Jan 26. 2014
Episode 4: On maps, forgeries, and what really is in a name
This episode’s book is the Cosmographie Introductio, published by the Gymnasium Vosagense, most likely written by Mathias Ringmann, as companion to the Waldseemuller Map of 1507. I barely scratched the surface of the wonderful and complicated stories of Amerigo Vespucci, the Universalis Cosmographia, and how the New World came to be called “America”.
For more information (and just a really great read) I would highly recommend “The Fourth Part of the World” by Toby Lester. If you’re interested in Vespucci himself “Amerigo” by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto is a good source for trying to peel away some of the mystery surrounding this enigmatic character. A facsimile copy of the translated “Cosmographiae Introductio can be found on the Internet Archives at https://archive.org/details/cosmograp… and physical copies can be found with a little digging.
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Transition Studies 