Visconte Maggiolo

1527 map by Visconte Maggiolo showing the east coast of North America with "Tera Florida" at the top and "Lavoradore" (Labrador) at the bottom. The information supposedly came from Giovanni da Verrazzano's voyage in 1524 (Ambrosian Library in Milan, Italy.)

Visconte Maggiolo (1478 – 1530), also spelled Maiollo and Maiolo, was an Italian cartographer and sailor.

He was born in Florence and was a fellow sailor of explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano. He died of malaria in 1530.

In 1527, he created a map depicting Verrazzano's travels. This map had a major error, as Giovanni did not accurately describe the North American continent. This error was not to be fixed for over a century.

A copy of his map was destroyed during World War II. “Sixteenth Century Maps Destroyed in War. It has been learned with much regret that the manuscript world chart of Vesconte de Maiollo, 1527, in the Ambrosiana Library and Art Gallery in Milan, Italy, (the Biblioteca Ambrosiana)was lost through war damage. The American Geographical Society has a full size reproduction of the famous map that was issued some years ago by the Hispanic Society of America."