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MapTrade Mailing List archive[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index] Waldseemuller Map in the News
Following is an article that appears on page C1 of the October 19, 2000 issue of the Washington Post. To view the entire article, go to http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36210-2000Oct18.html The Chart That Put America on the Map By Linton Weeks, Washington Post Staff Writer The Library of Congress is scrambling to raise $14 million to buy the crown jewel of New World cartography--the Martin Waldseemuller map of 1507--from a German prince. The map, says John Hebert, chief of the library's geography and map division, "represents the very first symbolization of America in any kind of medium. It also represents the first document that truly understands, at least from a European perspective, the way the world is constructed." The purchase would also include a rare sea chart and other maps. The Waldseemuller map is the earliest document known to contain the word "America." And it is the first map to feature two major oceans, not just one. "To the best of my knowledge," says Winston Tabb, associate librarian for library services, "this would be the single largest acquisition in library history." Hidden away for centuries in the family castle of Prince Johannes Waldburg-Wolfegg in southern Germany, the Waldseemuller map reflects the rapidly expanding knowledge of world geography spurred by the explorations of Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci and others. The prince, who received permission from the German government to sell the document to the library, has set a deadline of Nov. 15 for the $14 million to be raised, although he is not planning to sell the map to anyone else at the moment, Hebert says. Asked about the library's progress in raising the sum, Tabb declined to comment. The Waldseemuller map is, according to a library fact sheet, "America's birth certificate." But it is much more than that. At 8 by 4 1/2 feet, it is a bay window into the ancient mysterious. For map lovers, the lavishly rendered cartography--with its feathery landmass labeled "America"--is a guide to the then-known world and, if read deeply, a CAT scan of the antique mind. Here are the precisely limned lands of Europe; there is Africa, with its coasts labeled in great orderly detail and its interior free, clear, unnamed and unexplored. Made only 15 years after Columbus's first voyage to the New World, the Waldseemuller map is historically significant because "we're dealing with things that are, in essence, cutting-edge. The traditional worldview is changing as the result of Columbus and those who follow," Hebert notes. "This map is a global treasure," says Columbus scholar Peter Dickson. Waldseemuller, a German priest, was commissioned to produce a revised edition of Ptolemy's 2nd-century atlas of the world. The mapmaker was working at a time of explosive exploration, when knowledge of the world was changing faster than his ink could dry. The 1507 map is actually a dozen different wood-block prints pieced together, with South America marked "America" in the general vicinity of Brazil, and an attenuated North America bearing the legend "Terra Ulteri' Incognita." The sections were bound in a book along with a 12-section sea chart from 1516 and "gores" of the globe (the illustrated skins that were stretched over a sphere). The map surfaced in 1901. "There were some efforts made even then by the Library of Congress and others to acquire it," says Hebert. Some 500 copies of the map were made at the time, and the library owns one reproduction. In 1991, the original Waldseemuller map came to Washington as part of a National Gallery exhibit on Columbus. The prince has offered to sell the map to the library for $10 million. The extra $4 million would buy the rare sea chart--known as the Carta Marina and also drawn by Waldseemuller--and two incomplete sets of celestial gores. The Carta Marina, which is also unique, says Hebert, was based on unpublished nautical charts, kept secret by explorers. It is, according to a press release, the first printed nautical chart of the modern world. The borders are decorated and the map is alive with cartouches, festoons and ornate illustrations. There is a drawing of an exotic opossum in South America and a rhinoceros in Africa. The gores contain maps by Johann Schoner, another early cartographer. The library's cartographic collection contains 4.7 million items, including 63,000 atlases and other original material dating back to the mid-14th century. There's one more reason to buy the Waldseemuller map, Hebert says. It's the first wall map. "It's not a small piece--it's 36 square feet. That's right huge." Plus, he adds, "it changed the understanding of the traditional Greek-Latin-Ptolemaic world." Staff writer Don Oldenburg contributed to this report. Copyright 2000. The Washington Post Company. Thomas F. Sander Vice President (Programs) Washington Map Society P.O. Box 10793 Burke, VA 22009-0793 phone (703) 426-2880 fax (703) 426-2881 e-mail sanderva@erols.com Portolan Web Site http://users.supernet.com/pages/jdocktor/portolan.htm Washington Map Society Web Site http://users.supernet.com/pages/jdocktor/washmap.htm This mailing list is brought to you courtesy of: Barry Lawrence Ruderman Old Historic Maps & Prints http://www.raremaps.com/
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