. The Gulf of California is labeled "Mar Vermiglio".
