Mundus Novus

Mundus Novus, latin for New World, a term first coined by Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, from whose name America is derived from.

Universalis Cosmographia (1507), first map to use the name “America”

For thousands of years the known world consisted of Eurasia and Africa. The Europeans thought that everything there was to know was in the Bible or in the ancient Greek or Roman texts.

When word spread that a new land, with new people, new vegetation, and new wonders, never before seen it begged the question, “What else don’t we know?”