The James Ford Bell Library Celebrates
the 500th Anniversary of the Waldseemüller Maps

The cartographer Martin Waldseemüller created two maps accompanied by an introductory cosmography text, Cosmographiae introductio, which he published in 1507: a small globe gores map, designed to be cut out and pasted onto a sphere, and a 12-panel wall map.

THESE TWO MAPS SHARE DISTINCTIONS THAT MAKE THEM WORTHY OF CELEBRATION:

The name "America" is assigned to land that we now call South America

Newly discovered lands (both North and South America) are depicted as land masses separate from Asia

These are the first two maps to use the name America and, thus, often are referred to as America's birth certificate.

THE GLOBE GORES MAP IS DISTINCT FROM THE WALL MAP:

It has a projection based on contemporary sea charts, rather than the common Ptolemaic projection

It extends eastward from 0° longitude to 360°, the first map known to show the whole earth

The James Ford Bell Library owns one of 4 known copies of the globe gores— the only one in the Americas. For a larger view of this map, click here.
The Library of Congress owns the only known copy of the wall map. Click here to connect to the LOC Web site and a larger view of the map.

©2005 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved. The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer

Trouble seeing the text? Contact the UofM Privacy