Oldest Map With the Word ‘America’ on it Discovered in Germany…Between Two Geometry Books!
- Posted on July 4, 2012 at 7:16am by
Billy Hallowell
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The discovery of a 500-year-old map in a German university library just a few days ago ended up becoming the oldest — and the first — global sketch to mention the name “America.”
Experts assumed that there were only four copies of German cartographer Martin Waldseemueller’s maps, but the discovery of a fifth at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich is a bombshell of sorts. It is believed that Waldseemueller, who died in 1522, produced the map himself.
Image Credit: Ludwig Maximilian University
His global drawings hold major significance. One of the four was sold at an auction for $1 million back in 2005, showcasing just how valuable the maps are in terms of historical value and intrigue. According to the university, the other three are in Minneapolis, Offenburg and in the Bavarian State Library in Munich.
The fifth map was discovered by a bibliographer who was working on revising the library’s catalogue. It was apparently “nestled between two printed works on geometry.”
“The new find shows the world divided into 12 segments which taper to a point at each end and are printed on a single sheet, which, when folded out, form a small globe, with the three rightmost segments depicting a boomerang-shaped territory named America,” reports the Telegraph.
A globe that was made after the copy of the map segment in the library. (Image Credit: Ludwig Maximilian University)
A web site setup by the university to offer the public a closer look at the map explains, in detail, more about the discovery:
The “new” Munich copy of the segmented map itself has obviously followed a tortuous course to reach its present haven. And the story of this voyage is at least as fascinating as that of the discovery and exploration of the New World. Its latest chapter began only a few days ago in the Munich University Library. [...] The 19th-century librarians, at any rate, had failed to recognize the significance of Waldseemüller’s map…The first copy of the segmental maps to be discovered only turned up in 1871, in the Hauslab-Liechtenstein Library in Vienna. “And the Munich copy was returned to the obscurity of the stacks.”
But it survived the Second World War unscathed, although the University Library itself was devastated by air raids. In November 1942, large portions of the holdings of older books, including the unassuming volume containing the two geometry treatises, had been transferred to a safer rural location. Stefan Kuttner has ascertained that the book was among the contents of deposit box No. 340, which was first stowed away in Burghausen, and later transported to Niederviehbach near Landshut. The box was returned to Munich in 1955, and provisionally stored in the Northeastern Repository at LMU.
You can read the rest of the history here and check out some of the images and interactives the university created for the general public to view.
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catholicextremist
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 11:05pmAh, now I see where La Raza comes up with the claim that the USA was all part of Mexico!
Report Post »ronin_6
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 5:57pmMakes you wonder what else is out there, mouldering away in forgotten stacks and boxes.
Report Post »trueamerican40
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 6:47pmA million dollar map!!!! I think I’m gonna start digging…
Report Post »TheePolitinator
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 2:52pmPeople should care about history. Now more than ever. Since it’s repeating itself.
Report Post »MRMANN
Posted on July 5, 2012 at 4:48amYes history certainly is repeating itself–almost verbatim–& we humans don’t seem to learning much from it.
Report Post »Dmony
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 2:27pmyou know there is a App for that……
Report Post »pdw
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 1:34pmSounds like history never changes, people still trying to make fun of a discovery but then I understand how attitude controls opinion. If people are not interested, why do they comment? The reason we do not have more history is because when countries were invaded by another many would destroy not only their libraries but the educated people of that country in fear of them rising up overthrowing them later. Fear and hate have been the destruction of way too much knowledge.
Report Post »mils
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 3:05pmThe “victors” write the history….
Report Post »we’re on a road now that takes in a lot of different pieces of history, and none have ended well.
old construction worker
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 1:03pmHere’s an old map you may be interested in.
Report Post »“The Turkish admiral admits in a series of notes on the map that he compiled and copied the data from a large number of source maps, some of which dated back to
the fourth century BC or earlier.”
Hrothgar
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 12:43pmThat’s a pretty nifty find.
Report Post »OFFTHEGRID
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 12:08pmThe book 1421 The Year the Chinese Discovered America is an interesting read..
Report Post »trueamerican40
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 12:00pmWell, we know that a muslim didn’t print that map–Israel is plainly on it.
Report Post »KickinBack
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 11:41amThat’s not the oldest map of the world. That‘s the liberal’s map of global warming.
Report Post »aChameleon
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 11:31amAccording to the map, it appears water has been receding for 500 years. Everything except Florida was under water before. This kind of blows Al Gores theory out the window.
Report Post »jhaydeng
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 11:39amI thought it was the West coast? Interesting!
