The Naming of America: Martin Waldseemüller's 1507 World Map and the Cosmographiae IntroductioThis new book features a facsimile of the 1507 World Map by Martin Waldseemuller - the first map ever to display the name America - and tells the fascinating story behind its creation in 16th-century France and rediscovery 300 years later in the library of Wolfegg Castle, Germany, in 1901. It also includes a completely new translation and commentary to Martin Waldseemuller and Matthias Ringmann's seminal cartographic text, the Cosmographiae Introductio, which originally accompanied the World Map. John Hessler considers answers to some of the key questions raised by the map's representation of the New World, including "How was it possible for a small group of cartographers to have produced a view of the world so radical for its time and so close to the one we recognize today?"; and "What evidence did they possess to show the existence of the Pacific Ocean when neither Vasco Nunez de Balboa nor Ferdinand Magellan had yet reached it'." There are no easy answers, and yet, as this fascinating book reveals, this group of unknowns created some of the most important maps in the history of cartography, and afford us a glimpse into an age when accepted scientific and geographic principles fell away, spawning the birth of modernity. |
Contents
Acknowledgments | 6 |
A New View of the World | 38 |
Notes and References | 64 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
1507 World Map Africa Amerbach Amerigo Vespucci ancient angle Antarctic antichthones ANTRO ARACHO Arctic Asia astronomy axis Basinus called Capricorn Carta Marina cartography celestial sphere century chapter circle climate coast Codupe colure commentary contains Cosmographiae Introductio degrees Dié DIONALIS Dionysius Dionysius Periegetes distance ecliptic edition equator equinoctial ETHIOPES ETHIOPIA ETHIOPIA INTERIOR Four Voyages funt GANGEM geographical Geography and Map globe gores Greek Hessler history of cartography infula INTRA island Johann Amerbach Johann Schöner Johannes known land Latin Library of Congress lines magna manuscript Map Division MARE GLACIALE Martin Waldseemüller Matthias Ringmann moabar Newen Zeytung Ocean orbis parallels PARTHIA pole Pomponius Mela printed Ptolemy Ptolemy's quas REGIO REGNVM Renaissance Schöner sheet SINVS Sogdiana South America TAPROBA TERRA tion translation tropics University Press Ursa Virgil VLTRA vtraq Waldseemüller and Ringmann Waldseemüller maps Waldseemüller's 1507 World winds zodiac zones