The book, Introduction to Cosmography, created a fundamental change to our understanding of the discovery of the New World. For many years, historians believed that it was only in 1513 that people began to understand that the New World was not a part of Asia. In 1520, Magellan confirmed the idea by sailing around the tip of what we now know as South America and the Pacific Ocean. However, when the Introduction to Cosmography was discovered, it significantly altered the historical timeline regarding the idea of a New World in the Americas. The book, which was published more than a decade earlier in 1507, revealed that the New World was not a part of Asia by using Vespucci’s New World letter and other evidence. Introduction to Cosmography also …show more content…
Even though libraries today list Martin Waldseemuller as the sole author of Introduction to Cosmography, some facts reveal otherwise. Apparently, “Ringmann’s fingerprints are all over the work.“ For example, the author of the book was familiar with ancient Greek. Ringmann knew the language well. Waldseemuller however, did not. In fact, Waldseemuller himself clarified how much Ringmann contributed to the book. He says, "I humbly beg of you to accept with benevolence my work," he wrote, "with an explanatory summary prepared by Ringmann." It is important to know who developed which parts of the book because the author of one distinct passage is likely responsible for naming and identifying the new continent named “America.” “To get Amerigen, Ringmann combined the name Amerigo with the Greek word gen, the accusative form of a word meaning "earth," and by doing so coined a name that means—as he himself explains—’land of Amerigo.’” The paragraph that this excerpt comes from is stylized with Ringmann’s usual poetic fingerprints and familiarity with Greek. Therefore, Ringmann must have authored this passage, and by this first proposed the idea of America as a New …show more content…
Many in Spain believed that Vespucci named the New World after himself and refused to use the name “America” since they thought it was taking away from Columbus's glory. For a time, they even refused to put the name America on maps and other documents for more than two centuries. However, the name America, was a natural poetic counterpart to Asia, Africa, Europe, etc., and became popular with influential figures of the day. “Gerardus Mercator, destined to become the century's most influential cartographer, decided that the whole of the New World, not just its southern part, should be so labeled. The two names he put on his 1538 world map are the ones we've used ever since: North America and South