Date: Wed, 9 Oct 1996 01:31:38 -0400

From: "Barry A. Popik" Bapopik[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM

Subject: "AMERICA" and Columbus Day



For those interested in the American Name Society, the first article in

NAMES is about the naming of "America."

It's a good article, but it's far from being complete. Of all the papers

on various subjects I've compiled, none exceeds my "America Papers." I've

got a book on 16th century maps from the Newberry Library in Chicago that

cost me $125. I've got a Map Portfolio from the Clements Library at the

University of Michigan. I recently went to Bristol, England and walked up

the Cabot monument (no big deal).

In today's New York Post, 9 October 1996, pg. 44, "Newspaper in

Education" program (In the Post??), you'll see this:



How America Got Its Name



The continent America [There are two--ed.] received its name in 1507, just

one year after Columbus died. A French geographer [He was German--ed.] had

read an account of the explorer Amerigo Vespucci's voyage down the coast of

South America [Not "South America," because it wasn't named yet!--ed.]. This

account was dated 1497 [I have a book of texts called LETTERS FROM A NEW

WORLD: AMERIGO VESPUCCI'S DISCOVERY OF AMERICA (1992). The first letter

states "Today is 18 July 1500." The other letters are not earlier--ed.], a

year before Columbus traveled to South America, instead of 1499, when

Vespucci's voyage actually occurred [This is disputed by some--ed.]. This

geographer gave Vespucci the credit for the discovery and honored him by

writing "America" on the new map he was making [Actually, the geographer's

partner deserves the credit or blame for this--ed.], the first time the name

was set in type and printed. Unfortunately for Columbus, this is the name

that stuck to the new continent and was later extended to North America,

whose mainland neither Vespucci or Columbus [Either/or, neither/nor--ed.]

ever saw!



Several serious errors and a grammatical error to boot! Guess those kids

are gonna learn good!!