Although Athanasius Kircher (1602-80) was not the first mapmaker to display ocean currents in America, he was the first to portray the whole continent with them. Kircher was a Jesuit from Germany who moved to Rome. Whilst there he founded the Museo Kitcheriano in the Collegio Romano. He published many works including the ‘Mundus Subterraneus’ in 1665 which included this map. The book describes “the world’s ocean currents, tides, volcanic distribution, and the core structure of the planet. This map, along with others in the two-volume work, illustrate for the first time the ocean’s currents. They are quite surprisingly fairly accurate. Sir Robert Dudley’s maps depicted only more local currents. North America bears no detail beyond the naming of California, and the lakes of Mexico City which are located too far north. A huge crater lake dominates South America near the headwaters of the Amazon River. There were two later editions, one in 1668, and another in 1678.” (Burden). There is no internal detail in North America beyond two lakes presumably representing Mexico City placed too far north. South America is dominated by a very large depiction of a crater, no doubt a reflection of the numerous volcanoes found in the Andes. Provenance: Juan and Peggy Rada Collection. Burden (1996) no. 382; Harms (1979) pp. 84-5; Kangro (1973) vol. 7 pp. 374-8; The A. E. Nordenskiöld Collection (1979) no. 974; Rada (2004) pp. 36-7; Sabin (1868-1938) no. 37967; Thornton & Tully (1971) p. 119.