Editorial Review:
In 1507, a German cartographer working in Saint Die, in the Duchy of Lorraine, created a world map that, for the first time, included the continental landmasses in the Western Hemisphere, discovered within the 15 previous years. He inserted the name "America" on the southern continent, honoring Amerigo Vespucci, who had erroneously been credited with setting foot on South American soil before Christopher Columbus. With the aid of the recently invented printing press, the name "America" became the accepted designation of continental land in the New World. Over the centuries there has been a heated controversy concerning the naming of America. The map, which was considered to be the "Holy Grail" of American cartography, was lost for four centuries before it was found in 1901 in a German castle. After many attempts to bring the map to the land that it named, it was finally purchased by the Library of Congress for the astounding sum of $10 million dollars--the largest amount the library ever paid for a single acquisition. In a colorful narrative that reads like a good mystery, Dr. Seymour I. Schwartz brings to life the amazing history of America's "baptismal certificate." Since its creation the Waldseemüller World Map of 1507 has been surrounded by many intrigues and four major controversies. ·How did America come to be assigned that name and was it an appropriate choice?
·How can the revolutionary geographic representations depicted on the map be explained in the light of the fact that they preceded the known discoveries?
·What is the actual date that can be ascribed to the map now in the possession of the Library of Congress?
·Is the Waldseemüller World Map of 1507 the first to depict continental land in the New World and the first to bear the name "America"? Schwartz's compelling story, which includes many amazing twists and turns, also features cameo appearances by Alexander von Humboldt, Washington Irving, Frederic Chopin, George Sand, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ogden Nash, J. Pierpont Morgan, Paul Mellon, and German Chancellors Helmut Kohl and Gerhard Schroeder.
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Customer Reviews
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THE MYSTERIOUS WORLDMAP WITH THE NAME AMERICA 2008-01-14
AMERICA is a continent bearing a name only for 500 Years. It has been proposed such a name to honor Amerigo Vespucci (the first to recognize the New World as a new part of the world), by an exciting circle of Renaissance scholars from France and Germany in a booklet (103 pages) entitled "COSMOGRAPHIAE INTRODUCTIO" printed in ST-DIE-DES-VOSGES , a little city in the heart of the VOSGES blue mountain range between Lorraine and Alsace (Eastern France), on Marcus' day, (April the 25th), 1507, maybe remembering of Marco Polo, the first narrator of the Indies. This giant wall worldmap, with the name AMERICA, one of both maps along with a small globe-gores map, to accompany that booklet is the most exciting and mysterious map of the early Renaissance.
A fine recommendation for any college-level collection strong in world history. 2008-01-06
In 1507 a German cartographer working in Saint Die crated a world map for included the newly-discovered Western Hemisphere land masses for the first time, calling them "America' to honor one Amerigo Vespucci, who had been credited with setting foot on South American soil before Columbus. From this error did 'America' become the accepted name of the land mass - amid centuries of controversy since. The map was lost for four centuries before it was discovered in 1901 in a German castle - and finally purchased by the Library of Congress for some, $10 million - and this history of the map brings to life its colorful background in a fine recommendation for any college-level collection strong in world history.
Want to know what 10 million dollars looks like? 2007-11-07
"Want to know what 10 million dollars looks like? It's the first map naming us as "America" instead of Columbus. This map was lost for four centuries before it was discovered in a German castle and eventually sold to the Library of Congress for 10 million dollars."
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