1911 Birthplace of America Celebrates

The little Vosges town of Saint-Dié to-day [July 15] brilliantly celebrated the memory of Mathias Ringmann, Martin Waldseemüller and Vautrin-Lud, to whom Saint-Dié owes its title of the “godmother of America.” It was on April 25, 1507, that the New World received its baptism. On that day there was published at Saint-Dié the “Cosmographiae Introductio,” an important geographical work due to the collaboration of Ringmann and Waldseemüller. In this work the “fourth part of the world” was given the name America. The following year Waldseemüller inscribed the name America on a map of the world printed at Saint-Dié.