Map

Technology today quite literally puts maps at your fingertips. Smart phones can access on-line mapping systems, and most have GPS to help you find a destination. Not that long ago, prior to the introduction of GPS technology and its coming into common use and well before smart phones, people would rely on maps. Many of those being the large fold out maps of a state or city. You may well have plotted out your route before leaving, writing down directions in more complicated cases, so you knew how to get there and did not fumble with the maps while driving. The use of maps spans both culture and time. Maps give location, and help provide direction. But, they also are useful on a larger scale. For example, a map of the world helped lead to the theory of plate tectonics. Maps can also be groundbreaking, providing information, whether geographic or providing nomenclature in a way never before seen or comprehended. This is the case with a map that was purchased by the Library of Congress in May 2003 for the nice large sum of $10 million dollars. This post will be about that map.

1507 Waldseemuller Map

That map, is the 1507 Waldseemuller (envision an umlaut above the u) map, created by Martin Waldseemuller, a 16th century scholar, cleric, and cartographer. Born in Germany in the 1470’s, he spent much of his life in northeast France at St-Die. It was in this remote part of France, 510 years ago, that a map known as “Universalis cosmographia seconunda Ptholemei tradtitionem et America Vespucci alirum que lustrationes” or in English, “A drawing of the whole earth following the tradition of Ptolemy and the travels of Amerigo Vespucci and others.” With such a long title it is no wonder it is simply referred to as the 1507 Waldseemuller map. As we all learned back in grade school, the name America comes from Amerigo Vespucci. Vespucci was an Italian explorer. While Christopher Columbus (1492) was looking for and thought he landed on the east coast of Asia, Amerigo Vespucci was the first to show that this was a new continent. Of course, who really “discovered” what we know as the American continents is a matter of debate. Some say it was the Norse in or about the 10th century, others say St. Brendan and monks from Ireland who traveled to the east coast of what is now Canada in the 6th century. Then there is the theory that the Minoans (in the Mediterranean near Greece) traveled to Isle Royale to mine copper perhaps as early as the 4,000 years ago.  It really may have been ancestors of Clovis man who made their way across the Bearing Strait as the first settlers, and discoverers of what we know as the American continents. Europe being Europe believes that the age of discovery seemed to begin with the wide travels spurred by the voyage of Columbus in the late 15th century and would go into the 16 century. Magellan and crew would make the complete navigation of the globe from 1519 to 1522. It was a time of a full employment act for cartographers as sailors and others would desire maps, no matter how crude they may have been.

Prince Waldburg-Wolfegg speaking at reception
of map at Library of Congress, 2003

What made the Waldseemuller map unique was that it is the first known map to contain the full Western Hemisphere and show the Pacific ocean as a separate body of water. Yet, the map also had one unique feature that made it desired by the Library of Congress so much so that it spent almost century to obtain the map--it is the first known document to name the continent “America”.     Some have said that this map is America’s birth certificate. But, what is interesting, is that while Waldseemuller used the term America to describe the map in 1507, it is the only time he did so. In 1513 his team published an update to Ptolemy’s “Geographiae” and would use term the land area as “Terra Incognita.” In 1516, on their map “Carta Marina” South America is termed as “New World”, and showing a major change to the 1507 map, this 1516 map named North America as “Cuba”, but most significantly showed it as part of Asia (with continental drift due to plate tectonics, the continents move, but not so much as to have North America be part of Asia). Therefore, the only new continent on the 1516 map would be the New World which we know today as South America. Did Waldseemuller think he had jumped the gun on his 1507 map, and hence had a desire to change not only the nomenclature, but also the shape and continents of the world? The 1507 map has often been criticized for dismissing Columbus’ voyages to the new world. However, John Hebert, of the Library of Congress, writing about the map in 2003, did not think this to be the case as they had the work of Columbus at their disposal. What influenced them most at the time was the recent French translation of Vespucci’s “Mundus Novus.” The “Mundus Novus” detailed four voyages to the new world between 1497 and 1504. Vespucci would note in that work that the land reached by Columbus and others over the previous two decades was indeed a new continent. Given this new revelation, Waldseemuller likely thought to honor him by using his name on the map to describe the new continent. The name America was not popularized by Waldseemuller (since used it only once on his 1507 map), but probablyl most cartographers Johannes Schoner in 1515 (umlaut above the o), and Peter Apian in 1520 who would more consistently provide maps and globes using the name America.

