The map itself is undated, but there are clues it was created in 1491: It quotes a book published that year, and Christopher Columbus may have consulted the map (or a copy) before his great voyage.

Photograph by AKG/Album The journeys of 15th- and 16th-century European explorers are depicted on Cantino’s map including Vasco da Gama’s first voyage in search of a sea route to India (1497 ...