500-year old map of *America* a puzzle

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Bill Arnold

500-year old map of *America* a puzzle

Legg inn av Bill Arnold » 04 des 2007 17:30:03

Hi, Gen-Medievaliers :0

This 500-year old map
of *America* might
be of interest to gen-medieval scholars.

Bill
Ptolemy strikes again? Nah, ancient Egyptian
sailors according to AE recorded lore :0

*****

Map that named America is a puzzle for researchers
Mon Dec 3, 2007
By David Alexander
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
The only surviving copy of the 500-year-old map that first used the name America goes on permanent
display this month at the Library of Congress, but even as it prepares for its debut, the 1507
Waldseemuller map remains a puzzle for researchers.
Why did the mapmaker name the territory America and then change his mind later? How was he able to
draw South America so accurately? Why did he put a huge ocean west of America years before
European explorers discovered the Pacific?
"That's the kind of conundrum, the question, that is still out there," said John Hebert, chief of
the geography and map division of the Library of Congress.
The 12 sheets that make up the map, purchased from German Prince Johannes Waldburg-Wolfegg for $10
million in 2003, were mounted on Monday in a huge 6-foot by 9.5-foot (1.85 meter by 2.95 meter)
display case machined from a single block of aluminum.
The case will be flooded with inert argon gas to prevent deterioration when it goes on public
display December 13.
Researchers are hopeful that putting the rarely shown map on permanent display for the first time
since it was discovered in the Waldburg-Wolfegg castle archives in 1901 may stimulate interest in
finding out more about the documents used to produce it.
The map was created by the German monk Martin Waldseemuller. Thirteen years after Christopher
Columbus first landed in the Western Hemisphere, the Duke of Lorraine brought Waldseemuller and a
group of scholars together at a monastery in Saint-Die in France to create a new map of the world.
The result, published two years later, is stunningly accurate and surprisingly modern.
"The actual shape of South America is correct," said Hebert. "The width of South America at
certain key points is correct within 70 miles of accuracy."
Given what Europeans are believed to have known about the world at the time, it should not have
been possible for the mapmakers to produce it, he said.
The map gives a reasonably correct depiction of the west coast of South America. But according to
history, Vasco Nunez de Balboa did not reach the Pacific by land until 1513, and Ferdinand
Magellan did not round the southern tip of the continent until 1520.
"So this is a rather compelling map to say, 'How did they come to that conclusion,"' Hebert said.
The mapmakers say they based it on the 1,300-year-old works of the Egyptian geographer Ptolemy as
well as letters Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci wrote describing his voyages to the new
world. But Hebert said there must have been something more.
"From the writings of Vespucci you couldn't have prepared the map," Hebert said. "There had to be
something cartographic with it."
MISGIVINGS ABOUT AMERICA
Waldseemuller made it clear he was naming the new land after Vespucci, describing how he came up
with the name America based on the navigator's first name.
But he soon had misgivings about what he had done. An atlas Waldseemuller produced six years later
shows only part of the east coast of the Americas, and refers to it as Terra Incognita -- unknown
land.
"America has gone out of his lexicon," Hebert said. "(No) place in the atlas -- in the text or in
the maps -- does the name America appear."
His 1516 mariner's map, on the same scale as the 1507 map, steps back even further, showing only
parts of the new continents and reconnecting the north to Asia. South America is labeled Terra
Nova -- New World -- and North America is labeled Terra de Cuba -- Land of Cuba.
"Essentially he's reconnecting North America to the Asian mainland, suggesting a continual world
of land mass rather than separated by those bodies of water that separate us from Europe and
Asia," Hebert said.
Why the rollback? No one knows.
In writings accompanying the 1516 map, Waldseemuller comes across as if he "has seen the better of
his error and is now correcting it," Hebert said.
He speculated that power politics played a role. Spain and Portugal divided the globe between them
in 1494, two years after Columbus, with territory to the east going to Portugal and land to the
west to Spain.
That demarcation line is oddly absent from the 1507 Waldseemuller map, and flags marking
territorial claims in South America suggest Portugal controls the region's southernmost land, even
though it is in Spain's area of influence. On the later map, the southernmost flag is Spanish,
Hebert said.
"It is possible one could say the 1507 map is influenced strongly by Portuguese sources and
conceivably the 1516 map may be influenced more by Spanish sources," he said.
Although the map conceals many mysteries, one thing is clear: it represents a revolutionary shift
in the way Europe viewed the world.
"This is ... essentially the beginning or first map of the modern age, and it's one that
everything builds on from that point forward," Hebert said. "It becomes a keystone map."
(Editing by Eddie Evans)


Copyright © 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters
content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be
liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.
Copyright © 2007 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
Questions or Comments
Privacy Policy -Terms of Service - Copyright/IP Policy - Ad Feedback




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AdrianBnjmBurke

Re: 500-year old map of *America* a puzzle

Legg inn av AdrianBnjmBurke » 04 des 2007 18:10:04

On Dec 4, 11:25 am, Bill Arnold <billarnold...@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hi, Gen-Medievaliers :0

This 500-year old map
of *America* might
be of interest to gen-medieval scholars.

