Ringmann oder Waldseemüller?: Eine kritische Untersuchung über den Urheber des Namens Amerika

Abstract

ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT in his Examen critique de l'histoire de la geographic du Nouveau Continent (1836 — 39 ) was the first to raise the question of the identity of the author of the name America; he believed this elusive man to be the anonymous author of the Cosmographiae Introductio of 1507, which he attributed to the Freiburg cosmographer, MARTIN WALDSEEMULLER. Subsequent Waldseemüller researchers, amongst them noteworthy geographers such as D'AVEZAC, H. HARRISSE, L. GALLOIS, J . BOYD THACHER, J . FISCHER a n d F. v. WIESER have by and large accepted HUMBOLDT'S thesis. Important discoveries were a globe in 1890 by L. GALLOIS and a world map in 1 9 0 0 by J. FISCHER. Both were recognised as belonging to the Cosmographiae Introductio of 1 5 0 7 , and were shown beyond doubt to be WALDSSEMULLER'S work. Since the map as well as the globe contain the name Amerika, and it is also mentioned and its choice defended in a number of places in the Cosmographiae Introductio, the results of HUMBOLDT'S research seemed to have been confirmed once more. The literary historians, C. SCHMIDT, K. GOEDECKE, H. CHARLES and R. NEWALD, who also dealt with the Cosmographiae Introductio of 1507, came to a different conclusion. Although aware of the views of the scholars mentioned earlier, they attributed this work to the Alsatian humanist and poet, MATTHIAS RINGMANN, who called himself Philesius Vogesigena. Stimulated by this contradiction, the author investigated this question anew and came to the conclusions which follow. HUMBOLDT'S thesis of WALDSEEMULLER'S authorship of the Cosmographiae Introductio, and thus the originator of the name America, rested on a number of errors. As D'AVEZAC has already shown, HUMBOLDT omitted to distinguish precisely between the Editio princeps of the Cosmographiae Introductio and the later editions and their variants, and he used secondary sources which lacked precision. An exacting study of WALDSEEMULLER'S dedication made it quite clear that he only contributed as cartographer to the joint work at St. Did; it was thus obvious next to investigate in detail RINGMANN'S contribution. WALDSEEMULLER and RINGMANN were close personal friends and worked from 1505 in St. Did on an enlarged Ptolemy edition. At first single publications arose from this, like the world map and the globe of 1507, the map of Europe of 1511, and finally the Strassburg Ptolemy of 1513. Texts were also published separately to go with all these cartographic productions, and in those of 1511 and 1513, RINGMANN is referred to by name as the author. RINGMANN died in 1511 and WALDSEEMULLER'S Carta marina of 1516 appeared without accompanying text. It may thus be concluded that RINGMANN in every case wrote the texts and is therefore the author of the Cosmographiae Introductio of 1507. A careful checking and interpretation of the relevant passages in the text further showed that RINGMANN had not been completely successful in convincing the cartographer WALDSEEMULLER of the correctness of the newly coined name America. This is confirmed by a comparison with WALDSEEMÜLLER'S later maps; after 1 5 0 7 he never again used the name America; it does not appear in the Ptolemy of 1513, nor on the map of the oceans of 1516. On the other hand, the name was quickly taken over by his contemporaries, as the drawings of GLAREAN and SCHÖ- NER show. WALDSEEMÜLLER, who had once acquiesced to the poetic enthusiasm of his friend, was later unable, despite his increasing scepticism, to rectify RINGMANN'S error regarding the discoverer, AMERIGO VESPUCCI. Today the following can be stated: to the humanist RINGMANN and his enthusiasm for the voyager AMERIGO VESPUCCI we owe the name as such; to the cartographer WALDSEEMÜLLER its first use on a world map and globe, and thus its spread and persistence for all times.