# Carta Universal de Juan de la Cosa > Juan de la Cosa - 1500, per its own legend; a substantial minority of cartographic historians argue the surviving sheet is a copy or composite completed after 1500, in some readings as late as 1508-1509 (see narrative) > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/juan-de-la-cosa/juan-de-la-cosa-map-museo-naval/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-09-18 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Juan de la Cosa - **Date:** 1500, per its own legend; a substantial minority of cartographic historians argue the surviving sheet is a copy or composite completed after 1500, in some readings as late as 1508-1509 (see narrative) - **Medium:** Ink and watercolor pigment on two joined sheets of parchment (calfskin), sewn onto a canvas backing - **Dimensions:** 93 x 183 cm per the most detailed published Spanish scholarship (Martin-Meras Verdejo, 2000); commonly given as 96 x 183 cm in English-language sources, with the parchment's irregular edge reaching about 186 cm at its widest point - **Object type:** Map - **Period:** Castilian, Age of Discovery, circa 1500 - **Current location:** Museo Naval, Madrid - **Attribution:** disputed ## Summary Drawn in 1500 by a Castilian pilot who had crossed the Atlantic with Columbus twice and charted the coast of northern South America himself, this parchment chart is the earliest surviving European map to show any part of the Americas from direct exploration rather than theory. Its correct outline of Cuba as an island, drawn by a man who had sworn six years earlier that Cuba was part of Asia, is the single most argued-over detail in a genuine, unresolved scholarly dispute over whether the surviving sheet is de la Cosa's own 1500 original or a later copy retouched by another hand.The chart vanished from the documentary record for roughly three centuries after 1514 and resurfaced in a Paris shop, bought in 1832 by Baron Walckenaer and identified as historically significant that same spring by Alexander von Humboldt. Spain bought it back at Walckenaer's 1853 estate sale for 4,321 francs, and it has been the Museo Naval's signature holding in Madrid ever since, interrupted only by a wartime evacuation to France, Catalonia, and Geneva between 1936 and 1939.Its maker did not survive it by long. Juan de la Cosa, who had sailed with Columbus, Ojeda, and Vespucci, died at Turbaco, near Cartagena, on 28 February 1510, struck by poisoned arrows during a landing he had personally advised against. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **1500-1503** Juan de la Cosa `[documented]` (creation) The chart's legend states it was made by Juan de la Cosa at the port of Santa Maria in 1500. In 1503 de la Cosa presented two sea charts of the Indies to Ferdinand and Isabella at Segovia; whether one of the two was this exact sheet, or an updated version of the same underlying chart, is not established. - **1503-1514** Bishop Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca, administrator of the Indies `[documented]` (custody) The two charts presented in 1503 are thought to have passed into Fonseca's keeping. The chronicler Pedro Martir de Angleria recorded examining charts by de la Cosa in Fonseca's office in a text dated 4 December 1514. - **1514-1832** Unknown `[unknown]` (gap) No document places the chart anywhere for roughly three centuries. It resurfaces already in commercial hands in a Paris shop. How it left Spain, and whether that departure was lawful, is not documented; a 2024 article by Luisa Martin-Meras Verdejo proposes it amounted to a theft from a Spanish archive, a recent hypothesis not yet independently confirmed by other historians in the sources consulted. - **1832-1852** Baron Charles Athanase Walckenaer, Paris `[documented]` (purchase and scholarly identification) Purchased from a Paris dealer early in 1832. Shown that same spring to Alexander von Humboldt, who was the first to publicize the chart's significance. Ramon de la Sagra published its American portion in 1837; the Viscount of Santarem reproduced its African portion in 1842. - **1852-1853** Estate of Baron Walckenaer, sold at auction `[documented]` (auction) Walckenaer died in 1852 and his library went to auction. Ramon de la Sagra alerted the Spanish Ministry of Marine, which authorized him to bid for Spain. Spain won the chart for 4,321 francs. - **1853-1936** Museo Naval, Madrid `[documented]` (acquisition and display) Entered the Museo Naval's Sala de Descubrimientos in 1853 and has been the museum's central exhibit since. - **1936-1939** Museo Naval collection, evacuated with Spain's Tesoro Artistico `[documented]` (wartime evacuation) Evacuated from Madrid to Valencia in November 1936 during the Spanish Civil War, following the Republican government, then to Barcelona, then Girona province, then in February 1939 to the League of Nations headquarters in Geneva. After the war the League handed the collection to the Franco government, and the chart returned to the Museo Naval on 3 June 1939. A 2024 study by Luisa Martin-Meras Verdejo treats this as the second of two departures from Spain in the chart's history. - **1939-present** Museo Naval, Madrid `[documented]` (permanent display) On permanent exhibition since its 1939 return, never restored. A handmade facsimile by the museum's own cartographer, Juan