Waldseemüller map [SEP] creator
Waldseemüller map
The Waldseemüller map or Universalis Cosmographia ("Universal Cosmography") is a printed wall map of the world by German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller, originally published in April 1507. It is known as the first map to use the name "America". The name "America" is placed on what is now called South America on the main map. As explained in "Cosmographiae Introductio", the name was bestowed in honor of the Italian Amerigo Vespucci.
The map is drafted on a modification of Ptolemy's
55 degrees. On the left hand side in the remaining 90 degrees he thus represented the Columbian concept. The land on both the right and the left sides of his map represented the Indies (eastern Asia). The two alternative conceptions were shown on the same map. The Waldseemüller world map duplicates both eastern Asia and Cipangu, as "America" and "Hispaniola". Waldseemüller in effect devised a map scheme where he could let his reader take his choice between the Columbian and the Ptolemy-Behaim concept: the choice