new+maps

= **1.New maps ** = = = = toc =

It is a work of large format recorded in woodcut and printed in twelve sheets separate each one in order to form a world, not colored mural map with them. It was developed in the Vosagense Gymnasium of Saint-Dié under the direction of Martin Waldseemüller and printed in 1507 under the title Universalis cosmographia secundum Phtolomaei traditionem et Americi Vespucii aliorumque lustrationes. The set represents the Earth ORB through a modification of the conical projection of Ptolemy, in which meridians are curved lines and the parallels are concentric lines. Shaped cordiforme (of heart), crowned by two medallions with two hemispheres: next to the left, occupied by Asia, Africa and Europe, is drawn to Ptolemy, and on the right, with the representation of America, the portrait of Amerigo Vespucci. Although the map follows the Ptolemaic tradition, he broke with it to introduce the new continent entirely separated from Asia and surrounded by water, contrary to the opinion of Christopher Columbus. In the share of South America is noted the name of America, explaining in a cartouche located in the upper part the reason why this name is given to this new continent.



the representation of the American coast was only approximate. Waldseemüller could only count on other marine letters as Caverio, which seems to have been its main source, in which the West coast of the continent not be drew, to the not having been explored even more than the Atlantic coast and this only partially. The problem was solved with two nearly straight strokes in South America, scoring in parallel with them «terra incognita vltra», and in North America approaching the line of the corresponding Meridian. On the main map America appears divided on two continents, separated by a strait, while in the located medallion with the portrait of Vespucci is depicted as a single continent. Cuba, which is named "isabella", is drawn as island as well as on earlier maps as the of Juan de la Cosa.



**history ** The planisphere, which became a thousand copies, was a huge success from the outset, to spread their copies by Europe. Thus, although later the author appears to have repented attributed the discovery to Vespucci and in 1513 he published another map, called «Terre Nove», devoted exclusively to America, which replaced the name of «terra incognita» Americaadding in a note that "this land and the adjacent islands were discovered by the Genoese Columbus, by mandate of King of Castile", didn't generalize the name repeated in maps that were copied or be inspired by the Waldseemüller. In 1512 it appeared in Krakow the Introductio in Ptholomei Cosmographiam of Jan Ze Stobnicy in which the small map of the Universalis Cosmographia is reproduced. Lost all copies of the planisphere of Waldseemüller, the Stobnicy was considered the oldest maps representing America as an independent continent, until in 1901 was discovered in the castle of Wolfegg, in Upper Swabia, the only currently remaining copy, which in the 16th century belonged to Johann Schöner, an astronomer and maker of Terrestrial globes of Nuremberg. This single specimen was purchased by the library of the Congress of the United States in 2001.

