1507 SAINT-DIE-DES-VOSGES NOMME LE NOUVEAU MONDE "AMERICA"

A group of scientists decided to draw up a map showing the "New World" described by Vespucci as a continent bordered by oceans, quite distinct from Asia, with its new name AMERICA. An explanatory booklet containing a treatise on geography and the Latin translation of Amerigo Vespucci's four stories accompanies the map. This is the COSMOGRAPHIAE INTRODUCTIO, in which the Vosges Gymnasium explains why it wanted to call the new continent "AMERICA". The most striking part of the text of the COSMOGRAPHIAE INTRODUCTIO is contained in chapter IX of the book. The scholars of the Vosges Gymnasium write: "A fourth part was discovered by Amerigo Vespucci (...). And as Europe and Asia were named after women, I see no reason not to call this other part AMERIGE, i.e. Amerigo's land, or AMERICA, after the sagacious man who discovered it...". This is the baptismal act of the New Continent.