Questions regarding the authorship of maps and the inclusion of cartographic objects within specific national cartographic traditions are two recurring themes in the historiography of cartography. Based on the current premises of the cultural history of cartography programme, we analyse this issue using three influential inventories of Portuguese nautical planispheres produced in the first half of the sixteenth century, between the so-called Cantino planisphere of 1502 and the Lopo Homem planisphere of 1559. These inventories were compiled between 1960 and 2012 by some of the most renowned historians of cartography in Portugal and Brazil. Still heavily influenced by the nationalist and imperialist project entrusted to the history of cartography in the nineteenth century, these inventories reflect the main problems that arise in the organisation of cartographic series based on national criteria, which overemphasise the national origin of cartographers to the detriment of research into the political, cultural and geographical contexts that underpinned their work.