Full Title: Floridae Americae Provinciae Recens & exactissima descriptio Auctore Iacobo le Moyne cui cognomen de Morgues, Qui Laudonnierum

This map was somewhat of a trendsetter in the 16th century. Jacques Le Moyne accompanied Laudonniere on his Florida excursion in the year 1564. While on that trip, Le Moyne drew this map, Foridae Americae Provinciae Recens, complete with a narrative to serve as a guide. The map was to serve as a landmark for Florida and the Southeast. It was painstakingly colored by hand and has great accents such as a sea serpent, sailing ships, and a golden compass drawn towards the bottom right hand corner. It contained significant information that became a sort of source guide for other similar maps of the area over the next 150 years. However, the information was often inaccurate and so were those maps, by default, for that same period of time. To compound the inaccuracies further during that time period, the errors were exaggerated in 1606 on a regional map rendering by Mercator. His map, even more inaccurate than Le Moyne's, was used for the better part of half a century after that to base the region's cartography upon. Some of the more obvious mistakes include the sea shown towards the top portion of the map. Speculation is that this was probably a body of water known as Verazzno's Sea. Also, take a look at Lake Okeechobee. It can be seen towards the bottom of the state. Now look at the size of the other Florida lakes above it. Their size is legendary. The crescent shaped lake is almost as big as Lake Okeechobee itself! Finally, notice the rather large size of Cuba as it sits just south of the future state of Florida. It is almost the size of the entire Florida peninsula. Despite those mistakes, the narrative, hand coloring, and early rendering of the territory, make this map highly desirable. It certainly laid the groundwork for modern cartography and is a piece to be admired for its beauty and craftsmanship.

All sizes are approximate.