Previously Hidden Text on a 500-Year-Old Map Reveals New Clues About the Cartographer's Sources and Its Influences on Important Maps That Came Later (nationalgeographic.com)

Greg Miller, writing for National Geographic: This 1491 map is the best surviving map of the world as Christopher Columbus knew it as he made his first voyage across the Atlantic. In fact, Columbus likely used a copy of it in planning his journey. The map, created by the German cartographer Henricus Martellus, was originally covered with dozens of legends and bits of descriptive text, all in Latin. Most of it has faded over the centuries. But now researchers have used modern technology to uncover much of this previously illegible text. In the process, they've discovered new clues about the sources Martellus used to make his map and confirmed the huge influence it had on later maps, including a famous 1507 map by Martin Waldseemuller that was the first to use the name "America."

Comments

Re:Just so you know, on Waldseemuller's map ...

[DRJlaw]

The name "America" was written over what is modern-day Brazil, and referred to the whole continent: north and south ...
not to a nation that was going to be formed some 270 years later.

And then a bunch of states got together, i.e., united, and called themselves the United States of America .

A bunch of other states of America that preferred not to be united later developed a massive inferiority complex when the rest of the world shorthanded the name and nationality to "America" and "Americans." But they daren't call themselves, e.g., "The Bazilian State of America" and "Americans," because "ewwwwwwww!"

Super short version: Once you've ceded the name, most people don't want to hear you complain.