Finding America University Discovers Lost Early Map of New World

[Draggingtree]

Finding America University Discovers Lost Early Map of New World

DPA/ LMU

German university researchers have rediscovered a 500-year-old map that had been mistakenly bound in a volume on geometry several hundred years ago. The map, by cartograther Martin Waldseemüller, is one of the first to include the term "America" in reference to the New World.

 

Reseachers at the Munich University Library announced Tuesday they had discovered a long forgotten version of a map of the world by German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller. Library director Klaus-Rainer Brintzinger said that two researchers had discovered that the valuable, 500-year-old map had been erroneously bundled together a few hundred years ago with volumes on geometry.

We've made a sensational find," Brintzinger told German news agency DPA.

Researchers believe the map is a smaller global map created by Waldseemüller, who lived from 1470-1522, and became famous for a three-square-meter world map he drafted. That work is often referred to as America's "birth certificate," because it is the first map to describe the New World as "America". Indeed, Waldseemüller helped to establish "America" as the name of the newly discovered continent in honor of the expeditions made by Italian sailor Amerigo Vespucci.

'A Radically New Understanding of World Geography'

In 2007, German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave Waldseemüller's large world map to the United States as a gift. At the time, the map was 500 years old, and Merkel described the it as "a nice symbol of the very close German-American friendship." Today it is part of UNESCO's world documents list and can be viewed at the Library of Congress in Washington. The Library of Congress notes that although Waldseemüller's work remained obscure for many years, "it presented a radically new understanding of world geography based on the discoveries of (Christopher) Columbus and (Amerigo) Vespucci." The map included data gathered during Vespucci's voyages to the New World and christened the new lands "America" in recognition of the fact that what Vespucci had explored was, in fact, a new continent.

Prior to the discovery Read More

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/munich-researchers-discover-lost-map-of-america-a-842268.html

[Pepper]

@Draggintgree

 

Thanks, interesting read and photos.

[righteousmomma]

Its little surprises like the map find that make the genealogy/history search so exciting.

Thanks!