MTI外刊阅读精选美洲之名的由来The epic story of the map that gave America its nameSt-Dié-des-Vosges is a small, leafy town in the Meurthe valley in north-east France. It lies 68km south-west of Strasbourg in France, 93km north-west of Basel in Switzerland and 74km north-west of Freiburg in Germany. Today, due to modern maps and precise methods of measuring longitude and latitude, we can pinpoint exactly where it is on the planet. However, a few hundred years ago, when much of the world was mysterious and unknown, a group of European humanists came together here to produce an extraordinary map of the world one that differed radically from what came before, and whose effects are still with us today. This town is responsible for giving the entire continent of America its name.孚日圣迪耶(St-Dié-des-Vosges)是法国东北部默尔特河谷(Meurthe valley)中一个绿树成荫的小镇，位于法国斯特拉斯堡(Strasbourg)西南 68公里处，瑞士巴塞尔(Basel)西北 93公里处，德国弗里堡(Freiburg)西北 74公里处。如今，依靠现代地图和测量经纬度的精确方法，我们可以准确指出它在地球上的位置。然而在几百年前，当世界上大部分地区还是神秘而未知的时候，一群欧洲人文主义者聚在这里制作了一幅非同寻常的世界地图这幅地图和之前的有着天壤之别，而它所产生的影响一直延续到今天。美洲大陆的命名与这座小镇密切相关。The map, printed in 1507, measured about 1.4m by 2.4m, a size that matched its grand ambition to portray the world in its entirety. And indeed, it did depict more of the world than ever before. For centuries, Europeans had believed that the world was made up of three landmasses: Asia, Africa and Europe, with Jerusalem at its centre. Thats why Italian explorer and coloniser for Spain, Christopher Columbus, had gone to his deathbed just a year earlier believing that where he had landed in the Americas was just another part of Asia. However, this new map depicted a fourth part of the world for the first time. To the left of Europe, it showed a long, thin version of South America, with a small-sized North America above it. The new continent was surrounded by water, and, on the part that is known today as Brazil, the map-makers placed a name: America.这幅地图印刷于 1507年，长 2.4米，宽 1.4米，这一尺寸足以支撑起描绘整个世界的雄心壮志。诚然，这幅地图描绘的世界的确要比以往更多。几百年来，欧洲人一直认为世界是由三块大陆组成的：亚洲、非洲和欧洲，耶路撒冷是世界中心。正因如此，获得西班牙资助的意大利探险家和殖民者哥伦布，在去世前一年还相信他在美洲的登陆之处只是亚洲的另一部分。而此幅地图首次描绘了地球上的第四部分。这块大陆位于欧洲的左面，地图所描绘的南美洲呈细长状，南美洲上方有一个小型的北美洲。这块新大陆四面环水。地图上现今巴西所在的位置，地图绘制者标上了一个名字：美洲(America)。This milestone in cartography is known as the Waldseemüller map, after the German humanist who drew it. But Martin Waldseemüller was just one of a group of scholars who Walter Lud, the canon of the church of St-Dié-des-Vosges, brought together in this town. Lud was particularly interested in cosmography the study of the Earth and its place in the universe and wanted to create a picture of the world that combined ancient knowledge with the new reports coming in from the voyages that were taking place at the time. To this end, he secured funding from René II, Duke of Lorraine, to set up a printing press called Gymnasium Vosagense and assembled a team that included Waldseemüller and another German humanist, Matthias Ringmann. According to Toby Lester, author of The Fourth Part of the World: The Race to the Ends of the Earth, and the Epic Story of the Map that Gave America its Name, Ringmann took the lead in writing the book that was printed along with the map and almost certainly coined the name America.地图绘制史上的里程碑当属瓦尔德泽米勒地图(Waldseemüller map)，它出自德国人文主义者之手。不过瓦尔德泽米勒(Martin Waldseemüller)只是一群学者当中的一员，这群学者在孚日圣迪耶教堂咏礼司铎(天主教会圣职)路德(Walter Lud)的召集下来到这座小镇。路德对宇宙学(研究地球以及它在宇宙中位置的科学)尤其感兴趣，想创作一幅世界图景，将古代知识和当下正在进行的航海探险的新发现相结合。为此他从洛林公爵(Duke of Lorraine)勒內二世(René II)那里获得资助，开办了一家名为吉姆纳士沃萨根(Gymnasium Vosagense)的印刷社，并组建了一个团队，团队成员包括瓦尔德泽米勒和另一位德国人文主义者林曼(Matthias Ringmann)。世界上的第四部分：通往地球尽头的竞逐，伟大的地图史话，美洲之名的由来(The Fourth Part of the World: The Race to the Ends of the Earth, and the Epic Story of the Map that Gave America)的作者莱斯特(Toby Lester)说，林曼带头编写了一本书，这本书和地图一起印刷，几乎可以肯定的是，美洲得名正是因为这本书。That these two Germans came together to undertake such as project in St-Dié-des-Vosges was not simply a question of money. The location of the town was also significant. As Toby Lester told me, “You had explorers setting off from the Atlantic coast in Spain and Portugal, who were bringing all their information back there, and the Italians who were funding and going on these expeditions, churning through a lot of the information, and the Germans in the middle, doing strong, leading work with printing.” St-Die, near Strasbourg, Basel and Freiburg, was, like other locations that set up printing presses, at a convergence where information could move back and forth easily.这两个德国人一起在孚日圣迪耶做这个项目并不是为了钱。