One of the first to take notice was the German cartographer Martin Waldseemu ller, who was so impressed by Vespucci's claims that in 1507 he published the first map showing the lands of the Western Hemisphere as a new continent, separate from Asia.
``America," he called it, `` after Amerigo, it's [sic] discoverer, a man of great ability."
We all know the broad outlines of this tale. But ``Journeys of the Imagination," an exhibit at the Boston Public Library in Copley Square through Aug. 18, presents a less familiar finale.
Near a facsimile of Waldseemu ller's 1507 map, the library displays its print of his 1513 revision. Waldseemu ller had a change of heart about Vespucci's claim. So he stripped his name and reglued North America to Asia. Successors, however, adopted the name America, and it stuck.
Drawn from the library's Norman B. Leventhal Map Center, the 40 maps and two globes -- ranging from tiny book illustrations to 7-foot-wide panoramas, from the late 15th century to today -- show Europeans and Americans struggling to envision the earth. A wonderfully illustrated catalog accompanies the exhibit. (If only the tall open gallery so flattered these great maps.)
Much art comes of people trying to make sense of the world, but here the challenge is literal. The drama is watching them cobble together the world we know today -- and North America in particular -- from reports, dribbling back from explorers, tall tales, and guesstimates.
Since the second century, Europeans had adhered to Greek geographer Ptolemy's view. A woodcut from a 1482 edition of his ``Geographia" depicts a world that is primarily land (Europe, Asia, a bit of Africa) with pockets of sea. The discovery of the Americas and the realization that the Atlantic and Pacific were separate oceans caused cartographers to reimagine the Earth as a place dominated by water and dotted by great islands.
Sebastian Mu nster and Hans Holbein's 1555 woodcut follows Waldseemu ller's 1507 map, with South America labeled ``America" and the ``New World." It is the epitome of the map as lavishly decorated art object. See the mermaids and angels; beware the angry elephant, winged serpents, and hungry cannibals.
