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.
Cabral only got to Northeast Brazil. He never got to the straits.
Yeah, all that. But a Native American would say none of them “discovered” America for it wasn’t lost.
They were already here, having trekked great distance over land, or down the Pacific Coast if you like that version.
Living as I do along the Pacific Coast, and knowing the ancient age (11,000 years) and nature of archeological findings on the offshore Channel Islands, I think that is very plausible.
Beats me, I don’t watch it.
Except for Germany :)
although i dont they refer to it as the fatherland anymore.
if they dont change things, they’ll be referring to it as little Iraq.
Well maybe not Africa, there is a waterway. But really Europe shouldn’t be considered a continent. While it’s an identifiable cultural zone as far as geography is concerned it should at best be a sub-continent like India.
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.
“and gores (maps designed to be cut out and pasted to a sphere “
Can we do that to Al?
Nice. Thanks for the ping.
My pleasure. In the late 1960s, some leftist touch-hole invented the claim that, rather than Amerigo, the Americas were named after an (unattested, because he made it up) native tribe from Central America.
There is no need for these questions to be answered by this board, as they are already answered above in the article. By all means read up on what is in front of you.
I think someone, Sunken Civ?, posted an article about a Chinese ruler who had a great armada of ships take off on a major trip exploring the world. I seem to recall that something really bad happened. A huge storm? And after that not much more was done at sea.
Maybe it wasn’t a storm. Maybe they brought back terrible diseases. Sailers will be sailers. Trips to the New World brought back syphilis, or “the French pox.”
I have the book by Gloria Farley. It is fascinating. Indicates a number of different cultures briefly visiting the US from before Christ up to before Columbus. Left a number of different scripts and figures of gods and goddesses.
America Williams?
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