The
United States Library of Congress has announced that it is purchasing the only
known copy of the famous 1507 Waldseemuller World Map for $10 million. This is
the map that was published just 15 years after Christopher Columbus sailed to
the Caribbean Islands, and 10 years after John Cabot set foot on the North
American mainland.
Often
referred to as “America’s birth certificate”, this map was the first to
show the continents of North and South America, and the first to show the name
“America” which was written across what is now Brazil. From that moment in
history the theory of how the word “America” originated has been in dispute.
Over
time, all known copies of Waldseemuller’s map decayed and were lost.
This map was known to have existed but there was no record of what it
looked like.
The
attribution of the name “America” to Amerigo Vespucci is fairly recent. In
1838, an antique collector discovered some documents describing the
Waldseemuller map in a street market in Paris. The manuscript contained
Waldseemuller’s explanation, in Latin, of how he guessed that the word America
possibly derived from the Latinised version of Amerigo Vespucci.
Waldseemuller’s supposition gained acceptance despite it being improbable at
best. Vespucci’s records had been the basis for Waldseemuller’s map of the
New World.
As
soon as the map was published in 1507 there were protests about Vespucci’s
role in the discovery and naming of America. Within Vespucci’s lifetime,
Waldseemuller compiled and published another map, in which he dropped the name
“America” and gave credit to Columbus for the discovery of the New World.
Waldseemuller replaced the word “America” with the anonymous “Terra
Incognita” (unknown land).
Yet,
even today, Waldseemuller is credited with ascribing the name America to the new
continent and Amerigo Vespucci is credited with the origin of the name.
Waldseemuller was only recording what others (Cabot, Columbus et al) had
discovered and named.
A
recent publication introduces a far more credible premise concerning the naming
of our nation. “Terra Incognita – the true story of how America got its
name”, by Rodney Broome, tells the story of the English merchant, Richard
Amerike, who financed John Cabot’s voyage in the “Matthew” to the North
American mainland in 1497. Broome outlines how the name America is derived from
Amerike’s name and not Amerigo Vespucci.
This
is not a new theory. The story of
Richard Amerike is well known in the west of England. Broome, who is from
Bristol, as is the subject of his book, is determined that Amerike’s story be
given the recognition in America that it deserves.
Not
only does Terra Incognita present a
compelling version of history, but it is also one of the better records of the
history of the production of the Waldseemuller map. The map will be on permanent
display in the Library of Congress’ Thomas Jefferson Building at a date to be
announced.
In
1901, a single copy of Waldseemuller’s 1507 World Map was discovered by Joseph
Fisher, a Jesuit historian, in the library of Prince von Waldburg zu
Wolfegg-Waldsee at the Castle of Wolfegg, in Wurttenberg, Germany. It was
printed on 12 large sheets of fragile paper that had been carefully bound inside
a book with other antique maps. This is why it is still in mint condition. This
map is the only known print of the original 1,000 copies.
Return to Main Page Terra Incognita the true story of how America got its name