Martin Waldseemuller is one of the most reputed cartographer of the medieval era. Waldseemuller can also be spelled as Walzenmuller or Waltzem”ller. He is actually a cartographer from Germany. Martin Waldseemuller studied at Freiburg in Breisgau. Later on, he moved on to Saint-Di”. Here he published about 1,000 copies of a woodcut map of the world. He created this map with 12 blocks.
This map is the first one to be created with the name America denoting the New World. It was published in the year 1507. In fact, it is for this map that Waldseemuller is still remembered as a prominent figure in the world of maps. This map is often referred to as the ‘First New Map of the World’. He made this map using the Ptolemaic projection.
This map was published separately and not as a part of a document. This happened for the first time in the history of map making. In this map, the Earth was depicted as a round body covering all the 360 degrees of longitude. In the year 1513, Martin produced a new version of Geographia by Ptolemy. Not much is known about the life of Waldseemuller post 1516.
He is known for his lasting contribution to the field of map making.
