Amerigo Vespucci Explorer on a Map of the Americas Round Clock

Vintage illustration antique world map detail by artist Martin Waldseemuller ( c. 1470-1520); a German cartographer. He and Matthias Ringmann are credited with the first recorded usage of the word America, on the 1507 map Universalis Cosmographia in honor of the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci. This antique map detail from 1507 features Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian explorer, navigator and cartographer. He is holding a navigational tool, a divider, which is used to measure distances on a map. The wind is blowing from the clouds over the oceans and seas.