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Mexico in 44 historical maps: 1520-2018 (134 pages). The origin of the name Mexico (Mexihca) is uncertain. Most likely it means “navel of the moon”, based on Nahuatl metztli (moon) and xictli (navel).+ It may also be derived from Mexihco, the name of the ancient Aztec capital, given by the Spanish colonists. At the end of the 16th century and early 17th century the name Mexico was also used on maps to identify large parts of present day United States. The Latin name Nova Hispania (New Spain) was used for a smaller region centred around the present-day capital Mexico City. On the world map of Ribero (1527) the eastern coastline of present-day Mexico is depicted remarkably accurate. On the atlas maps made by the Dieppe school (1547) the western coastline is also shown. One of the first separately engraved maps of Mexico was made by Italian cartographers in 1561. Numerous copies of other European cartographers would follow. +Nahuatl is a language spoken by the native inhabitants of Mexico

United States in 42 historical maps: 1507-2018 (130 pages). The United States of America (USA) are named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci. The name America was introduced by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemuller. He wrongly assumed that Amerigo Vespucci - and not Columbus – had been the first European who discovered the new western continent. The name appeared for the first time on his famous world map published in 1507. The printed wall map was lost for a long time; the only survived copy was found in Schloss Wolfegg, in southern Germany in 1901. The map, also called the “birth-certificate of America”, was purchased by the Library of Congress in 2003. The Eastern coastline of (Northern) America was drawn much more accurate on the world map of Ribero in 1527. The first separately printed map of the new continent (the Americas) was included in Sebastian Munster’s encyclopedia (1540 onwards). The first separate maps covering the area of present day USA – mostly the eastern part - appeared at the end of the 17th century. The name United States of America was introduced after their independence from the UK in 1776.

The Pacific Ocean in 38 historical maps: 1527-2018 (120 pages) The (eastern) Pacific was first sighted by Europeans in the early 16th century when Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama in 1513 and discovered the great “southern sea” which he named Mar del Sur (in Spanish). But it was Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan who gave this largest ocean in 1521 its current name: Mare Pacifico (Pacific Ocean). The name was chosen because of the apparent stillness of the sea. Magellan was the first explorer who circumnavigated the globe and charted the real extension of the Pacific Ocean. The world map of Diego Ribero (1527) was the first map showing the vastness of the Pacific Ocean. The first printed separate maps of the Pacific Ocean appeared at the end of the 16th century. Numerous maps followed in the 17th century, most of them made by Dutch cartographers in service of the VOC (Dutch East Indies Company).