this is all the images from exhibit 49 

moved from e49 to this exhibit 3/8/2024

by tmp

8/29/24 (updated 11/29/25)

The Carta Marina by Martin Waldseemüller, published in 1516, is a large and richly detailed world map considered one of the first printed nautical charts of the entire world. It is markedly superior in artistic detail to Waldseemüller's more famous 1507 map, and may have involved the hand of the artist Albrecht Dürer. The map reflects a radical re-evaluation of world geography by Waldseemüller: he rejected the Ptolemaic model used earlier and omitted the name "America," showing instead the newly discovered lands as connected to Asia. The map includes detailed geographic, political, and ethnographic information, combining both official knowledge and fantastical elements such as depictions of cannibals and mythical creatures. It also uses new cartographic techniques, such as shading for oceans instead of dense line patterns, and includes coats of arms for countries, indicating political realities known at the time.

The Carta Marina was arranged on twelve large sheets designed to be assembled into a wall map, measuring approximately 128 by 233 cm. It incorporated updated geographical knowledge from contemporary explorers and sources but also retained some curious errors, such as misattributing the discovery of Newfoundland to Spain instead of Portugal. This ambitious map emphasizes the dynamism of early 16th-century cartography and Waldseemüller's determination to depict the world as he understood it, blending art, scholarship, and exploration history.

Martin Waldseemüller

Martin Waldseemüller (c. 1470 – 1520) was a German cartographer, humanist scholar, and cosmographer most famous for creating the 1507 world map that was the first to use the name "America" to designate the New World, honoring the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci. Educated at Freiburg and influenced by Renaissance humanism, he worked in the small town of Saint-Dié in Lorraine, France, where he collaborated with other scholars such as Matthias Ringmann. Their 1507 map, Universalis Cosmographia, was a landmark in cartography because it showed the Americas as separate continents distinct from Asia and introduced new geographic knowledge derived from exploration.

Waldseemüller also produced the first printed globe gores and was a pioneer in wall maps and atlases, including his 1513 edition of Ptolemy’s Geography and the 1516 Carta Marina, a large nautical chart of the world. Although he was initially enthusiastic about naming the new continents "America," he later expressed reluctance and did not use the name himself after the 1507 map. He died around 1520, but his maps heavily influenced European cartography for decades, laying foundational work for modern geography. His surviving 1507 map is now held at the US Library of Congress.​

Source: Perplexity.ai

--G. Ly