BBC News UK has an interesting article about the Waldseemuller map, the first map to use the word "America" to describe the "New World". Frequently referred to as "America's Birth Certificate," the map has an interesting provenance which now includes the distinguished honor of being one of the most expensive items the Library of Congress has ever purchased.

The most recent article by Toby Lester, author of The Fourth Part of the World, sheds some interesting light on the map, including a multilingual pun and a discussion of the map's cartographic importance beyond the use of the word "America."