Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1902-04-17
LONG-sOuGHT MAP DISCOVERED
Remarkable Discovery in the History
of Cartoqraphy.

HenaTNapie discovery in the History
of Cartography.
New York Times.-There has lately
been made in Europe one of the most
remarkable discoveries in the history
OF cartography, and one which must
hereafter be referred to in all works
pretending to give in detailed form the
story of the new world This discov
cry is nothing less than the unearth.
ing in an obscure corner of a noble
mans library of the first maps known
to have been made containing the
name of America. Basil H. Soulsby
secretary of the HakIuyt society. and
whose life has been spent in studying
the maps in the British museum, has
this to say about the Importance of the
new discovery:
Ever since Humboldt first called
attention to the 'Cosmographiae In
troductio,' no lost maps have ever been
sought for so diligently as these of
Waldseemuller. 1t is not too much to
say that the honor of being their
lucky discoverer has long been con-
sidered as the highest possible prize to
be obtained among students in the field
of ancient cartography
But until the last few months, al
though many copies of the book are
known in various editions, no speci-
men of either the globe or map has
ever been seen or heard of in modern
times. Some historians and geograph-
ers have even gone so far as to state
definitely that they were never is
sued at all, and the book published
alone. Others have held that they
never got beyond their manuscript
form, while some have contended that
they were actually issued with the
book, but, being separate, had become
lost in the course of time"
This important discovery was made
quite lately by Prof. P. Joseph Fischer
of Feldkirch. He was tracking over
the library of Prince Waldburg of
Wolfegg castle. in Wurtemberg. and
there he unearthed Waldseemuller'
long-lost map of 1907. Prof. Weiser
has given a most interesting and lucid
account of the maps. The title of his
article is "The Oldest Map with the
Name America" Prof. Fischer was
studying the early discoveries made
by the Norsemen in Greenland when IN
an out-of-the-way portfolio he came
across Waldseemuller's two maps.
These early specimens of cartography
are thus described:
Both maps are. wood engravings,
and each consist of IL folio sheets. If
We understand the description Alright
each map, if put together, would be
four sheets wide by three sheets high
Each sheet measures ASS centimeters
high by 81 centimeters long, so that
approximately each map if made up
would measure about eight feet wide
by four feet six inches high-a large
map even at the present day The
sheets Of the maps have been folded
once and bound in elephant folio"
The huge size of the map and it's in
convenience as 10 form may have
FASTENED its destruction. The secre-
tary of the Hakluyt society concludes:
THE very size of the WOlfegg 1907
map points clearly to the theory of an
earlier map, showing the western dis
coveries and bearing the word Ameri-
ca, for the work of drawing engrav-
ing, and printing a thousand maps of
II large sheets must have taken a very
considerable time, not to mention the
printing of the book All this time
the name America must have been il