From the museum website
The exhibition entitled The Atlases includes the top pieces from Het Scheepvaartmuseum’s extensive collection of maps and atlases. Get acquainted with the four pioneers of cartography: Ptolemy, Mercator, Claesz, and Blaeu. These mapmakers and publishers produced maps and atlases that forever changed how we see the world. Your journey shows you the first maps of America, via the ‘Unknown land of the South,’ to a detailed city map of Amsterdam. The maps and atlases, produced between 1482 and 1665, are unique historical documents, and a feast for the eye with their rich decorations.