Engraved Ostrich Egg Globe is Oldest to Depict the New World

Here's North America, folks--just two tiny islands surrounded by what must have seemed like endless ocean. Image credit: Washington Map Society The first known globe to include the New World was recently found at a London map fair---an impressive 500 year survival for it being engraved into ostrich eggs. According to analysis by an independent Belgian scholar, Stefaan Missinne, the globe not only predates the previous record holder---a globe made of copper alloy between 1504 and 1506, now on display at the New York Public Library---but the evidence suggests it was actually the model used to cast that previous record holder. The two globes are identical down to their smallest details, from the wave patterns on the ocean to the disproportionate size of continents. The handwriting is the same, and even the typos match up: "HISPANIS" instead of HISPANIA and "LIBIA INTEROIR" in place of LIBIA INTERIOR.