The True Story of How America Got Its Name

by Broome

• ISBN13: 9781567315455
• ISBN10: 1567315453
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-10-01
• Publisher: Fine Communications

Summary

That's right. According to Rodney Broome's historical detective work, "America" most probably refers to a wealthy British custom's officer who helped sponsor English explorations in the New World. In The True Story of How America Got Its Name, Broome tells the fascinating story of how a supposed historical "fact" is actually the result of a mapmaker's mistake. Into this tale he weaves a rich array of characters including: Christopher Columbus, the European adventurer who went looking for India but found something very different; Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian explorer who initially sailed to the New World in 1499 under the Spanish flag. He was the first to realize that the New World was truly new -- a "fourth continent" previously unknown to Europeans; Rene II, the Duke of Lorraine, who formed an intellectual group in 1500 dedicated to expanding the knowledge of cosmography and geometry; Martin Waldseemuller, an accomplished cosmographer and cartographer, who published the revolutionary new map in 1507, calling the fourth continent, "America"; John Cabot, the explorer and navigator who is now credited as being the first European to "discover" the North American mainland; Richard Amerike, wealthy landowner and merchant of Bristol, who dominated trade with Spain and Portugal and became the King's Customs Agent in Bristol. Taking advantage of recent, newly discovered evidence, the case Broome makes will startle you into reexamining your most cherished ideas about America's origin. Book jacket.

Table of Contents

Illustrations and Maps
Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction
Twelve Wooden Plates	p. 1
The Commercial Revolution	p. 13
A Young Genoan Arrives in Bristol	p. 17
Bristol Ships in Lisbon and Huelva	p. 23
Shipshape and Bristol Fashion	p. 29
The Fellowship of Merchants	p. 35
A Fish Story	p. 43
The Search for Brassyle	p. 51
The Winter of Discontent	p. 59
Toscanelli's Map	p. 69
A Secret Map	p. 73
The Ocean Blue	p. 79
Cabot's Voyages	p. 83
Columbus and Cabot in 1498	p. 93
Quarta Orbis Pars	p. 101
Discovery of a Spanish Filing Error	p. 105
The Stars and Stripes	p. 113
Epilogue	p. 121
Appendices	p. 125
Notes	p. 139
Cast of Characters	p. 159
Glossary	p. 169
Bibliography	p. 173
Index	p. 177
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