it, France came to take away forever from Columbus the honor of having his name bestowed on the New World of which he was the discoverer.
A Lorrainese geographer, living in Saint-Dié, had published, under the fictitious name of "Martinus Hylacomilus," a work on cosmography, followed by the "Four Narrations of Voyages" by Amerigo Vespucci.[1] This publication, which was entitled, "An Introduction to Cosmography," edited at Saint-Dié, printed at first in that city in 1507, and republished at Strasburg in 1509, was dedicated to the Emperor Maximilian. The author, Martin Waldsemüller, does not mention Christopher Columbus's name once in it, and appears to have had no knowledge even of his existence. He loudly attributed the discovery of the new continent to the genius of Amerigo, whose name he Latinized Americus. In his admiration for the sagacity of Americus, the cosmographer of Saint-Dié declared he did not see what right there was in not giving to the New World the name of Americus, who discovered it, and calling it America, since usage has rendered feminine the names of Europe and of Asia.[2] The high reputation of this work facilitated the adoption of the name proposed by Waldsemüller. It can be seen in the edition of Jean Gruniger, in 1509, that the first copy of the "Narrations of the Four Voyages" by Vespucci, first written in Spanish, then translated into Portuguese, was rendered into Italian, from which it was translated into French. Soon afterwards, from French it was reproduced in Latin, which caused it to become European. This great notoriety prepared the acquiescence of the public in the unjust name which was proposed by the geographer of Saint-Dié.
We are, alas! obliged to acknowledge that it was
