Library of Congress Exhibit Demonstrates Fragile Nature of Knowledge: 500-Year Map

[CorpGovActivist]

Map that named America is a puzzle for researchers

By David Alexander, Reuters; http://news.google.com/news?tab=wn&hl=en&ned=&q=Waldseemuller&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d">Other news links featuring story.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The only surviving copy of the 500-year-old map that first used the name America goes on permanent display this month at the Library of Congress, but even as it prepares for its debut, the 1507 Waldseemuller map remains a puzzle for researchers.

Why did the mapmaker name the territory America and then change his mind later? How was he able to draw South America so accurately? Why did he put a huge ocean west of America years before European explorers discovered the Pacific?

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Waldseemuller made it clear he was naming the new land after Vespucci, describing how he came up with the name America based on the navigator's first name.

But he soon had misgivings about what he had done. An atlas Waldseemuller produced six years later shows only part of the east coast of the Americas, and refers to it as Terra Incognita -- unknown land.

"America has gone out of his lexicon," Hebert said. "(No) place in the atlas -- in the text or in the maps -- does the name America appear."

His 1516 mariner's map, on the same scale as the 1507 map, steps back even further, showing only parts of the new continents and reconnecting the north to Asia. South America is labeled Terra Nova -- New World -- and North America is labeled Terra de Cuba -- Land of Cuba.

Why the rollback? No one knows.

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The powerful influences at play - including Spain, Portugal, the Holy See - had vested interests in not allowing too much data to fall into the wrong hands.

It's 500 years later, and http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=clinton+library+donations">some still haven't learned the lesson.

- Dave

[Blue State Bandit]

1. I question the validity of the "America Vespucci" story.

I've heard this story before and did a bit of research on this subject back in the winter of 2001. What I eventually found was a possibility that the name of our country follows a line much longer thru history and traversed Europe thru France (La'Merica)rather than Italy, but I'm no expert.

It was surmised in the book "The Hiram Key" (Knight, Lomas) that a Baptist sect that was in existence in Al Nasiriyah, Iraq (at least before the invasion) that traced their roots directly to John the Baptist (purported to belong to a sect called the the Essene or Nassirian which is Ancient Egyptian for "Little Fish). They used the term "Merica" to describe the "Promise Land" that JtB allegedly spoke of to the west under the setting sun and the Star of David. This could have been Israel/Palestine, or it could be America. Who knows. I did get independent confirmation from an old friend from Iraq regarding the existence of the Baptist sect in 2001.

It is also widely believed that the Knight's Templar (assumed later to found the Freemasons) traveled to the New World after the massacre of their followers by the French King and Rome in 1303. This could account for the accuracy of the first map and the naming. Keep in mind that as a "secret society" they may have attempted to obfuscated this themselves under pressure from within or without.

Now this does rely on speculation, I admit, but so does most of history. Considering all the masonic lure surrounding the birth of America, I find this plausible, but who knows?

[CorpGovActivist]

2. When History Meets Fiction...

... the result can be entertaining.

Have Library of Congress card, will travel.

; )

- Dave