Posted on 11/13/2015 5:37:41 AM PST by NYer
The first time America was called America. (All Images from The Library of Congress)
The Universalis Cosmographia, a 1507 cartographic exploration of the known world, depicted the New World as two entirely separate continents. This was quite a revolutionary stance on the early days of the Age of Discovery: many people still believed that the New World was connected to Asia. Although we now know that North and South America are a single continent, this ambitious map by German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller is rightfully revered for giving America its name.
The wide wall map was originally printed in a gorgeous tome of cartographic illustrations and gores (maps designed to be cut out and pasted to a sphere to make a globe), now known as the Schöner Sammelband, or “beautiful miscellany." Compiled in the early 16th century, the book held a handful of then-contemporary maps between its wooden covers.Â
Universalis Cosmographia
After centuries away from the public eye, the impressive collection was rediscovered in 1901 when a Jesuit scholar found it sitting in the collection of a German prince. But even before the Schöner Sammelband came to light again, it had been the subject of much speculation. Waldseemüller’s map was the first to incorporate the exploratory findings of Amerigo Vespucci, who first demonstrated that the newly discovered coasts of the New World were part of their own separate land mass, and not just another part of Asia.
Honoring Vespucci’s findings, Waldseemüller’s map named the new continent “America,†after the Latin feminine construction of the explorer’s name. The rest of the map was based on other extant maps and sources from the time, and was created as an updated version of the Ptolemaic map of the world, its curved edges meant to mimic the planet’s sphere.
Universalis Cosmographia
However, Waldseemüller’s conception of the land itself, as two separate continents (connected by an isthmus, in a thumbnail map capping the larger map), was not quite right, as we now know. In the accompanying text released with the map, known as the Cosmographiae Introductio, it was noted that the discovery of America meant that the Earth was composed of four major parts: Europe, Asia, Africa, and the New World.Â
Nonetheless, the map made a splash and became quite well known in its day, with somewhere near a thousand copies printed. It was originally released in 12 separate pages that could be laid out to form the larger map image. The only known copy of the Universalis Cosmographia, the one found in the Schöner Sammelband, is now held in the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. A full-size replica is on display and can be seen in the Treasures Gallery, its pages seamlessly cobbled together.
The leftists hate Columbus. they fail to realize that the New World would still have been found a few years later by Pedro Ãlvares Cabral.
India? I thought it was called Hindustan at that time.
Pedro Alvares Cabral?
I am a Vespuchilander.
They could judge distances by how long to took to go from point A to point B, and roughly how fast they were going (north-south was probably easier to discern than east-west).
Article state America is the latin feminine of Amerigo....man discovers, you name it a woman’s name right...it is his girl!
I’m pretty sure one could discern latitude from the stars. Longitude could only be estimated from reports of navigators or traders of estimated distances. At least from days of Eratosthenes people knew the approximate shape and size of the earth.
that’s cool :)
My memory's a bit rusty, but I remember hearing that China went from a sea-faring nation to one more land-based due to a particular dynasty. I wonder if they'd have gotten here first, and established a solid hold on the Americas had they not retreated from the seas during this dynasty. Of course, it could all be poppycock. Again, my memory is rusty.
I wonder if the Chinese would have allowed any natives to survive.
“The leftists hate Columbus. they fail to realize that the New World would still have been found a few years later by Pedro Ãlvares Cabral.”
It had already been found 492 years earlier, by Lief Eriksson.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leif_Erikson
Actually anther may have been first, a fellow named Bjarni Herjolfsson but that would have been a near impossible name for a country or a place.
***I remember hearing that China went from a sea-faring nation to one more land-based due to a particular dynasty.***
I remember reading the same thing. They even sent ships as far west as the coast of Africa, so one can believe they also went east to the coast of North America.
When they returned, the emperor shut down all exploration for some reason.
I had that backwards - latitude was cool, it's the longitude that was troublesome. Lack of accurate clocks I assume?
What if Columbus had returned to Spain and told no one about what he found, the route to India blocked. Then Cabral later finds Brazil and reports to Portugal about his find, unleashing a wave of exploration of the New World.
Could Columbus then say....ME TOO! ME TOO! and have a real claim on discovery?
Yes, Cabral hit the coast of Brazil in 1500 on a voyage to India. So if Columbus had never sailed, the discovery of the New World would have not been long delayed. (Of course people familiar with the Norse sagas knew about Leif Eriksson and Vinland.)
Land is female in general, no? I would assume “America” is the feminine form of “Amerigo”. I could be wrong, though.
“What if Columbus had returned to Spain and told no one about what he found, the route to India blocked. Then Cabral later finds Brazil and reports to Portugal about his find, unleashing a wave of exploration of the New World.
Could Columbus then say....ME TOO! ME TOO! and have a real claim on discovery?”
I read once that Columbus deserved recognition. Others may have contributed first. But he put together the elements, money, science, entrepreneurship etc.
The article said he had information including Eriksson’s voyage, other explorers further south, various wind and ocean current streams, etc.
It was the assemblage of all those factors, that make Columbus worthy of recognition.
The topic of great explorations over vast oceans is fascinating. The South Pacific Islanders going to Hawaii. The Polynesians possibly going to South America. (Thor Herydall). The Chinese possibly going to South America. Irish monks going to North America. Even Egyptians (or others from the old world Mediterranean) going to the Americas.
Etc.
Ever read THEY ALL DISCOVERED AMERICA published back around 1960?
Then there was a Reader’s Digest article back around 1970 in which they claimed the possibility of Phoenicians also discovering America.
Anyone know how Brian is doing at MSNBC?
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