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Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey Brainstuff. Lauren

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Speaker 1: vogelbam Here. The Library of Congress in Washington, d C.

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Speaker 1: Houses an enormous five hundred year old world map that

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Speaker 1: was the very first to use the name America. It's

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Speaker 1: the only surviving copy of what's known as the fifteen

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Speaker 1: oh seven Vladsmuller Map, a priceless historical artifact discovered in

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Speaker 1: the basement of a German castle in nineteen oh one

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Speaker 1: and purchased by the Library of Congress for ten million

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Speaker 1: dollars in two thousand and three. For the article this

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Speaker 1: episode is based on How Stuffworks, spoke with Chet Van Duzer,

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Speaker 1: a map making historian. He said, it's the birth certificate

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Speaker 1: of America. But equally as fascinating as the fifteen oh

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Speaker 1: seven map is a world map from just nine years later,

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Speaker 1: the Carda Marina of fifteen sixteen. This map was published

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Speaker 1: by the very same man, Martin Valdsmuller, but the word

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Speaker 1: America is nowhere to be found. In its place is

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Speaker 1: the name Terra Nova, meaning new World. Van Duser said,

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Speaker 1: the most amazing thing about the name America is that

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Speaker 1: the guy who invented it decided it wasn't the right name,

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Speaker 1: and despite a number of Norse expeditions as early as

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Speaker 1: the nine hundred CE, Europe as a whole did not

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Speaker 1: know that what we now call the Americas existed until

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Speaker 1: Christopher Columbus landed in the Caribbean in fourteen ninety two.

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Speaker 1: He brought back word the next year, and the news

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Speaker 1: kicked off an age of European exploration and colonization. By

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Speaker 1: fifteen oh four, he had completed four voyages and made

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Speaker 1: land on parts of what's now Central and South America.

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Speaker 1: And sure Columbus never set foot in North America and

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Speaker 1: died insisting that he had found a western route to Asia.

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Speaker 1: But nonetheless, why didn't Valdsmuller called the lad Lands say

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Speaker 1: Columbia on his map in fifteen oh seven, Probably because

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Speaker 1: Columbus didn't write a best selling pamphlet about his travels

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Speaker 1: that was redolent with sex, violence and cannibalism, which is

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Speaker 1: what his fellow Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci did. A Vespucci

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Speaker 1: set sale in fourteen ninety nine and published two wildly

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Speaker 1: popular accounts of his voyages. A Van Duser said Vespucci

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Speaker 1: was a better self promoter than Columbus, and his accounts

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Speaker 1: are more lurid, shall we say, than Columbuses, so they

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Speaker 1: were reprinted more often. Vespucci's first pamphlet, written in fifteen

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Speaker 1: oh four, was called Mandas Novis. In it, Vespucci claimed

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Speaker 1: that the lands across the Atlantic were indeed a new continent,

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Speaker 1: not an extension of Asia or just some big island.

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Speaker 1: His expedition landed somewhere in what's now known as the

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Speaker 1: Guianas at the northern edge of South America, and then

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Speaker 1: headed south, following the coast along what's now Brazil and

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Speaker 1: Uruguay and Argentina all the way to just some four

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Speaker 1: hundred miles north of the tip of the continent, before

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Speaker 1: heading back. That's about six hundred and fifty kilometers north

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Speaker 1: of the south end of the continent. Vespucci wrote, this

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Speaker 1: transcends the view held by our ancients that there is

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Speaker 1: no continent to the south beyond the equator, but only

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Speaker 1: the sea, which they named the Atlantic. But this their

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Speaker 1: opinion is false and utterly opposed to the truth. This

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Speaker 1: my last voyage, has made manifest, for in those southern

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Speaker 1: parts I have found a continent more densely peopled at

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Speaker 1: abounding in animals than our Europe, or Asia or Africa.

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Speaker 1: The pamphlet also included plenty of colorful details about the

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Speaker 1: quote unquote curious natives, whom Daspucci depicted as gentle overall

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Speaker 1: but decidedly un Christian in their customs, which he said

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Speaker 1: included facial piercings, cannibalism, and sexual promiscuity. A second pamphlet,

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Speaker 1: known as the Soderini Letter, which may not have been

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Speaker 1: written entirely by Vespucci, made the Rounds in fifteen oh five.

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Speaker 1: This one involved more nudity and provided play by play

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Speaker 1: accounts of a few instants between the Europeans and the

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Speaker 1: indigenous peoples, some humorous, some violent. The Spucci's accounts were

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Speaker 1: widely read throughout Europe, including the small village in France

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Speaker 1: where mapmaker Martin Valdsmuller and his collaborator Mattheus Ringman were

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Speaker 1: compiling an ambitious new map of the world. They had

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Speaker 1: undoubtedly heard of Columbus, but were seemingly unimpressed. Their map,

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Speaker 1: published in fifteen oh seven, was a giant twelve panels that,

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Speaker 1: when composited, measure four point two feet long by seven

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Speaker 1: point six feet wide that's one point three by two

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Speaker 1: point three meters, and at the top they engraved portraits

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Speaker 1: of the two men they leaved to be the two

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Speaker 1: greatest geographers of the ancient and modern world, the Greek

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Speaker 1: mathematician Ptolemy and Amerigo Vespucci. In the lengthy text that

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Speaker 1: accompanied the map, the two men explained, quote, the fourth

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Speaker 1: part of the Earth, which because Amerigo discovered it, we

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Speaker 1: may call Amerigie the land of Amerigo, so to speak,

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Speaker 1: or America so yep. They named the continent America quote

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Speaker 1: because Amerigo discovered it. It didn't take long for Valdzimuler

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Speaker 1: and Ringman to realize their mistake, but because sixteenth century

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Speaker 1: map making and printmaking was a painstakingly slow process, it

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Speaker 1: took a full nine years downright speedy in those days,

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Speaker 1: for the men to publish a corrected map, the Cardamrina

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Speaker 1: of fifteen sixteen, along with a wordy mia culpa. They wrote,

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Speaker 1: we will seem to you reader, previously to have diligently

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Speaker 1: presented in shown a representation of the world that was

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Speaker 1: filled with error, wonder, and confusion. As we have lately

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Speaker 1: come to understand, our previous representation pleased very few people. Therefore,

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Speaker 1: since true seekers of knowledge rarely color their words in

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Speaker 1: confusing rhetoric, and do not embellish facts charm, but instead

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Speaker 1: with a venerable abundance of simplicity, we must say that

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Speaker 1: we cover our heads with a humble hood. In their

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Speaker 1: cardam Marina of fifteen sixteen, the name America is gone,

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Speaker 1: substituted with Terra nova. Presumably the men had figured out

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Speaker 1: that Columbus and a few other sailors before Vespucci had

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Speaker 1: gotten there first and had a better idea of what

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Speaker 1: they were looking at than Columbus. But by fifteen sixteen,

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Speaker 1: at least six other world maps had been published using

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Speaker 1: the name America, and despite Waltz, Muller and Ringman's belated retraction,

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Speaker 1: the original name stuff America was America from then on,

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Speaker 1: thanks to some good storytelling and lucky timing. Today's episode

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Speaker 1: is based on the article Amerigo Vespucci, a lurid pamphlet

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Speaker 1: and the Naming of America on HowStuffWorks dot Com, written

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Speaker 1: by Dave Bruse. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in

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Speaker 1: partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com. It is produced by Tyler Klang.

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Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.