The 1507 Universalis Cosmographia by German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller is the oldest map of the world to display the name “America,” coined in honor of Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci, who was the first to recognize that the land discovered across the ocean belonged to a new continent. The website—the outcome of an in-depth three-year research—makes users able to explore the map’s wealth of historical, technical, scientific, and geographic data as well as to “read” the countless fascinating stories embedded in the Cosmographia. The website has been created by the Museo Galileo in collaboration with the Library of Congress, Washington D.C., thanks to the generous support of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze.
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