Bill
Ptolemy strikes again? Nah, ancient Egyptian
sailors according to AE recorded lore :0

*****

Map that named America is a puzzle for researchers
Mon Dec 3, 2007
By David Alexander
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
The only surviving copy of the 500-year-old map that first used the name America goes on permanent
display this month at the Library of Congress, but even as it prepares for its debut, the 1507
Waldseemuller map remains a puzzle for researchers.
Why did the mapmaker name the territory America and then change his mind later? How was he able to
draw South America so accurately? Why did he put a huge ocean west of America years before
European explorers discovered the Pacific?
"That's the kind of conundrum, the question, that is still out there," said John Hebert, chief of
the geography and map division of the Library of Congress.
The 12 sheets that make up the map, purchased from German Prince Johannes Waldburg-Wolfegg for $10
million in 2003, were mounted on Monday in a huge 6-foot by 9.5-foot (1.85 meter by 2.95 meter)
display case machined from a single block of aluminum.
The case will be flooded with inert argon gas to prevent deterioration when it goes on public
display December 13.
Researchers are hopeful that putting the rarely shown map on permanent display for the first time
since it was discovered in the Waldburg-Wolfegg castle archives in 1901 may stimulate interest in
finding out more about the documents used to produce it.
The map was created by the German monk Martin Waldseemuller. Thirteen years after Christopher
Columbus first landed in the Western Hemisphere, the Duke of Lorraine brought Waldseemuller and a
group of scholars together at a monastery in Saint-Die in France to create a new map of the world.
The result, published two years later, is stunningly accurate and surprisingly modern.
"The actual shape of South America is correct," said Hebert. "The width of South America at
certain key points is correct within 70 miles of accuracy."
Given what Europeans are believed to have known about the world at the time, it should not have
been possible for the mapmakers to produce it, he said.
The map gives a reasonably correct depiction of the west coast of South America. But according to
history, Vasco Nunez de Balboa did not reach the Pacific by land until 1513, and Ferdinand
Magellan did not round the southern tip of the continent until 1520.
"So this is a rather compelling map to say, 'How did they come to that conclusion,"' Hebert said.
The mapmakers say they based it on the 1,300-year-old works of the Egyptian geographer Ptolemy as
well as letters Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci wrote describing his voyages to the new
world. But Hebert said there must have been something more.
"From the writings of Vespucci you couldn't have prepared the map," Hebert said. "There had to be
something cartographic with it."
MISGIVINGS ABOUT AMERICA
Waldseemuller made it clear he was naming the new land after Vespucci, describing how he came up
with the name America based on the navigator's first name.
But he soon had misgivings about what he had done. An atlas Waldseemuller produced six years later
shows only part of the east coast of the Americas, and refers to it as Terra Incognita -- unknown
land.
"America has gone out of his lexicon," Hebert said. "(No) place in the atlas -- in the text or in
the maps -- does the name America appear."
His 1516 mariner's map, on the same scale as the 1507 map, steps back even further, showing only
parts of the new continents and reconnecting the north to Asia. South America is labeled Terra
Nova -- New World -- and North America is labeled Terra de Cuba -- Land of Cuba.
"Essentially he's reconnecting North America to the Asian mainland, suggesting a continual world
of land mass rather than separated by those bodies of water that separate us from Europe and
Asia," Hebert said.
Why the rollback? No one knows.
In writings accompanying the 1516 map, Waldseemuller comes across as if he "has seen the better of
his error and is now correcting it," Hebert said.
He speculated that power politics played a role. Spain and Portugal divided the globe between them
in 1494, two years after Columbus, with territory to the east going to Portugal and land to the
west to Spain.
That demarcation line is oddly absent from the 1507 Waldseemuller map, and flags marking
territorial claims in South America suggest Portugal controls the region's southernmost land, even
though it is in Spain's area of influence. On the later map, the southernmost flag is Spanish,
Hebert said.
"It is possible one could say the 1507 map is influenced strongly by Portuguese sources and
conceivably the 1516 map may be influenced more by Spanish sources," he said.
Although the map conceals many mysteries, one thing is clear: it represents a revolutionary shift
in the way Europe viewed the world.
"This is ... essentially the beginning or first map of the modern age, and it's one that
everything builds on from that point forward," Hebert said. "It becomes a keystone map."
(Editing by Eddie Evans)

Copyright (c) 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters
content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be
liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.
Copyright (c) 2007 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
Questions or Comments
Privacy Policy -Terms of Service - Copyright/IP Policy - Ad Feedback

___________________________________________________________________________-_________
Get easy, one-click access to your favorites.
Make Yahoo! your homepage.http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs

Just read that article this morning....i would like to know what the
carbon dating says - wasn't there another famous so-called map that
was supposed to have been made in the middle ages but was then proven
to be a well made fraud using ancient parchment that had been bleached
and re-used?

