1513 Martin Waldseemüller - Map of the World

This early-16th century map by Martin Waldseemüller (1470-1521) is the only known edition of this particular world map, and contains an early appearance of the name “America.” The map is generally known as the “Admiral's Map,” because at one time it was believed to have been the work of Columbus, often referred to as “the Admiral.” Waldseemüller was a German scholar and cartographer who in 1507 published his Cosmographiaie Introductio (Introduction to cosmography) in which he suggested that the New World be called “America.” In the same year, Waldseemüller and his colleagues in Saint Die, France, compiled the first map of the world showing the western hemisphere as a distinct continent and applying to it the name America. This map was made some time after 1507.