Who Named the Americas?

In the early 1500s, a sailor by the name of Amerigo Vespucci published lurid pamphlets about his travels to a distant continent. Learn how a pair of mapmakers regretted naming that continent after him in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-figures/amerigo-vespucci.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey Brainstuff. Lauren
vogelbam Here. The Library of Congress in Washington, d C.
Houses an enormous five hundred year old world map that
was the very first to use the name America. It's
the only surviving copy of what's known as the fifteen

(00:24):
oh seven Vladsmuller Map, a priceless historical artifact discovered in
the basement of a German castle in nineteen oh one
and purchased by the Library of Congress for ten million
dollars in two thousand and three. For the article this
episode is based on How Stuffworks, spoke with Chet Van Duzer,
a map making historian. He said, it's the birth certificate

(00:46):
of America. But equally as fascinating as the fifteen oh
seven map is a world map from just nine years later,
the Carda Marina of fifteen sixteen. This map was published
by the very same man, Martin Valdsmuller, but the word
America is nowhere to be found. In its place is

(01:07):
the name Terra Nova, meaning new World. Van Duser said,
the most amazing thing about the name America is that
the guy who invented it decided it wasn't the right name,
and despite a number of Norse expeditions as early as
the nine hundred CE, Europe as a whole did not
know that what we now call the Americas existed until

(01:30):
Christopher Columbus landed in the Caribbean in fourteen ninety two.
He brought back word the next year, and the news
kicked off an age of European exploration and colonization. By
fifteen oh four, he had completed four voyages and made
land on parts of what's now Central and South America.
And sure Columbus never set foot in North America and

(01:53):
died insisting that he had found a western route to Asia.
But nonetheless, why didn't Valdsmuller called the lad Lands say
Columbia on his map in fifteen oh seven, Probably because
Columbus didn't write a best selling pamphlet about his travels
that was redolent with sex, violence and cannibalism, which is
what his fellow Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci did. A Vespucci

(02:18):
set sale in fourteen ninety nine and published two wildly
popular accounts of his voyages. A Van Duser said Vespucci
was a better self promoter than Columbus, and his accounts
are more lurid, shall we say, than Columbuses, so they
were reprinted more often. Vespucci's first pamphlet, written in fifteen

(02:39):
oh four, was called Mandas Novis. In it, Vespucci claimed
that the lands across the Atlantic were indeed a new continent,
not an extension of Asia or just some big island.
His expedition landed somewhere in what's now known as the
Guianas at the northern edge of South America, and then
headed south, following the coast along what's now Brazil and

(03:02):
Uruguay and Argentina all the way to just some four
hundred miles north of the tip of the continent, before
heading back. That's about six hundred and fifty kilometers north
of the south end of the continent. Vespucci wrote, this
transcends the view held by our ancients that there is
no continent to the south beyond the equator, but only

(03:23):
the sea, which they named the Atlantic. But this their
opinion is false and utterly opposed to the truth. This
my last voyage, has made manifest, for in those southern
parts I have found a continent more densely peopled at
abounding in animals than our Europe, or Asia or Africa.
The pamphlet also included plenty of colorful details about the

(03:46):
quote unquote curious natives, whom Daspucci depicted as gentle overall
but decidedly un Christian in their customs, which he said
included facial piercings, cannibalism, and sexual promiscuity. A second pamphlet,
known as the Soderini Letter, which may not have been
written entirely by Vespucci, made the Rounds in fifteen oh five.

(04:09):
This one involved more nudity and provided play by play
accounts of a few instants between the Europeans and the
indigenous peoples, some humorous, some violent. The Spucci's accounts were
widely read throughout Europe, including the small village in France
where mapmaker Martin Valdsmuller and his collaborator Mattheus Ringman were

(04:31):
compiling an ambitious new map of the world. They had
undoubtedly heard of Columbus, but were seemingly unimpressed. Their map,
published in fifteen oh seven, was a giant twelve panels that,
when composited, measure four point two feet long by seven
point six feet wide that's one point three by two

(04:54):
point three meters, and at the top they engraved portraits
of the two men they leaved to be the two
greatest geographers of the ancient and modern world, the Greek
mathematician Ptolemy and Amerigo Vespucci. In the lengthy text that
accompanied the map, the two men explained, quote, the fourth

(05:15):
part of the Earth, which because Amerigo discovered it, we
may call Amerigie the land of Amerigo, so to speak,
or America so yep. They named the continent America quote
because Amerigo discovered it. It didn't take long for Valdzimuler
and Ringman to realize their mistake, but because sixteenth century

(05:39):
map making and printmaking was a painstakingly slow process, it
took a full nine years downright speedy in those days,
for the men to publish a corrected map, the Cardamrina
of fifteen sixteen, along with a wordy mia culpa. They wrote,
we will seem to you reader, previously to have diligently
presented in shown a representation of the world that was

(06:02):
filled with error, wonder, and confusion. As we have lately
come to understand, our previous representation pleased very few people. Therefore,
since true seekers of knowledge rarely color their words in
confusing rhetoric, and do not embellish facts charm, but instead
with a venerable abundance of simplicity, we must say that

(06:24):
we cover our heads with a humble hood. In their
cardam Marina of fifteen sixteen, the name America is gone,
substituted with Terra nova. Presumably the men had figured out
that Columbus and a few other sailors before Vespucci had
gotten there first and had a better idea of what

(06:44):
they were looking at than Columbus. But by fifteen sixteen,
at least six other world maps had been published using
the name America, and despite Waltz, Muller and Ringman's belated retraction,
the original name stuff America was America from then on,
thanks to some good storytelling and lucky timing. Today's episode

(07:12):
is based on the article Amerigo Vespucci, a lurid pamphlet
and the Naming of America on HowStuffWorks dot Com, written
by Dave Bruse. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in
partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com. It is produced by Tyler Klang.
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