This Tuesday, April 25, the term or name “America” will celebrate its 510th birthday.
America. Such a beautiful name, isn’t it?
Do you know where it came from?
No, not from Christopher Columbus.
It was from a German clergyman and writer of cosmology and geography.
On April 25, 1507, novice German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller was the first person to use the name America on his world map “Universalis Cosmographia,” according to History.com. (There are a few variant views of the origin of “America,” but they are generally later in date, lack corroboration and are not widely accepted.)
The Associated Press explained, Waldseemüller “first used the term on a world map to refer to the huge mass of land in the Western Hemisphere, in honor of Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci.” (America, a feminized version of Vespucci’s first name, was applied then to what today is South America.)
As a young man growing up in Florence, Italy, Vespucci was fascinated with books and maps. In 1492, he moved to Spain, where he worked as a supervisor of a ship-outfitting business.
LiveScience.com explained it was in Spain that Vespucci become acquainted with “the great explorers’ ships being prepared and to learn about the business of exploration. At the time, explorers were searching for a northwest route to the Indies, which would make trade easier. Vespucci’s business helped outfit one of Christopher Columbus‘ voyages, and in 1496 Vespucci had the opportunity to talk with the explorer.”
He wanted to see the New World for himself, so, now in his 40s, spent many years on multiple voyages to the places Columbus had earlier discovered. (For those interested, History.com offers a great four-minute video of Amerigo Vespucci’s life.)
Live Science explained one point of controversy: “Vespucci’s reputation had gone through periods of ridicule, and at times he has been viewed as a schemer who attempted to steal glory from Columbus. But in reality, it wasn’t Vespucci’s ambition that got two continents named after him: it was the work of a German clergyman and amateur cartographer called Martin Waldseemüller.”
Varsity Tutors, an online group of award-winning academic instructors who have been featured on Fox News and other mainstream media outlets, further explained the origin of our country’s name:
Seven years after Columbus’ first voyage and while Columbus was still alive, Vespucci accompanied an expedition that consisted of four ships. They sailed past the eastern coast of South America, and visited Trinidad, which Columbus had named the preceding year. On his return to Europe, Vespucci wrote letters with glowing descriptions of the newly discovered countries. He called the lands he had visited a ‘New World.’ [Columbus labeled them the eastern extremity of Asia.]
Some years later, Vespucci’s letters were published and read by Martin Waldseemuller and Mathias Ringmann, a schoolmaster. …
After reading the account of Vespucci’s travels in “Quatre Navigations d’ Americ Vespuce,” they decided to incorporate Vespucci’s voyage into their treatise.
Ringmann, acting as editor, wrote in his introduction: “There is a fourth quarter of the world which Amerigo Vespucci has discovered and which for this reason we can call ‘America’ or the land of Americo.”
Apparently ignorant of the discoveries and achievements made by Columbus fifteen years earlier, Ringmann continued: “We do not see why the name of the man of genius, Amerigo, who has discovered them, should not be given to these lands, as Europe and Asia have adopted the names of women.”
[Waldseemüller added, “I see no reason why anyone should justly object to calling this part … America, after Amerigo [Vespucci], its discoverer, a man of great ability.”]
Their work was published on April 25, 1507 under the title “Cosmographiae Introductio.” It marked the first time the word AMERICA appeared in print.
Here’s a 1515 map on which “America” appears.
Live Science concluded with this note: “The name stuck. Waldseemüller’s maps sold thousands of copies across Europe. Some reports suggest that Waldseemüller had second thoughts about the name America, but it was too late. In 1538, a mapmaker named Gerardus Mercator applied the name ‘America’ to both the northern and southern landmasses of the New World, and the continents have been known as such ever since.”
The Book of Proverbs says, “A good name is better than great riches.”
It’s true for you and me. It’s also true for America.
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