About the Program
Up until the early 1500's, Europeans thought of the world as having three parts: Europe, Africa, and Asia. Early world maps consisted of these three parts, but sometimes mentioned a "Fourth part of the world." This fourth part became a reality on a printed map for the first time when in 1507 German mapmakers Martin Waldseemuller and Matthias Ringmann published their "universalis cosmagraphia." Their work marks the first time the word America appeared on a map; as a tribute to Amerigo Vespucci who was probably the first explorer to realize that North and South America were not part of Asia. In his talk Toby Lester traces the history of maps of the world, showing how an accumulation of knowledge and techniques led to the Waldseemuller map. The Library of Congress acquired the only known copy of the map in 2001 for ten million dollars.