The Waldseemüller Map

In 1507, in a small print shop in the mountains of Lorraine, Martin Waldseemüller printed a word that had never existed: America. Across twelve woodblock sheets he laid out the whole newly-widening world and, honoring the navigator Amerigo Vespucci, lettered the southern continent with a name that would swallow two hemispheres. Called "America's birth certificate," the only surviving copy sold to the Library of Congress for ten million dollars. The moment the modern world first learned its own name.

Maker

Martin Waldseemüller & Matthias Ringmann

Date

1507

Medium of the original

Plate

Original held by

Library of Congress, Washington

Credit

Library of Congress, Washington

Rights

Public domain, verified

Catalogue number

PA-00311