Amerigo Vespucci Totally Explained

Amerigo Vespucci (March 9, 1454 - February 22, 1512) was an Italian merchant, explorer and cartographer. He played a senior role in two voyages which explored the east coast of South America between 1499 and 1502. On the second of these voyages he discovered that South America extended much further south than before known by the Europeans. This convinced him that this land was part of a new continent, a bold contention at a time when other European explorers crossing the Atlantic thought they were reaching Asia (the "Indies"). Vespucci's voyages became widely known in Europe after two accounts attributed to him were published between 1502 and 1504. In 1507, Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the new continent "America" after Vespucci's first name, Amerigo. In an accompanying book, Waldseemüller published one of the Vespucci accounts, which led to criticism that Vespucci was trying to usurp Christopher Columbus's glory. However, the rediscovery in the 18th century of other letters by Vespucci has led to the view that the early published accounts were fabrications, not by Vespucci, but by others.

Life

Amerigo Vespucci was born in Florence, as the third child of a respected family. His father was a notary for the Money Changers' Guild of Florence. Amerigo Vespucci worked for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici and his brother Giovanni and in 1492 they sent him to work at their agency in Seville, Spain.
   In 1508, after only two voyages to the Americas, the position of pilot major (chief of navigation) of Spain was created for Vespucci, with the responsibility of training pilots for ocean voyages. He died of malaria on February 22, 1512 in Seville, Spain.
   Two letters attributed to Vespucci were published during his lifetime. Mundus Novus ("New World") was a Latin translation of a lost Italian letter sent from Lisbon to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici. It describes a voyage to South America in 1501-1502. Mundus Novus was published in late 1502 or early 1503 and soon reprinted and distributed in numerous European countries. After hitting land at the coast of what is now Guyana, the two seem to have separated. Vespucci sailed southward, discovering the mouth of the Amazon River and reaching 6°S, before turning around and seeing Trinidad and the Orinoco River and returning to Spain by way of Hispaniola. The letter, to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, claims that Vespucci determined his longitude celestially
   on August 23, 1499, while on this voyage. However, that claim may be fraudulent,
   On return to Lisbon, Vespucci wrote in a letter to de' Medici that the land masses they explored were much larger than anticipated and different from the Asia described by earlier Europeans and, therefore, must be a "New World," that is, a previously-unknown fourth continent, after Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Named after Amerigo Vespucci

Amerigo Vespucci Airport, Florence, Italy
Amerigo Vespucci (ship), an Italian tall ship
"America" the continent (or continents: see North America and South America)
- By extension, the United States of America
Via Vespucci, a street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY

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