Galleries: index · 
· 
This site is in danger of going away; please consider the Donate link above...
Galleries: index · ·
![[picture: Front cover, Description of the New World]](https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Montanus-America/tn/00010000-front-cover-q75-339x500.jpg "[picture: Front cover, Description of the New World]")
Some images from De Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld: of beschryving van AMERICA en ’t ZUID-LAND, with text and engravings/woodcuts by Arnoldus Montanus, Amsterdam, 1671.
These engravings are from a book at the Library of Congress; I found the images (which are out of copyright) here: lcweb2.loc.gov/rbc/rbkb/0003/ – beware that the files there are 24 MBytes each, there’s some 18 Gigabytes of them, and most do not have illustrations. I have kept the same filenames, so you can download the originals if you want, from the Library of Congress. I have processed the images, cleaning them up as if they were scans (they are actually photographs, and lower resolution than I normally prefer), and am converting most of them to greyscale.
Title: The New World
City: Amsterdam
Date: 1671
Total items: 11
Out of copyright (called public domain in the USA), hence royalty-free for all purposes usage credit requested, or as marked.
![[picture: Heraldic chapter head]](https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Montanus-America/wm/big/00130000-chapter-head-q75-446x200.jpg "[picture: Heraldic chapter head]")
This woodcut was at the start of a chapter. It features two mermen, I think, holding a shield bearing an armorial crest. [$]
![[picture: Title page detail: facing the gorgon]](https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Montanus-America/wm/big/00110000-title-page-detail-two-faced-q75-287x200.jpg "[picture: Title page detail: facing the gorgon]")
Title page detail: facing the gorgon
In this engraving from the title page, a two-faced woman uses a mirror to look safely at the medusa in the border of the picture. She is Prudence, trampling on Envy, a man with [...]Invidiæ Prudentia Victrix is Latin for, Prudence defeats envy, or, prudence is the victress of envy. [more...] [$]
![[picture: Decorative initial (drop cap) D]](https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Montanus-America/wm/big/00130000-decorative-initial-d-q75-198x200.jpg "[picture: Decorative initial (drop cap) D]")
Decorative initial (drop cap) D
A decorative letter “D” used as an initial capital (a drop capital, or drop cap) in this Dutch book from 1671. [$]
![[picture: Vitzlipuztli, God of the Mexicans]](https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Montanus-America/wm/big/03000000-worship-the-god-q67-246x200.jpg "[picture: Vitzlipuztli, God of the Mexicans]")
Vitzlipuztli, God of the Mexicans
The image is captioned, in Latin, Viztlipuztli idolum Mexicanorum, which is, Viztlipuztli, idol of the Mexicans. The usual modern spelling appears to be Vitzlipuztli; he/it was worhipped as a god or war and conquest. The description of Vitzlipuztli differs from that of Hiotzilopochtli, but [...] [more...] [$]
Note: If you got here from a search engine and don’t see what you were looking for, it might have moved onto a different page within this gallery.
![[picture: Map of the Americas]](https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Montanus-America/wm/big/00180000-totius-americas-q75-267x200.jpg "[picture: Map of the Americas]")
