#waldseemüller map

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[ars-videndi]

Waldseemüller map or Universalis Cosmographia (full title: Universalis cosmographia secundum Ptholomaei traditionem et Americi Vespucii aliorumque lustrationes (The Universal Cosmography according to the Tradition of Ptolemy and the Discoveries of Amerigo Vespucci and others)) by German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller, originally published in April 1507. It is known as the first map to use the name "America".

The map consists of twelve sections printed from woodcuts measuring 18 by 24.5 inches (46 cm × 62 cm). Each section is one of four horizontally and three vertically, when assembled. The map uses a modified Ptolemaic map projection with curved meridians to depict the entire surface of the Earth. In the upper-mid part of the main map there is inset another, miniature world map representing to some extent an alternative view of the world.

An explanatory text, the Cosmographiae Introductio, widely believed to have been written by Waldseemüller's colleague Matthias Ringmann, accompanied the map.  It was said in Chapter IX of that text that the earth was now known to be divided into four parts, of which Europe, Asia and Africa, being contiguous with each other, were continents, while the fourth part, America, was "an island, inasmuch as it is found to be surrounded on all sides by the seas".

A single copy of the map survives, presently housed at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

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