Waldseemüller, Martin

Cartographer who produced the first large printed world map, the first published collection of modern maps, and some of the earliest maps made from measurements on the ground. He was the one who suggested the name “America” for the New World, based on the writings of Amerigo Vespucci, following Vespucci’s voyage of 1501–1502. (The sole surviving copy of the first wall map using the word “America” is now in the US Library of Congress). He created “Cosmographiae Introductio”, Strasbourg, 1507 – which included a much-copied world map: “Universalis Cosmographia…” and also edited a 1513 Strasbourg edition of Ptolemy‘s “Geographia” for which he was not credited, although he compiled a special supplement for it of 20 modern maps. Studied in Fribourg, Switzerland, died in Lorraine, in today’s Germany.