VICENTE Y BENNAZAR, Andres (ve-then'-
tay), Spanish geographer, lived in the second half
of the 15th century. He published at Antwerp
in 1476 four charts, representing the four conti-
nents of the world. Unlike Columbus, he did not
imagine America to be part of Asia, but repre-
sented it as a distinct continent and, what is more
remarkable, as a continent divided into two parts
by an isthmus. This publication, at so early a
date, and before columbus's discovery, has caused
much discussion. Some authorities think that
Vicente y Bennazar had arrived at the conclusion
that America existed as a distinct continent;
others, that such an opinion was general among
scientific circles in the 15th century; and still
others, that he only intended to reproduce the lost
Atlantis spoken of by Plato and the ancients.


From Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography