Amerigo Vespucci

Amerigo Vespucci

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Third son of Anastasius or Nastagio Vespucci, a Florentine notary, and Elizabeth or Lisa Mini, noblewoman of Montevarchi, Amerigo was born on March 9, 1454;

in 1489 he moved to Seville commissioned by the banker Lorenzo of Pierfrancesco de Medici.

In Seville he met Christopher Columbus.

In 1499 he joined Alonso de Ojeda, who had received from Spain commission to explore, in a southerly direction, the coasts of the continent discovered by Columbus.

Navigator and deep student of the seas, during his travels Amerigo Vespucci explored much of the eastern coast of South America.

He was among the first supporters of the idea that Christopher Columbus had discovered a new continent and not a western route to reach the Far East by sea.

The figure of Amerigo Vespucci is very controversial, because of his letters whose authenticity has often been questioned.

In any case, in his letters Amerigo Vespucci described the mainland visited as a “New World”

and he was the first to realize the presence of a new continent.

In fact, in his letters, addressed to Lorenzo of Pier Francesco de Medici, described great details of the new territories, peoples visited, fauna and realized that the new continent could not be Asia.

It was the rapid spread of the letters circulated on his name that induced the cartographer Martin Waldseemüller to use the female gender (America)

of his Latinized name (Americus Vespucius), to indicate the new continent in a world map drawn in 1507, contained in Cosmographiae Introductio.

The idea of ​​Waldseemüller was that the name was referring to the current South America, namely the lands affected by Vespucci.

…………

Ship Amerigo Vespucci

and here the ship is docked at

Riva degli Schiavoni Venice

Back to tribute 290 F.N.M.

or to the Home Page