Pedro Suarez Davila, substituted for the original on display from 1988 to 1992. The Factum Foundation produced a new elevated-print facsimile in 2021 using a Lucida 3D scanner, exhibited at the Spanish Gallery in Bishop Auckland; whether the Museo Naval has since substituted this or any facsimile for the original on permanent display is not confirmed in the sources consulted. ## Auction results Hammer and buyer's premium are stated separately. Where a source conflates them this record says so. - **1852-1853** Estate sale of the library of Baron Charles Athanase Walckenaer, Paris (the specific auction house is not named in the sources consulted), - Estimate: Not documented - Hammer: 4,321 francs - With premium: Not specified; sources do not distinguish a hammer price from an all-in price for this sale - Ramon de la Sagra bid for Spain's Ministry of Marine after alerting it to the sale. This is the only recorded sale of the chart since it left Bishop Fonseca's custody in the early sixteenth century; it has not been sold at auction since entering the Museo Naval in 1853. ## Open questions - Is the surviving sheet Juan de la Cosa's own 1500 original, a later copy of a lost original, or a de la Cosa sketch completed by another cartographer, as Hugo O'Donnell has argued? A century of argument over Cuba's coastline and the state of the New World toponyms has not settled it. - Does the Museo Naval hold a modern accession or inventory number for the chart internally? None is quoted in any source consulted for this record. - How did the chart leave Spain and reach a Paris shop before Baron Walckenaer's 1832 purchase? Three centuries pass between Pedro Martir's 1514 sighting and the 1832 resurfacing with no document placing the chart anywhere. Luisa Martin-Meras's 2024 article proposes a theft; whether other historians accept that thesis is not yet established. - What exactly happened to the chart between its November 1936 evacuation from Madrid and its 3 June 1939 return, beyond the broad outline of Valencia, Barcelona, Girona province, and Geneva? - Did the 1499-1500 Ojeda-Vespucci expedition, on which de la Cosa served as chief pilot, return in November 1499 or June 1500? The chart's completion window depends in part on which date is correct. - Did Rodrigo de Bastidas's expedition, de la Cosa's next voyage after the chart, depart in late 1500 or mid-1501? Sources disagree, and the usual dating of the chart to summer or autumn 1500 assumes the earlier figure. - Has the Museo Naval acted on reported plans to substitute the Factum Foundation's 2021 facsimile for the original on permanent display, as it did between 1988 and 1992 with a different handmade copy? No source consulted confirms this has happened. ## Sources - [1] Wikipedia (Spanish), 'Mapa de Juan de la Cosa', a featured article (Articulo bueno) consolidating and citing Martin-Meras Verdejo (2000), Cerezo Martinez (1989, 1993, 1994), Nunn (1934), Roukema (1959), Davies (1976), Alvarez (2003), Manzano Manzano (1988), Verlinden and Perez Embid (2006), Hugo O'Donnell, Elkhadem et al. (1992), Rivero Dominguez (2003), and Martin-Meras Verdejo's 2024 article on the chart's two departures from Spain. Flagged for replacement with the primary journal articles and Martin-Meras Verdejo's monograph directly. - [2] Wikipedia (English), 'Map of Juan de la Cosa'. Tertiary source, flagged for replacement with primary scholarship. - [3] Wikipedia (English), 'Juan de la Cosa'. Tertiary source, flagged for replacement with a scholarly biography. - [4] Factum Foundation, 'The Map of Juan de la Cosa', on the 2021 digitisation and facsimile made for the Spanish Gallery, Bishop Auckland. - [5] Wikipedia (English), 'Naval Museum of Madrid'. Tertiary source, cited only for the chart's status as the museum's signature permanent-display holding. - [6] Alida C. Metcalf, 'Color Plate 4: Juan de la Cosa, Carta Universal, 1500', Mapping an Atlantic World, Rice University. - [7] Historia del Nuevo Mundo, 'Juan de la Cosa, first cartographer of America'. - [8] Historia del Nuevo Mundo, 'Ojeda leaves for Uraba, the governorate that would never govern'. - [9] Wikipedia (English), 'Alonso de Ojeda'. Tertiary source, cited for the chronology of Ojeda's voyages with de la Cosa. - [10] New World Encyclopedia, 'Juan de la Cosa'. Tertiary source, the only source found for the 1504-1506 Pearl Islands and Gulf of Uraba expedition; flagged as thinly corroborated. - [11] Joaquim Alves Gaspar, 'The Planisphere of Juan de la Cosa (1500): The First Padron Real or the Last of Its Kind?', Terrae Incognitae 49, no. 1 (2017): 68-88. Consulted via publisher abstract and secondary summary; full text was not accessible (paywalled). - [12] James L. Smith, 'Europe's confused transmutation: the realignment of moral cartography in Juan de la Cosa's Mappa Mundi (1500)', European Review of History: Revue europeenne d'histoire 21, no. 6 (2014). Consulted via publisher abstract and secondary summary; full text was not accessible (paywalled). - [13] Luis A. Robles Macias, 'Juan de la Cosa's Projection: A Fresh Analysis of the Earliest Preserved Map of the Americas', Coordinates, Series A, no. 9 (2010). Consulted via secondary summary; full text was not directly accessible. --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. If you quote this record, quote the provenance grades with it.