Report Post »idarusskie
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 10:42amI see both north and south America. granted North America is not correctly drawn but the general shape of the gulf and Florida is there even if the proportions are way off.
Report Post »Skrewedretiree
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 10:35amSurely finding an original copy of a printed map with newly discovered and being-explored America is worth a news item! At least this can be proven true, not like the 2 year search for Barry Soetoro’s “birth certificate”.
Report Post »Brasil2520
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 12:14pmLoL !
Report Post »Brasil2520
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 12:39pmIn 500 years they will find the real birth cerificate in Kenya between two books the books will be about “How to decive white people to get more food aid”
Report Post »Wee1
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 10:28amNorth America = Ephraim South America = Manasseh
Ephraim = His seed a multitude of Nations = Mixture of the nations of Israel and Judah / Europe , Israel
Manasseh = His seed shall become a great People / Spain
and He Blessed Them ,
Report Post »For Those with Eyes to See ………..
g0rthaur
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 10:34amwhat are you talking about?
Report Post »Wee1
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 10:48amGenesis 48 : 19 , 20 , How I read and see it …. I Love Genesis !
Report Post »Meyvn
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 9:03amI fail to see why this article should excite me. Or anyone for that matter.
Report Post »caveman74
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 10:33amI think this map might be a hoax, and there in lies the interest for me. The map makers depiction of America appears to most resemble South California where it bends down in to Mexico. The problem is the map maker died in 1522 but South Californias first European explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo didn’t reach the region until 1542 but died a year later in the santa barbera channel, never leaving the region. So how could a German map maker depict the west coast decades before information about that region could have been brought back to him from the new word?……..not bad for a high school drop out huh (thank you google)
Report Post »mayihelpyou
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 10:50amBecause it‘s fascinating to find 500 year old maps depicting the expansion of some men’s knowledge of the world.
Report Post »Some find the latest video game exciting. Or watching grown men play children’s games. Or they get excited about tone deaf foul mouthed idiots spewing their garbage and calling it music.
That’s why.
Krutch
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 10:54amCaveman
Report Post »How could Pirri Reiis (not spelled right), an admiral of Turkey around the middleages I believe, have a map which shows the coast line of antartica? A coast line only confirmed with ground penatrating radar in the late 1900′s! The ice has covered that land mass for thousands of years, yet the admirals’ maps were old when he owned them.
Ther is much we today are missing from earth history.
caveman74
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 9:54pmI agree krutch, I was just stating one point of interest in this story. It is funny how modern man assumes we are the only ones with modern technology. We find foundations of civilizations 10000 years old and assume they were primative because we find no modern tools or technology. If we vanished today almost all but our foundations would be left in 10000 years. Even the steel rubber and plastics we utilize would decay back into the earth. Who knows what knowledge man had to draw from 500 years ago that has since been lost to war, disaster, and what ever other catastrophy.
Report Post »Bronco II
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 8:48amGOD speaks to us in all different ways if we have the spiritual eyes and ears we see and hear this is one of many examples HE gives us DO WE SEE DO WE HEAR.I DO.Thank you FATHER
Report Post »Pontiac
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 10:41amYou need to break your endorphin addiction. It is warping your mind.
Report Post »TheDavidKing
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 8:42amCommunist Democrats, Progressive Republicans, out number the only true American spirited. The Libertarians. What happened sheeple??? Can’t you understand if we set an example and save ourselves the people of the rest of the world will respect us and force our way of life as there own? It’s allready so late and many will die. We can not save the dead, yet. So we must make a good place for the lucky that will survive! Hope my children and many others children of this country(and the world for that matter) are on that lucky list. But not as slaves to the Government. Please help. You must wake the F up!
Report Post »Sol Invictus
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 8:49amWow, and you can tell all that from a map!?
Report Post »TheDavidKing
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 9:27amWhy yes I can. Right there in plain sight for the whole world to see. What was once a wonderful ball flattened and sheared to conformity. Missing a huge chunk of reality. Then forgotten and neglected. It’s all right there… Lost between a triangle and a circle.
Report Post »Sol Invictus
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 10:31amSo how come you’re so stoned this early in the morning?
Report Post »Sol Invictus
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 11:40amJust worked out your name – it’s an anagram of Dad the Viking! Cool, wonder who else spotted that.
Report Post »nzkiwi
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 8:38amMy blessings and best wishes to my American friends on this day.
May you all have a wonderful independence day, and I hope you tell your children about your nation’s history. It will make them proud.
Happy birthday!
Report Post »momrules
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 8:54amThank you NZKIWI. Blessings to you too.
Report Post »PaxInVeritate
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 12:02pmThank you NZKIWI. And many blessings to you and the All Blacks (congrats on the 2011 World Cup).
