-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        German stamp commemorates Waldseemueller's map
Date:   Tue, 17 Apr 2007 14:19:40 -0700
From:   [log in to unmask]
To:     maps-l

http://www.eux.tv/article.aspx?articleId=6548

German stamp commemorates man who gave America wrong name

Freiburg, Germany (dpa) - Germany issued a stamp Tuesday commemorating
the German cartographer, Martin Waldseemueller, who unwittingly gave the
Americas the wrong name in a map he drew 500 years ago.

Waldseemueller, unaware that Christopher Columbus was the first European
sea-captain to reach the Americas, placed the landmass and its peoples
on his map under a name inspired by Amerigo Vespucci (1471-1512), an
Italian-born Spanish explorer.

The postage stamp depicts 12 sectional maps in the style of the
Waldseemueller wood-block-printed map of the world.
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