1
Amerigo Vespucci's C
ontribution to the Waldseemüller Map of 1507
1
Gyula Pápay
Abstract
The depiction of the Western Hemisphere in Wa
ldseemüller's 1507 world map is based on a map by
Vespucci, who used the results of Spanish and Port
uguese voyages of discovery for it. The naming of
South America with the name "America" in th
e 1507 world map was not a mistake, as it was
primarily used to honour the cart
ographer Vespucci. The depiction
of the Pacific coast of South
America in Waldseemüller map was not speculative.
It was based on exploration. The exploration of
the Pacific coast of South America was very
probably based on Vespucci's participation. An
important indication of this is
that the astronomical determinati
on of latitude in the southern
hemisphere could only take place on the basis of
such lengthy astronomical observations, for which
Vespucci laid the foundations
during his earlier voyages.
Keywords:
History of cartography, Vespucci, Waldseemülle
r, naming of America, discovery of the
Pacific coast of South America, determination of latitude
1. Introduction
In 1507, Martin Waldseemüller (c
. 1472-1520), with the help of
Matthias Ringmann (1482-1511) in
Saint-Dié, produced a map of the world (1.29 m x 2.32
m, 12 sheets) in which the mainland south of
the equator was named "America"
after Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512)
. (Figure 1) This name was
first used by Gerhard Mercator (1512-1594) in 1538 to designate both South America and North
America. The only surviving copy of the Waldseem
üller map has been in the USA since 2001. Since
2003, it has been kept at the Li
brary of Congress (Washington):
https://www.loc.gov/rr/geogmap/waldexh.html
. The map is considered America's "birth certificate"
and was declared a UNESCO Worl
d Heritage Site in 2005.
1
Revised version of Pápay, G. (2021): "Zur Darstellung Südamerikas auf der Waldseemüller-Karte von 1507", KN
Journal of Cartography and Geographic Information 71(2), A18-26. https://static-
content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1007%2Fs42489-021-00078-z/MediaObjects/42489_2021_78_MOESM1_ESM.pdf
