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Amerigo Vespucci

By: History.com Editors

Updated: February 6, 2024 | Original: July 31, 2023

Amerigo Vespucci was a 16th-century Italian merchant and explorer remembered not only for his voyages that altered the course of history but for bestowing the New World with the name “America.”

Vespucci’s mapping of coastlines and constellations, cultural observations and identification of equatorial ocean currents led to the realization that his travels had taken him to a new continent, challenging the previously held belief that Christopher Columbus had reached the uncharted eastern edge of Asia.

Early Life and Education

Born March 9, 1454, in Florence, Italy, during the height of the Renaissance , Vespucci came from a prominent family with ties to the Medici dynasty . His father, a government notary, and his uncle, respected humanist Dominican friar Giorgio Antonio Vespucci, played influential roles in his education. Immersed in a world of trade and maritime culture from a young age, Vespucci developed interests and aptitude in astronomy, math, navigation and foreign languages. 

Early in his career, Vespucci worked for the Medici family as a banker and later supervised ship operations in Seville, Spain. Accounts vary, but many believe that Vespucci met Christopher Columbus in Seville in 1496, after Columbus’s historic 1492 voyage, and assisted Columbus in preparing for future expeditions.

Did you know? Thefirst use of the name "America" was in 1507, when a new world map was created based on the explorations of Amerigo Vespucci.

Vespucci's Voyages

Fueled by his own passion for discovery, Vespucci joined a Spanish expedition while in his 40s, serving as an astronomer and mapmaker in search of a passage to India. Led by Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojeda, they set sail from Cadiz, Spain, in May 1499 and reached the northeastern coast of South America.

Despite their belief that they had arrived in Asia, Ojeda explored the coast of Venezuela while Vespucci ventured south to coastal Brazil. During the voyage, Vespucci charted the constellations, noting their differences from those seen in Europe. He also documented the diverse flora and fauna, made extensive observations about the indigenous tribes he encountered and described what he thought was the Ganges River, but is now known to be the mouth of the Amazon River . 

In a letter recounting the journey, he wrote of discovering “an infinite number of birds or various forms and colors and trees so beautiful and fragrant that we thought we had entered the earthly Paradise.” 

In May 1501, Vespucci embarked on another voyage, this time under the patronage of King Manuel I of Portugal , again seeking passage to India. Sailing along the Brazilian and Argentinian coasts, Vespucci ventured further south to present-day Rio de Janeiro and the La Plata River. Once again, he observed unfamiliar constellations, unexplained equatorial currents and an absence of the riches he expected to find in India. Realizing that he was not in India or on an undiscovered island but on a separate continent across the Atlantic Ocean, he dubbed the land Mundus Novus, or the New World.

There are varying accounts and unconfirmed reports of Vespucci undertaking a third voyage to the New World in 1503, also in the name of Portugal. 

Although Vespucci’s discoveries were not considered highly significant at the time, the publication of his correspondence with friends and colleagues chronicling his voyages, known as the “Vespucci Letters,” played a pivotal role in dispelling the belief that Columbus had reached Asia. The letters brought Vespucci fame (although some believe the letters are fake).

Vespucci's Namesake and Reputation

The term “America” first took shape in 1507, when German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller drew a map of the newly recognized continent and labeled it “Americus” in Vespucci’s honor. This map, often referred to as “America’s birth certificate,” marked the usage of the name “America.”

Vespucci, who became a naturalized citizen of Spain in 1505, was given the prestigious title of master navigator of Spain in 1508. Charged with training and recruiting navigators and managing the country’s map collections, he held the position until he died of malaria in Seville on February 22, 1512, at the age of 58.

“The Map That Named America,” U.S. Library of Congress “Amerigo Vespucci,” by Frederick A.Ober “Amerigo Vespucci: Italian explorer who named America,” LiveScience “ Amerigo Vespucci,” T he Martimers’ Museum and Park

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Amerigo Vespucci

America was named after Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine navigator and explorer who played a prominent role in exploring the New World.

(1451-1512)

Who Was Amerigo Vespucci?

On May 10, 1497, explorer Amerigo Vespucci embarked on his first voyage. On his third and most successful voyage, he discovered present-day Rio de Janeiro and Rio de la Plata. Believing he had discovered a new continent, he called South America the New World. In 1507, America was named after him. He died of malaria in Seville, Spain, on February 22, 1512.

