Streams, cities, mountains, schools, squares and a space shuttle bear the name of Christopher Columbus, or at least a derivative of it. But North and South America, two continents unknown to Europe… ...

The map itself seems also to have made a powerful impression on none other than Nicholas Copernicus, who began his landmark On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres by describing America as he saw ...

“Amerigo Vespucci, who gave his name to America, was a pimp in his youth and a magus in his maturity,” writes Felipe Fernández-Armesto in his new biography (Random House, 231 pages, $24.95). His ...

Amerigo Vespucci was a 16th century explorer, ... Vespucci made his discovery while sailing near the tip of South America in 1501, ... Waldseemüller's maps sold thousands of copies across Europe.

1454: Amerigo Vespucci is born in Florence, Italy. He’ll give his name to two continents. Vespucci, the son of a notary, went to work for the Medici banking house. They dispatched him as an ...

When the Dutch mapmaker Pieter van den Keere made a world map in 1611 ... At the top of the cartouche, explorers Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan and Amerigo Vespucci pore over a map.

This 500-year old map is one of the first to show the new world as a distinct continent. Photo: DPA/LMU Tucked away in a geometry book at the Munich University Library, researchers found a 500 ...