Waldburg-Wolfegg Castle, Germany

The 1507 map now in the Library of Congress was originally owned by Johannes Schoner who likely used it for reference in his globe making business. At some point Schoner’s cartographic collection was acquired by Prince Waldburg-Wolfegg, and was housed in the family castle. This collection also included Waldseemuller’s 1516 Carta Marina map and works by Schoner. In 1901 Fr. Joseph Fischer, SJ, a historian and cartographer, was doing research at Waldburg-Wolfegg castle and he came across this hidden treasure of a map. John Hebert writes that the recovery of this map “is thought by many to have been one of the most extraordinary episodes in the history of cartographic scholarship.” A few years later the Library of Congress began its investigation and would make overtures to buy the map, but wars and other occurrences delayed sale, although in 1903 the Library of Congress did acquire facsimiles of the 1507 and 1516 maps. A few decades ago, things seemed to have been coming together for a sale, but former West German Chancellor Helmut Schultz, himself a historian, did not wish to approve the sale of an item under the laws of Germany regarding rare or historical documents and artifacts. However, in 1999 an export license to allow the map to be moved to the United States was granted, given the intended sale to the Library of Congress.  In allowing the map to leave Germany the German government recognizrd the importance of the map to the United States of America, as a sign of transatlantic affinity and as an indication of the numerous German roots of settlers of the United States (such as part of my heritage). Of the $10 million dollar price tag, one-half was appropriated by Congress, and the other half acquired through private donations. A large sum for a large map.

German Chancellor Angela Merkl Speaking at
Dedication of Map, 2007

Maps were not easy to produce at the time, particularly large maps. The Waldseemuller map measures 4 feet by 8 feet when assembled. The map is made in 12 parts, each measuring 18 inches by 24 inches. It contains a full map of the world and two small inset maps, one at each lower corner. Each of the panels was printed from a wood cut, a level of work requiring attention to detail. It is thought that this map is the only one to survive of the estimated 1,000 copies made, a large number for the time. It was a groundbreaking map, by showing a divergence from the second century map produced by Ptolemy which was the main basis for all world maps until that time. After all, even with the voyages of Columbus and others there was still thinking that there was not a new continent between Europe and Asia. Heck, even Waldseemuller was unsure as his later map updating Ptolemy suggested by combining North America with Asia (named Cuba). The nation could be known as the United States of Cuba, when you think about it.

1507 Waldseemuller map on Exhibition at Library of Congress

While this 1507 map, with the long name, is said to be the first map naming America, a college collection owns another map that may have been produced earlier, but there is discrepancy of actual date of production.  In any event, it is a 510 year old map, and to me is unique not because it used America, because Waldseemuller decided to never use the name America on any other piece of cartographic work his shop produced. This is rather telling in that nomenclature for the new continent (and recall the 1516 map showed North America as part of Asia,, and he referred to it as Cuba) was unsettled and fluid. While it may be the birth certificate of the American, it provides a name to the space we know as the United States of America. However, space, as Geographer Yi-Fu Tuan once wrote, becomes place as we endow it with value. Our collective national values is what defines the space so that it becomes the place that we know as the United States of America. It is our national values that make the nation and give meaning to the name America.  The nation is a space on the 1507 map, just as it is on Google Maps brought up on an I-phone. How we access maps changes, but our need for maps is ever present.

GPS on a Smart phone