Nathaniel Taylor

Re: 500-year old map of *America* a puzzle

Legg inn av Nathaniel Taylor » 04 des 2007 18:59:52

In article
<d17077fa-534b-4d1a-bf62-bf9c45c6f609@y43g2000hsy.googlegroups.com>,
AdrianBnjmBurke <adrianbenjaminburke@gmail.com> wrote:

Just read that article this morning....i would like to know what the
carbon dating says - wasn't there another famous so-called map that
was supposed to have been made in the middle ages but was then proven
to be a well made fraud using ancient parchment that had been bleached
and re-used?

That's the (in)famous Vinland map you're thinking of.

Nat Taylor
http://www.nltaylor.net

AdrianBnjmBurke

Re: 500-year old map of *America* a puzzle

Legg inn av AdrianBnjmBurke » 04 des 2007 21:30:05

On Dec 4, 12:59 pm, Nathaniel Taylor <nltay...@nltaylor.net> wrote:
In article
d17077fa-534b-4d1a-bf62-bf9c45c6f...@y4 ... groups.com>,

AdrianBnjmBurke <adrianbenjaminbu...@gmail.com> wrote:
Just read that article this morning....i would like to know what the
carbon dating says - wasn't there another famous so-called map that
was supposed to have been made in the middle ages but was then proven
to be a well made fraud using ancient parchment that had been bleached
and re-used?

That's the (in)famous Vinland map you're thinking of.

Nat Taylorhttp://www.nltaylor.net

yes exactly! thank you!!!!

Renia

Re: 500-year old map of *America* a puzzle

Legg inn av Renia » 05 des 2007 00:57:15

AdrianBnjmBurke wrote:
On Dec 4, 12:59 pm, Nathaniel Taylor <nltay...@nltaylor.net> wrote:

In article
d17077fa-534b-4d1a-bf62-bf9c45c6f...@y4 ... groups.com>,

AdrianBnjmBurke <adrianbenjaminbu...@gmail.com> wrote:

Just read that article this morning....i would like to know what the
carbon dating says - wasn't there another famous so-called map that
was supposed to have been made in the middle ages but was then proven
to be a well made fraud using ancient parchment that had been bleached
and re-used?

That's the (in)famous Vinland map you're thinking of.

Nat Taylorhttp://www.nltaylor.net


yes exactly! thank you!!!!

It's been discussed ad infinitum on shm and on sci.archaeology. Its
chief spokesperson is good old Inger from Norkoping. According to her,
Sweden invented everything and you can't possibly understand the ways of
the world unless you can read old Norse.

Nuff said, as they say.

Denis Beauregard

Re: 500-year old map of *America* a puzzle

Legg inn av Denis Beauregard » 05 des 2007 16:22:02

On Tue, 4 Dec 2007 08:25:15 -0800 (PST), Bill Arnold
<billarnoldfla@yahoo.com> wrote in soc.genealogy.medieval:

Researchers are hopeful that putting the rarely shown map on permanent display for the first time
since it was discovered in the Waldburg-Wolfegg castle archives in 1901 may stimulate interest in
finding out more about the documents used to produce it.
The map was created by the German monk Martin Waldseemuller. Thirteen years after Christopher
Columbus first landed in the Western Hemisphere, the Duke of Lorraine brought Waldseemuller and a
group of scholars together at a monastery in Saint-Die in France to create a new map of the world.
The result, published two years later, is stunningly accurate and surprisingly modern.

You can perform a search on books.google.com to see what the
old books said about that.

http://books.google.fr/books?id=3r8FAAA ... r&as_brr=1
p. 470
quoted in 1853. He named the America by the name of Amerigo in a work
published in 1522.


http://books.google.fr/books?id=gJoz1n6 ... r&as_brr=1
p. 48, dated 1845
refer to the map of 1507


http://books.google.fr/books?id=cGwDAAA ... r&as_brr=1
p. 206, dated 1839


As for the map itself, you have it at that URL
http://www.loc.gov/rr/geogmap/waldexh.html

As for the Pacific side, there is no detail. There is a line
for a technical reason (there must be a line somewhere).


I don't see the problem. The cartographer got his data from
Vespucci for some reason. Lorraine was in the Roman Empire and
Vespucci was an Italian. West Indies are not very accurate.
So, where is the problem ? When appeared that mysterious map ?
Any date after 1839 is a joke or a hoax.


Denis

--
0 Denis Beauregard -
/\/ Les Français d'Amérique du Nord - http://www.francogene.com/genealogie--quebec/
|\ French in North America before 1722 - http://www.francogene.com/quebec--genealogy/
/ | Maintenant sur cédérom, début à 1770 (Version 2008)
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