Latin America
Related: About this forumThis 509-year-old map contains the first known use of the word 'America' but not where you may thi
This 509-year-old map contains the first known use of the word 'America' but not where you may think
[center]1507
Universalis Cosmographia
The known world, and introducing "America"
by Alex Q. Arbuckle
The east coast of South America, the first known instance of "America" being used in a document.
Image: Library of Congress [/center]
In April 1507, German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller published his Universalis cosmographia secundum Ptholomaei traditionem et Americi Vespucii aliorumque lustrationes, or The Universal Cosmography according to the Tradition of Ptolemy and the Discoveries of Amerigo Vespucci and others.
It was the first known map to feature parts of the New World labeled America, derived from the Latin version of Vespuccis first name.
Vespucci had traveled up and down the east coast of South America a few years earlier, finding it to extend much farther south than previously thought a whole new continent.
Composed of 12 separate woodcut prints, the map was meant to be assembled and hung on a wall. Using a modified Ptolemaic projection, Waldseemüller aimed to reconcile the recent discoveries of Vespucci and others with existing knowledge.
More:
http://mashable.com/2016/12/24/universalis-cosmographia/
Science:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/122850112
elehhhhna
(32,076 posts)only somebody from the USA would forget or be completely unaware that America is actually 2 Continents!
Judi Lynn
(160,527 posts)I have noticed the environment in which I was raised led people to imagine there is only one "America," and the ones south don't really matter, being populated by foreigners.
elehhhhna
(32,076 posts)I figured it was the writers headline...
Response to Judi Lynn (Original post)
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