The World Digital Library

1562 map of the New World, drawn up by royal cosmographer Diego Gutierrez for the king of Spain to assert royal claims. It is one of two known copies Photograph: Library of Congress

Portrait from an archive of 19th century photographs of Brazil from the Empress Thereza Christina Maria Collection, assembled by the last emperor of Brazil Photograph: National Library of Brazil

The Chronicle of Foreign Lands (1623) an explanation written for the Chinese emperor of Matteo Ricci’s world map of 1574 Photograph: Library of Congress

The Gospel of St. Matthew, from an Aleut translation by Russian missionary Ioann Veniamiov (1840) Photograph: National Library of Russia

The Huexotzinco Codex (1531) documenting in pictographic language part of the testimony in a legal case against representatives of the colonial government in Mexico, 10 years after the Spanish conquest in 1521 Photograph: Library of Congress

From Illustrations of China and Its People by John Thomson (1874), the first photographic survey of China Photograph: Yale University Library

Miroslav’s Gospel, a Serbian illuminated manuscript, circa 1180. This liturgical work that is considered the most important and the most beautiful of Serbian manuscript books Photograph: National Library of Serbia

The Hellados perigraphe (1545), the first modern map of Greece. One of three known copies by master cartographer Nikolaos Sophianos Photograph: Library of Congress

From the Pragmatica sobre los diez dias del año, Lima, Peru (1584). Addressing the switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, it is the first document to be printed in South America Photograph: National Library of Brazil