Tabula Californiae

This is the larger and rarer version of Kino's landmark map of California. It shows the whole of the Baja Peninsula as well as the headwaters of the Colorado.

Kino's map is one of the most important maps of the American West ever printed as it proves conclusively that California was a peninsula as opposed to an island.

This map has a complicated history. A manuscript version of this document is held in the Spanish archives in Sevile, supposedly drawn by Kino himself in 1701 although there is some dispute of this. However, it did not appear in a printed form until 1726, when it was published in Augsburg by Stocklein in a six part book on travel and exploration. It is unknown how Stocklein gained access to the manuscript.

A smaller map by Kino was published in 1705 in the Jesuit Letters and became widely available to other authors and publishers. It concentrates specifically on the mouth of the Colorado and its environs. In contrast, this map is much rarer, larger and shows a far wider view, depicting the whole of the Peninsula, the mouth of the Colorado and modern day northwest Mexico. Kino's travels are clearly marked in the territory of the Yuma Apaches with extraordinary detail of the missions and settlements of the region. This is a hugely significant map for any collection of maps of California or North America. [USA9119]