Martin Waldseemuller (1470 - 1518)

Born in Radolfzell, a village on the shores of Lake Constance, Wandseemuller went on to study for the church at Freiburg and later became a member of a group of scholars located at St.Die at the Court of the Duke of Lorraine, known for his patronage of the arts. There, he concentrated on the study of cartography and cosmography. The result of his studies was the world map for which he is best known, which appeared in 1507. Probably the most ambitious and radical map of the time. It was one of the first maps to be issued separately rather than as part of a book and at almost two and a half metres in width it was the largest and most detailed map yet made.It was drawn using the Ptolomaic projection and printed from twelve separate woodblocks. It was also the first map to use the word 'America' to describe the New World which Wandseemuller adapted from the name of the Italian mercantile mariner Amerigo Vespucci whom he considered to be the discoverer of the new World.

He went on to produce an issue of Ptolemy's 'Geographia' which was published in 1513 and which became the standard edition of that work until the publication of Munster's 'Geographia' in 1540.