Navigator and explorer Amerigo Vespucci, the third son in a cultured family, was born on March 9, 1451, (some scholars say 1454) in Florence, Italy. Although born in Italy, Vespucci became a naturalized citizen of Spain in 1505.

Vespucci and his parents, Ser Nastagio and Lisabetta Mini, were friends of the wealthy and tempestuous Medici family, who ruled Italy from the 1400s to 1737. Vespucci's father worked as a notary in Florence. While his older brothers headed off to the University of Pisa in Tuscany, Vespucci received his early education from his paternal uncle, a Dominican friar named Giorgio Antonio Vespucci.

When Vespucci was in his early 20s, another uncle, Guido Antonio Vespucci, gave him one of the first of his many jobs. Guido Antonio Vespucci, who was ambassador of Florence under King Louis XI of France, sent his nephew on a brief diplomatic mission to Paris. The trip likely awakened Vespucci's fascination with travel and exploration.

Before Exploration

In the years before Vespucci embarked on his first voyage of exploration, he held a string of other jobs. When Vespucci was 24 years old, his father pressured him to go into business. Vespucci obliged. At first he undertook a variety of business endeavors in Florence. Later, he moved on to a banking business in Seville, Spain, where he formed a partnership with another man from Florence, named Gianetto Berardi. According to some accounts, from 1483 to 1492, Vespucci worked for the Medici family. During that time he is said to have learned that explorers were looking for a northwest passage through the Indies.

According to a letter that Vespucci might or might not have truly written, on May 10, 1497, he embarked on his first journey, departing from Cadiz with a fleet of Spanish ships. The controversial letter indicates that the ships sailed through the West Indies and made their way to the mainland of Central America within approximately five weeks. If the letter is authentic, this would mean that Vespucci discovered Venezuela a year before Columbus did. Vespucci and his fleets arrived back in Cadiz in October 1498.

In May 1499, sailing under the Spanish flag, Vespucci embarked on his next expedition, as a navigator under the command of Alonzo de Ojeda. Crossing the equator, they traveled to the coast of what is now Guyana, where it is believed that Vespucci left Ojeda and went on to explore the coast of Brazil. During this journey Vespucci is said to have discovered the Amazon River and Cape St. Augustine.

On May 14, 1501, Vespucci departed on another trans-Atlantic journey. Now on his third voyage, Vespucci set sail for Cape Verde — this time in service to King Manuel I of Portugal. Vespucci's third voyage is largely considered his most successful. While Vespucci did not start out commanding the expedition, when Portuguese officers asked him to take charge of the voyage he agreed. Vespucci's ships sailed along the coast of South America from Cape São Roque to Patagonia. Along the way, they discovered present-day Rio de Janeiro and Rio de la Plata. Vespucci and his fleets headed back via Sierra Leone and the Azores. Believing he had discovered a new continent, in a letter to Florence, Vespucci called South America the New World. His claim was largely based on Columbus' earlier conclusion: In 1498, when passing the mouth of the Orinoco River, Columbus had determined that such a big outpouring of fresh water must come from land "of continental proportions." Vespucci decided to start recording his accomplishments, writing that accounts of his voyages would allow him to leave "some fame behind me after I die."

On June 10, 1503, sailing again under the Portuguese flag, Vespucci, accompanied by Gonzal Coelho, headed back to Brazil. When the expedition didn't make any new discoveries, the fleet disbanded. To Vespucci's chagrin, the commander of the Portuguese ship was suddenly nowhere to be found. Despite the circumstances, Vespucci forged ahead, managing to discover Bahia and the island of South Georgia in the process. Soon after, he was forced to prematurely abort the voyage and return to Lisbon, Portugal, in 1504.

There is some speculation as to whether Vespucci made additional voyages. Based on Vespucci's accounts, some historians believe that he embarked on a fifth and sixth voyage with Juan de la Cosa, in 1505 and 1507, respectively. Other accounts indicate that Vespucci's fourth journey was his last.

