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Waldseemuller Map

Cool stuff.

The Waldseemuller map was - and still is - an astonishing sight to behold. Drawn 15 years after Columbus first sailed across the Atlantic, and measuring a remarkable 8ft wide by 4½ft high, it introduced Europeans to a fundamentally new understanding of the make-up of the earth.

The map represented a remarkable number of historical firsts. In addition to giving America its name, it was also the first map to portray the New World as a separate continent - even though Columbus, Vespucci, and other early explorers would all insist until their dying day that they had reached the far-eastern limits of Asia.

The map was the first to suggest the existence of what explorer Ferdinand Magellan would later call the Pacific Ocean, a mysterious decision, in that Europeans, according to the standard history of New World discovery, aren’t supposed to have learned about the Pacific until several years later.

 

Posted by Owen at 2227 hrs
Culture + Off-Duty + Fun With Maps

1. I’m a map geek too.  Can’t get enough of them and dumped a guy who couldn’t properly label a map of the U.S.  Thanks for posting this.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on November 01, 2009 at 1512 hrs
   
   
   

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