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| A 500-year-old world map, seen
here being held by a Christie's employee in April 2005, that was
the first to name a newfound continent west of Europe
'America,' was sold for one million dollars at an auction in London (AFP)
| |
A 500-year-old world map that was the first to
name a newfound continent west of Europe "America" was sold for one
million dollars at an auction in London.
Charles Frodshan, a London book and manuscript dealer, bought the map
for 545,600 pounds during bidding at Christie's.
Christies said the map was also the first printed portrayal of the Earth as a globe,
the first that distinguishes North and South America individually, and the
first depiction of a Pacific
Ocean, it said.
Printed in 1507 by the German geographer Martin Waldseemuller, the map
is just one of four in existence and had been expected to fetch between
500,000 and 800,000 pounds.
The document, which is the centrepiece of a sale of maps,
atlases and globes by Christie's, was discovered in February 2003 after a
European collector realised that it was one of the maps in his collection.
"This is one of the most exciting discoveries of my career, and
represents the pinnacle in the
history of map making," said Tom Lamb, director of the auction house's
book and manuscript department, in a statement.
"This simple sheet of paper holds so many new and anticipated
discoveries, all created with an enormous leap of faith by a venerable
geographer in a small town in Lorraine (eastern France)," he said.
Most history documents credit the Genoa-born explorer, Christopher
Columbus, with being the first European to discover the so-called New
World of North and South America in 1492, but he was convinced it was part
of Asia.
A second Italian, Amerigo Vespucci, actually argued that the landmass
to the west of Europe was a whole new continent.
Until the map's publication, the layout of the world had been based on
the knowledge of the ancient Greeks. But in 1505, Rene II, the Duke of
Lorraine ordered a group of scholars led by Waldseemuller to draft a new
world map.
He gave them a French translation of Vespucci's travels and as a
result, the scholars decided to name the new landmass "America" after the
traveller's first name.
The first example of Waldseemuller's original map was discovered in
1871 and is kept at the University of Minnesota in the United States. The
other two are in Germany.
A fifth, much larger version, printed eight years later, was purchased
by the Library of Congress in Washington for 10 million dollars
in 2003.
(Agencies) |
一張具有500年歷史的世界地圖在倫敦拍賣，最后成交價格高達(dá)100萬美元。這張地圖首次標(biāo)出了歐洲以西的新大陸并將其命名為“美洲”。
在克里斯蒂拍賣行的競價過程中，倫敦書稿經(jīng)銷商查爾斯·福特森最終以545,600英鎊的價格購得這張地圖。
克里斯蒂拍賣行表示，這也是世界上第一張將地球繪制成球形的印刷地圖，它首次將美洲大陸分為南北兩個部分，而且還第一次描繪了太平洋。
這張地圖于1507年由德國地理學(xué)者馬丁·瓦爾德塞米勒印制，是至今僅存的類似的四張地圖中的一張，原預(yù)估價為50萬至80萬英鎊。
直到2003年2月，歐洲一位收藏家在其藏品中發(fā)現(xiàn)了它，這張地圖才得以重見天日。它也是克里斯蒂拍賣行所經(jīng)手的地圖、地圖集及地球儀中的精品。
克里斯蒂拍賣行圖書及手稿部門的負(fù)責(zé)人湯姆·拉姆在聲明中稱，“這是我從業(yè)以來最讓人激動的發(fā)現(xiàn)，它締造了地圖繪制歷史上的顛峰。”
“在這薄薄的一張紙中，蘊(yùn)含著許多具有預(yù)知性的新發(fā)現(xiàn)，人類對世界的認(rèn)識由此出現(xiàn)一次重大飛躍，這些都出自洛林(法國東部)小鎮(zhèn)的一位德高望重的地理學(xué)者。”
據(jù)大量歷史文獻(xiàn)記載，出生于熱那亞的探險家克里斯托弗·哥倫布在1492年成為第一個發(fā)現(xiàn)所謂“美洲新世界”的歐洲人，不過哥倫布深信，那是亞洲的一部分。
另外一位意大利人亞美利哥·維斯普西則認(rèn)為，歐洲西側(cè)的這大片陸地是一塊全新的大陸。
在這張地圖出版之前，人們對世界的認(rèn)識一直建立在古希臘文明的基礎(chǔ)之上。但在1505年，洛林公爵雷內(nèi)二世下令讓以瓦爾德塞米勒為首的一批學(xué)者繪制新的世界地圖。
他交給學(xué)者們一本法文版的維斯普奇游記，結(jié)果，學(xué)者們決定根據(jù)作者的名字（Amerigo）給新大陸命名為“America（美洲）”。
根據(jù)瓦爾德塞米勒的原版地圖印制的第一張地圖于1871年被發(fā)現(xiàn)，目前保存在美國明尼蘇達(dá)大學(xué)。另外兩張則保存在德國。
八年后印制的版面較大的“第五張地圖”由美國國會圖書館于2003年以1000萬美元購得。
（中國日報網(wǎng)站譯） |
Updated: 2005-06-13 09:26