What 1502 Portuguese map is one of the earliest to show Brazil's coast?

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The 1502 Portuguese map showing part of Brazil’s coast was the Cantino planisphere.

Also called the Cantino world map, it is a manuscript chart made by an unknown Portuguese cartographer and named for Alberto Cantino, an agent of the Duke of Ferrara. Cantino obtained it in Portugal and sent it to Italy in 1502, at a time when Portuguese geographic information was closely guarded. The map is now preserved at the Biblioteca Estense in Modena.

Its Brazilian coastline reflects information gathered after Pedro Álvares Cabral reached Brazil in 1500, along with later Portuguese exploration. The depiction is fragmentary and not geographically perfect, but it was remarkably valuable because it recorded new Atlantic discoveries while they were still fresh. It also shows African and Asian coasts with considerable detail and includes the Portuguese-Spanish division associated with the Treaty of Tordesillas.

The Cantino planisphere is not the same as the Fra Mauro, Vinland, or Piri Reis maps. The Fra Mauro map predates it, the Vinland map is associated with medieval Norse claims and modern controversy, and the Piri Reis map dates from 1513. The Cantino chart is especially important as the earliest surviving map of Portuguese discoveries in both the eastern and western oceans.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026

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