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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)

Posted by msmash on from the closer-look dept.

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."

5 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What about Leif Ericsson by dargaud · · Score: 4, Insightful

    But they didn't draw maps and they didn't make this discovery known to the rest of the world. There's the difference.

    --
    Non-Linux Penguins ?
  2. Re:Can we... by mrvan · · Score: 4, Informative

    I know right? Two links in the summary, both pointing to the silly article. We're map buffs, not RTFA'ers!

    https://www.nationalgeographic...

  3. Re:Just so you know, on Waldseemuller's map ... by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 4, Informative

    Sorry if you get butt-hurt by it, that's how people know us. As Americans. No other country I know of in this hemisphere also wants to be called America. So what's the problem?

    For some reason, people who don't live in Mexico or Canada seem to think Mexicans and Canadians get upset when people living in the USA get called "Americans."

    We don't.

    Signed,
    A Canadian

  4. Re:Just so you know, on Waldseemuller's map ... by DRJlaw · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

  5. Re:Can we... by mrvan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That's the state of the current web. :(

    Try browsing with JS and all cross-site requests disabled, you'll quickly find that gopher was more informative than the mess we have now...