What does 'nova totius terrarum sive novi orbis tabula' mean?

Answer 1

The phrase has no noun and cannot be translated as a whole. If you mean nova totius terrarum tabula then that would mean new and complete map of the world

Answer 2

Because Latin word order is so free, we can more easily make sense of this quotation by rearranging the words into a more English-like order:

nova tabula totius sive novi orbis terrarum

This means "a new picture of the whole, or rather of the new, world."

In a word-by-word translation, the adjective 'nova' means 'new'. The noun 'tabula' means 'tablet', sometimes in the sense of a painted image. The adjective 'totius' means 'entire, whole'; it is genitive singular to agree with 'orbis'. The conjunction 'sive' is a disjunctive 'or' (i.e., 'or instead'). The adjective 'novi' means 'new', also genitive singular. The noun phrase 'orbis terrarum' means, literally, 'of the circle of lands,' a common Latin idiom for 'world'.
Because Latin word order is so free, we can more easily make sense of this quotation by rearranging the words into a more English-like order:

nova tabula totius sive novi orbis terrarum

This means "a new picture of the whole, or rather of the new, world."

In a word-by-word translation, the adjective 'nova' means 'new'. The noun 'tabula' means 'tablet', sometimes in the sense of a painted image. The adjective 'totius' means 'entire, whole'; it is genitive singular to agree with 'orbis'. The conjunction 'sive' is a disjunctive 'or' (i.e., 'or instead'). The adjective 'novi' means 'new', also genitive singular. The noun phrase 'orbis terrarum' means, literally, 'of the circle of lands,' a common Latin idiom for 'world'.