Martin Waldseemu Ller - Cosmographiae introductio

Martin Waldseemüller has been recognized as the first European cartographer to depict the New World discoveries as a separate continent, which he named "America." Waldseemüller was a member of a small group of scholars gathered by René II, Duke of Lorraine, in St. Dié near Strasbourg. Their objective was to reconcile and map the geographic information observed by Europeans explorers in the New World. In 1507, the group issued three publications -- a large wall map, a set of paper segments (gores) for making a small globe, and a short treatise called ''Cosmographia introductio''. The latter, displayed here, explains that Amerigo Vespucci, who made several voyages to the New World subsequent to Columbus, hypothesized that these new lands were a separate continent. Consequently, the St. Dié group prepared the large wall map and globe which depicted this new continent. They named it "America" in recognition of Vespucci's writings Designed to accompany Waldseemüller's globe and wall map of the world, on which the New World is called America "America" is suggested as name for the New World on sig. C1 recto and C3 verso.
Courtesy of Boston Public Library