AMERICA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 17, 5 September 1911, Page 2

AMERICA.

o ORIGIN OF THE NAME. Every schoolboy knows, or ought to know, that America is called after Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian navigator who explored the coast of America after Columbus, but how that name came to bo given to the continents is a matter of less general knowledge. A little ceremony that took place recently at St. ' Die, a town in the \ osges, recalls the process by which the name of Amerigo Vespucci was thus undeservedly immortalised. Those who gave ihe name America to the newly-discovered lands were three men of St. Die—V an tun hud, a learned priest, and Mathias ilingmann and Martin WaldsoomuJlo”, printers, and the work in which the name first appeared, “Cosmographiae Iptvoductio,”. was printed at St. Die, and published in April, 1507. Columbus had discovered the new world, but he had not written about it, and the only material the printers of St. Die had for their work on cosmography was the narrative of Amerigo Vespucci. They therefore gave the New World the name, of America, and Waldseomuller used the name again the following year in his map of the world. St. Die therefore - claims to lie the godmother of the New World. The 400th anniversary of the christening was celebrated not long ago, four years after its time, and was attended by the American Ambassador in Paris, and several promi cent Frenchmen. The Mayor handed to the Ambassador portraits of Laid, Ilingmann and Waldseomuller, as a gift to the American nation, and the Ambassador witnessed the placing in position of a commemorative plaque recalling that on April 25th, 1507, the “Cosmographiae I ntroductio,” which gave the name of America to the Now World, waif at St. Die. The moral seems to be that when you discover a thing you should write about it at mice, but that hardly needs pointing out in these days, when every explorer packs a typewriter in his kit. And after all, Columbus has not sutfered greatly by the mistake. Everybody knows' he discovered America, and that is fame enough for auv man.