The Waldseemuller map is, according to a library fact sheet, "America's birth certificate." But it is much more than that. At 8 by 4 1/2 feet, it is a bay window into the ancient mysterious.

This evening, she formally hands over a historic 500-year-old map to the Library of Congress. It is Martin Waldseemuller's 1507 Map of the World.

It includes later maps that lose faith in Waldseemuller’s vision of America. In a 1516 world map, the Americas are called “Terra Ultra Incognita” – a faraway unknown country.

The 12-panel creation by Martin Waldseemuller cost the library $10 million, paid over several years. The funding came from private and corporate donors and from Congress, which granted $5 million ...

The library announced the purchase yesterday of the Waldseemuller world map of 1507, a cartographic treasure and the first known document to call a land mass "America." ...

The 1507 map, by famed cartographer Martin Waldseemuller, had been bound with another early 16th century Waldseemuller map, and the library had been unable to raise $4 million to buy it as well.

IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more. At "The Naming of America," an ...

In a 1516 world map, the Americas are called "Terra Ultra Incognita" - a faraway unknown country. Still, the Library of Congress had pursued Waldseemuller's mammoth map for more than a century.