In early December 2007 the Library of Congress in Washington unveiled the only surviving copy of a very special map outlining the continents of the world prepared in the sixteenth century by Martin Waldseemüller, a German scholar, humanist, monk and cartographer.
It was the first document on which the name America appears, the first map to
depict a full Western Hemisphere (North and South America) and the first map to
represent the Pacific Ocean as a separate body of water. Working with a group of
scholars at a monastery in France, he created the map in 1507.
The name America came from Amerigo Vespucci, who made 4 voyages to the “new”
continent between 1497 and 1504 and whose writings Waldseemüller was able to
read. Columbus made voyages to the east coast starting in1492.
Waldseemüller's exceptional 1507 map continues to be a mystery. How was he able
to predict the contours of the continent's Pacific coast quite accurately years
before the European adventurers saw it? Balboa crossed land to the Pacific only
in 1513 and Magellan did not round the southern tip of the continent until 1520!
Some mapmakers say that his map was based on the information left behind in the
first century CE by the ancient Greeks, particularly Ptolemy, the greatest
geographer of the classical period. It is possible that even Ptolemy's knowledge
was base on something even more ancient. This puzzle is not solved.
Western twentieth century man tends to believe that his level of knowledge and
know-how is the most advanced that has ever existed, in technology, religion,
government, medicine etc.
In addition this “progress” is seen to have an inevitable step by step linear
quality to it, from being ignorant and savage to wise and civilized, from pagan
and superstitious to God-fearing and spiritual.
But is it really true? Is it true mainly at the material level? Humanity and
history progress perhaps more according to the cyclical laws of nature rather
than according to a linear reason, however logical and well informed.