Report Post »DagneyT
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 8:22amWhat a lovely gift to receive on our country’s birthday. Thank you, Blaze staff! God is not uninvolved in the affairs of man, and if this story isn’t proof, nothing is!
Report Post »jhrusky
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 8:43amOK … I give up … how does this prove God’s involvement? I am a firm believer in God, but to claim finding an old map on the 4th of July is proof of God’s involvement in America seems to be quite a stretch.
Report Post »Bronco II
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 8:47amAMEN where one or two are gathered GOD IS THERE globaly doesn’t get any better then that.
Report Post »Pontiac
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 10:36am@jhrusky
It wasn’t found on the 4th… We wouldn’t even have heard about it today if it was just found today. The blaze just decided post the story on the 4th.
Klaus-Rainer Brintzinger, the Director of the University Library, and adds: “We intend to make the map accessible to the public in digital form in time for the Fourth of July – Independence Day in the USA.”
And it shouldn’t be any surprise the religious nut jobs would latch onto this. They are nut jobs after all.
Report Post »jhrusky
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 10:52am@ pontiac
“And it shouldn’t be any surprise the religious nut jobs would latch onto this. They are nut jobs after all.
I would agree that religious nut jobs are nut jobs just as _____ (FITB) nut jobs are also nut jobs. Thinking finding this map proves God’s involvement certainly seems a bit wacko. Where I think one needs to be careful is painting all religious people as nut jobs. I do not know that you do this … just making a statement.
Report Post »Iusetohaveacatbutthedogatehim
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 8:22amA few days ago??? Sorry Blaze you lie as usual…
http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,16069179,00.html
Report Post »lfoa
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 8:36amI sure hope you aren’t dumb enough not to realise the date format on a foreign web site (www.dw.de) might actually be “DD-MM-YYYY”. Or did your liberal education not ‘learn’ you that!
Report Post »lfoa
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 8:37amDD-MM-YYYY
Report Post »Look it up…..
Cimrhanzel
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 8:39amYour right … your link is dated July 3rd ( 3-7-2012, European dating )… and today is … July 4th ( or .. 4-7-2012 ) … one day ago, not a few days ago.
Report Post »SamIamTwo
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 8:45amTypical drive by troll. LOL
Report Post »Rajabear1
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 10:08am@LFOA and @Cimrhanzel-What in the world are you doing??? We are supposed to be the stupid, low IQ, uneducated, ill-informed ones. And there you all go, distorting their desired perception of us. For shame, for shame! Now back to your caves!
Happy 4th!
Report Post »lisa2994
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 8:17amWOW! Thought everyone might like to take a look at this! GOD does work in mysterious ways..lol
Report Post »randy
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 8:07am@BMB776 You must be talking about South America.
Report Post »Because based on the location of America on the above map, It’s clearly South America that is pictured. So, Yes, I would have to agree with you that South America is a disease.. But I would not call for their eradication. Just wish all the Illegal Aliens would just go home.
aggiebrewer
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 7:57amI don’t think you are going to get the response you are looking for or expecting with a post like that BMB776. Most folks who regularly read the blaze are not taken in by trolls that inly look to incite with lies and hate. We will pray for you.
Report Post »nzkiwi
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 8:33amThey pulled BMB776′s silly post. That’s just wrong.
Come on Blaze. That sad little troll’s comment should be allowed to stand.
Firstly, freedom of speech, and secondly, that exposes him (or her) for what they are.
But mainly freedom of speech. Principles matter.
Report Post »WaterTheTree
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 9:19amI don‘t think I would argue ’freedom of speech“ as much as ”have faith in people to make informed judgements“ or ”trust in the strength of your arguments”.
Freedom of speech is the concept that you have the right to share your own beliefs in public discourse, even if those beliefs are unacceptable to others. Its a right we all have, simply because we exist. Using a discussion forum in a rude and disruptive way is not the same thing. The right does not extend to entering private property as a guest and then shouting profanities at the other guests.
Argue instead that the trolls show their own hate and lack of reasoning in their own words. That their arguments only strengthen the arguments of reasoned and rational people. Or that in the rare case that they are actually giving a well structured and logical arguement, that the readers should know both sides of the arugment to make a good choice.
That said, if I was managing the comments, I‘d delete most of the troll’s comments. Not because I don’t trust the strength of my arguments, but because I don’t want the disruption of the rational discussion.
Report Post »HOWaboutTHIS
Posted on July 4, 2012 at 7:37amOh look, Obama’s vision for America.. Ha ha, ..sorry, .Is that wrong?
Report Post »