Centuries-old map of 'America' found

A copy of a 500-year-old map christening the New World, "America" was found in Germany.

• The original map was created in 1507 by a German cartographer
• It was the first world map to recognize the new-found American landmass
• A centuries-old copy of that map was found at a German university

(CNN) -- A centuries-old copy of a 500-year-old map that christened the New World as "America" has been discovered at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich -- folded and wedged inside of an old book, according to a release on the university's website.

The original map, created in 1507 by cartographer Martin Waldseemüller, according to the release, shows the continent of America isolated from Europe by a vast ocean and as a much smaller, banana-shaped landmass than what is mapped today. The ancient map was based on a variety of research expeditions, with Amerigo Vespucci's voyages at the beginning of the 16th century featuring heavily, according to the U.S. Library of Congress.<