The World Capital of Geography and the Godmother of America

Lorraine has the immense privilege of having two world capitals. Aside from that silence Verdun. And geography, on the other hand, with Saint-Dio. Saint-de-Des-Vosges, yes, this small town is surrounded by high pines in the middle of the mountains, Saint-Dick, the world capital of geography!

Can the city thank FIG, the prestigious international geography festival held there on the first weekend of October 1990? During conferences, meetings and discussions, a quality book fair, a first-rate cultural event that attracts a large number of emotional cartoonists, reverse meteorologists in the clouds, geopolitics imagining tomorrow’s wars, geologists talking to you about Feldspar, and more. , Simple geography enthusiasts.

He did not explain that if FIG had its significance in Saint-de-Des-Vosjos, the city would have become the world capital of geography. Or at least, not only … To understand how Saint-Duo, the homeland of the famous Jules Ferry, was able to obtain this title, we must make a leap in history and go back to the beginning of the 16th century.^Th Century, or, if one so desires, at the end of the reign of Rene II, the conqueror, In 1477 and against all expectationsBurgundy is the most powerful duke of Charles the Bolt. We are in 1507. For about fifteen years, the small town of Saint-de-Des-Vosges has been known as the “Vosges Gymnasium”, an association of scholars, printers and translators founded by canon. None other than the uncle of Nicholas Lut, one of Duke Rene’s secretaries. Scholars, first of all we have to quote the German cartoonist Martin Valsimuller, the Hellenist Matthias Ringman or the Latin Jean Basin. The sea of ​​the sea.

Text published under the heading The letter of the Americas Vespucci of the Islands was found again in his four voyages (Letters to the newly discovered islands during four voyages of America Vespucci) Really excites Diodesian scholars. They are trying to draw a map that will update the work of the Greek scientist Claude Ptolemy. The New world Or the new world described by Vespucci appears to be its own continent. Thus, as Christopher Columbus believed, part of Asia was not the coast of Sibangu or the mysterious kingdoms of Coke and Magok. The card gradually emerges. Vosges Gymnasium decides to republish Ptolemy’s works. Introduction to Cosmography, In which, for the first time, these new lands are referred to as the United States. This name is the femininity of the first name of America Vespucci. Feminism is considered essential by Vosges scholars to provide a fourth of the world with three continents: Asia, Africa and Europe.

Published from the press on April 25, 1507, the first edition Introduction to Comosgraphie Contains 104 pages. With it was a board with twelve loops, which was cut into a terrain and intended to be assembled. This board, which first mentions the name of the United States, is unfortunately largely ignored by the general public. Only five copies appear to have been preserved. Two in Germany, two in the United States and the last private collection, in the UK.

Although they completely omit the name of the true inventor of the New World, the work of the Vosges Gymnasium quickly gained power. Little consolation to him, Christopher Columbus will leave his name to a country in South America: Colombia. But the name of America, was born in Saint-de-des-Vosges in the early XVI^Th The end of the century will impose itself on all maps and atlases. It will ultimately resemble a dream, which throughout modern times will attract immigrants in search of wealth and adventure. Also, by claiming the honorary title of “Mother of America”, the beautiful Vosges sub-province.