"The American continent was "christened" by the cartographer Martin Waldseemüller. A previously unknown variant of the famous world map from the mapmaker's workshop has unexpectedly turned up in the collections in the University Library in Munich." - Maitani from Bookmarklet

"When Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel officially handed over the famous map of the world printed by Martin Waldseemüller (ca. 1470 -- 1522) to the Library of Congress In Washington in 2007, she referred to it as "a wonderful token of the particularly close ties of friendship between Germany and America." And indeed, the gesture had great symbolic weight, for the chart -- then exactly 500 years old -- can be seen as America's birth certificate. On this map, the New World appears for the first time under the name "America," chosen to honor the explorer Amerigo Vespucci (1451 -- 1512), whom Waldseemüller erroneously regarded as the discoverer of the continent." - Maitani

"The chart, which is registered in "Memory of the World," UNESCO's inventory of the world's documentary heritage, is now on show in the Library of Congress in Washington. The map was formerly held in a private German collection, and was included as Object No. 01301 on the list of specially protected German Cultural Treasures, which prohibits their sale and export. Before the Library could purchase the map from the previous owner and obtain an export license, the object had first to be delisted. The application to delist was granted at the direction of the Chancellor's Office in 2001." - Maitani

Wonderful. :) - Kelli H.