这座小镇的位置同样很重要。莱斯特告诉我，“这里有从大西洋沿岸的西班牙和葡萄牙出发的探险者，他们将所有信息带回到这里;意大利人资助这些探险，同时参与其中，整合了大量信息;德国人处于中间，在印刷方面做了强有力的领导工作。“ 孚日圣迪耶位于斯特拉斯堡、巴塞尔和弗里堡附近，和其他设有印刷社的地方一样，这里是信息的汇集、往来之地。Today, only a few clues point to the medieval history of St-Dié-des-Vosges, which was mostly rebuilt after World War II. An outline of the continent of America is paved on the ground just outside the cathedral in a matching pink sandstone that you might mistake for a decorative pattern; a stone gargoyle of an indigenous person from the continent can be spotted in its cloister; and each year the town hosts an international festival of geography where geography experts and enthusiasts get together to exchange ideas. Perhaps this is why most visitors to the town dont know about its map-making history, or that they can see a remnant of it by simply making an appointment the bright and modern local library.今时今日，只有少许线索可以勾勒出孚日圣迪耶的中世纪历史，这座小镇基本上是在二战(World War II)后重建的。美洲大陆的轮廓铺陈在大教堂外面的地面上，位于砂岩上，砂岩呈粉红色，与美洲大陆的轮廓相得益彰，你可能会误以为砂岩是装饰图案;回廊上石制的美洲大陆土著人的奇特形象清晰可见;每年镇上都会举办国际地理节，地理专家和爱好者们聚在一起交流思想。也许正因如此，大多数镇上的游客都不知道小镇的地图制作历史，不过他们可以通过预约参观当地敞亮而现代化的图书馆来感受小镇地图制作史的残存遗迹。I was one of the few visitors to St-Dié-des-Vosges to make the trip down the stairs of the library, past the colourful childrens paintings decorating the walls to the Salle du Trésor, or Treasure Room. Last year, only 664 people came here, compared to the 18,000 who visited the Tourist Office. It is a small, narrow room with wooden display cases that contrasts with the rest of the librarys contemporary feel. Here, among the other old and rare books on display, such as the beautifully illustrated song book Graduel, is an original version of the book that was printed along with the Waldseemüller map in 1507: the Cosmographiae Introductio, or Introduction to Cosmography.沿着图书馆的楼梯游览下来，穿过五颜六色的儿童绘画区，这些绘画装饰着特尔塞尔广场(Salle du Trésor，又称珍藏室)的墙壁，孚日圣迪耶的游客少有到这里的，我是其中之一。去年旅游局(Tourist Office)记录的访客则有 18,000人，只有664人到访这里。这是一间狭小的房间，配有木质展示柜，和图书馆其余地方的当代风格形成鲜明对比。这里展出有其他年代久远的稀有书籍，比如说含精美插图的歌曲书格莱杜尔(Graduel)。在这些书籍中间，有一本原版书，和瓦尔德泽米勒地图同时印刷于 1507年，书名叫作宇宙学入门(Cosmographiae Introductio, or Introduction to Cosmography)。The tome, written entirely in Latin, clearly states its purpose: as an “introduction to the world that we have depicted on a globe and on a flat surface”. The flat surface refers to the Waldseemüller map, which was printed on 12 separate sheets of paper to be pieced together on a flat surface, while the globe refers to a smaller version of the map that was designed to be cut out and pasted onto a ball making it historys first ever commercially printed globe and demonstrating, contrary to popular belief, that medieval Europeans knew perfectly well that the world was spherical rather than flat. Significantly, the text also explains the reason behind the naming of the continent, which it claims was discovered by the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci. Since other continent names were feminine in Latin Europa, Africa, Asia the author reasoned that the name of this new land should also be feminised, into “America, after its discoverer”.这本鸿篇巨著全部用拉丁文写成，书的目的非常清楚：它是一个“对于绘在地球仪和平面上的世界的介绍“。这里的“平面“指的就是瓦尔德泽米勒地图，它印在 12张单独的纸上，然后拼在一块平面上;而“地球仪“指的则是较小版本的地图，它可以剪下来并粘贴到一个球上这使得它成为历史上第一个用于商业印刷的地球仪。它能证明，和通常看法不同，中世纪的欧洲人非常清楚世界是球形的而不是平的。重要的一点在于，文中还解释了美洲大陆命名背后的原因。书中说这块大陆是意大利探险家韦斯普奇(Amerigo Vespucci)发现的。由于其它大陆的名字在拉丁语中都是阴性的欧罗巴(Europa)，阿非利加(Africa)，亚细亚(Africa)，所以作者推断这块新大陆的名字也应该是阴性的，叫作“亚美利加(美洲)，以发现者的名字命名“。These words were the cause of contention for centuries to come. From the Spanish friar Bartolomé de la Casas, who in first half of the 16th Century said that it was an “injury and injustice” to Columbus, whose voyages to the Americas predated Vespuccis, to American writer Washington Irving, who in 1809 wrote of the “crafty wiles” by which the Florentines stole the glory of Columbus. But although Columbus four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean started in 1492, when he encountered the islands of the Caribbean, he only touched continental soil on his third journey in 1498. Contrarily, according to a letter dated 1504 from Vespucci to Duke Renè that was reprinted in Introduction to Cosmography and describes his four voyages from 1497 to 1504, he reached the mainland a year earlier than Columbus. Historians have called the authenticity of this letter into doubt, but Waldseemüller and Ringmann took Vespuccis letter at face value, basing their naming of the new continent on its contents.