Matthias Ringmann (1482-1511) was a
German cartographer and
humanist poet. He is credited with naming
America on the map of his friend
Martin Waldseemüller.
Born in Eichhoffen (Alsace) in 1482 (although this date is questioned), he also used the name Philesius Vogesigena. He became a schoolmaster and is often described as a poet.
Some time around 1503 Ringmann visited Italy, where he first learned about explorations of the recently discovered western lands later known as the New World and later named the Americas. He mistakenly came to believe that Amerigo Vespucci had discovered the New World.
Upon his return to Germany, Ringmann moved to Saint-Die in Lorraine with his friend Martin Waldseemüller, a cartographer with whom he was working on a new Latin edition of Ptolemy's treatise on geography. Waldseemüller drew the maps while Ringmann edited the translation and wrote a preface. Ringmann is also the best candidate for the author of the introduction to Waldseemüller's great map and globe of the world although many historians attribute the work to Waldseemüller himself. It seems probable that Walter Ludd, the head of the Gymnasium Vosagense paid Ringmann and Waldseemüller to do this work for publication at the Gymnasium's printing press at St. Dié.
