>>16133839Although the original manuscript of this calendar has not survived, there are a number of references to it in other contemporary documents. This is the first use of the term 'America' to refer to the new continent.
The earliest surviving map to use the name is Martin Waldseemuller's great map of the world of 1507, but it only applied to South America. In his notes Waldseemuller makes the assumption that the name is derived from a Latin version of Amerigo Vespucci's first name, because Vespucci had discovered and mapped the South American coast from 1500 to 1502.
This suggests he didn't know for sure, and was trying to account for a name he had seen on other maps, possibly Cabot's. The only place where the name 'America' was known and used was Bristol - not somewhere the French-based Waldseemuller was likely to visit. Significantly, he replaced 'America' with 'Terra Incognita' in his world map of 1513.
(to be continued)