Cantino planisphere (1502), Biblioteca Estense, Modena, Italy. Wikimedia.

By the fifteenth century, the Portuguese had established forts and colonies on islands and along the rim of the Atlantic Ocean; other major European countries soon followed in step. An anonymous cartographer created this map, known as the Cantino Map, the earliest known map of European exploration in the New World, to depict these holdings and argue for the greatness of his native Portugal. Beyond its scientific and navigational value, the map is a luxury work of art featuring elaborate, hand-painted vignettes of Jerusalem, Venice, the Tower of Babel, and the Portuguese fortress of São Jorge da Mina (Elmina Castle) in West Africa.