The Fourth Part of the World

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Old maps lead to unexpected places, and none more so than the giant Waldseemuller world map of 1507, which gave America its name. For centuries, Europeans viewed the world as three parts: Europe, Africa, and Asia, occasionally hinting at a mysterious "fourth part" separated by ocean. This myth became reality when Martin Waldseemuller and Matthias Ringmann, two scholars in eastern France, concluded that Amerigo Vespucci had discovered this fourth part. In 1507, they printed a groundbreaking map that depicted the New World as distinct from Asia and named it America in Vespucci's honor. This narrative unfolds as a thrilling saga of geographical and intellectual exploration, revealing the origins of our modern worldview. Toby Lester takes a kaleidoscopic approach, connecting ancient legends, Biblical prophecies, classical learning, and medieval exploration. The map comes alive with figures like Marco Polo, early Christian missionaries, and the humanists who sought ancient texts. It chronicles the voyages of Columbus and Vespucci and highlights Nicholas Copernicus, who deduced from the map that the Earth was not the center of the cosmos. Only one of the original thousand copies remains, discovered in 1901 and purchased by the Library of Congress in 2003 for $10 million. Lavishly illustrated, this work tells the captivating story of the map and the intellectual journeys that shaped our understanding of the world.