America's Namesake

In 1507, some scholars at Saint-Dié-des-Vosges in northern France were working on a geography book called Cosmographiæ Introductio , which contained large cut-out maps that the reader could use to create his or her own globes. German cartographer Martin Waldseemüler, one of the book's authors, proposed that the newly discovered Brazilian portion of the New World be labeled America, the feminine version of the name Amerigo, after Amerigo Vespucci. The gesture was his means of honoring the person who discovered it, and indeed granted Vespucci the legacy of being America's namesake.

Decades later, in 1538, the mapmaker Mercator, working off the maps created at St-Dié, chose to mark the name America on both the northern and the southern parts of the continent, instead of just the southern portion. While the definition of America expanded to include more territory, Vespucci seemed to gain credit for areas that most would agree were actually first discovered by Columbus.

Final Years and Death

In 1505, Vespucci, who was born and raised in Italy, became a naturalized citizen of Spain. Three years later, he was awarded the office of piloto mayor , or master navigator, of Spain. In this role, Vespucci's job was to recruit and train other navigators, as well as to gather data on continued New World exploration. Vespucci held the position for the remainder of his life.

On February 22, 1512, Vespucci died of malaria in Seville, Spain.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Amerigo Vespucci
• Birth Year: 1451
• Birth City: Florence
• Birth Country: Italy
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: America was named after Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine navigator and explorer who played a prominent role in exploring the New World.
• Nacionalities
• Death Year: 1512
• Death City: Seville
• Death Country: Spain

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Amerigo Vespucci: Italian explorer who named America

Amerigo Vespucci was a 16th century navigator, after whom the American continents are named.

• First voyage
• 1501 voyage and South America
• Later voyages
• Naming of America

Additional resources

Bibliography.

Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci is best known for his namesake: the continents of North and South America. But why were these continents named after him, especially since his voyages happened after Christopher Columbus arrived on the continent, in 1492? 

Vespucci was the first person to recognize North and South America as distinct continents that were previously unknown to Europeans, Asians and Africans, according to Avihu Zakai (" Exile and Kingdom: History and Apocalypse in the Puritan Migration to America ", Cambridge University Press, 2002). Prior to Vespucci's discovery, explorers, including Columbus, had assumed that the New World was part of Asia. Vespucci made his discovery while sailing near the tip of South America in 1501, according to The New World Encyclopaedia .

Amerigo Vespucci was one of many European explorers during the Age of Exploration, or Age of Discovery, which took place from the mid-1400s to mid-1500s. "The Age of Exploration was prompted by different motivations," said Erika Cosme , administrative coordinator of education and digital services at The Mariner’s Museum and Park in Virginia. "In the 15th century, Europe, Asia, and Africa were at the epicenter of a global exchange of goods; also, for Europeans, curiosities of different cultures continued to emerge. This Afro-Eurasian economy created an interwoven connection between India, China , the Middle East, Africa and Europe."

Spurred by curiosity and economic incentive, explorers traveled distances that were great feats for their day. But what makes the time period so important, said Cosme, was the role it played in "shaping the world that we know today." Recognizing the Americas was a major part of that understanding. 

Amerigo Vespucci was born on March 9, 1454, in Florence. As a young man, he was fascinated with books and maps, according to the Mariners Museum . The Vespuccis were a prominent family and friends with the powerful Medicis , a family who ruled Italy for more than 300 years and were prominent during the Renaissance . After being educated by his uncle, Vespucci himself worked for the Medicis as a banker and later supervisor of their ship-outfitting business, which operated in Seville, Spain. He moved to Spain in 1492, according to Biography.com

This business allowed Vespucci to see the great explorers' ships being prepared and to learn about the business of exploration. Goods like salt from Mali, coffee beans from Ethiopia, spices from India and the Molucca Islands and ginger, silk and tea from China were in high demand, said Cosme, who works in developing The Mariners' Museum's extensive Age of Exploration area.

Countries profited off trade and hoped to find riches like gold, silver and gems, Cosme explained . "European leaders saw exploration as a way to expand their empires and increase national glory."

At the time, explorers were searching for a northwest route to the Indies — the lands and islands of Southeast Asia — which would make trade easier and bring their country wealth, according to Britannica . "It would often take years to complete a trip," said Cosme. "By the mid-15th century, Muslims controlled the majority of the trade routes to Asia. This meant they could charge high prices for incoming and outgoing goods and vessels traveling to and from Europe and Asia. The desire to find ocean routes that were faster, safer, and cheaper stimulated a search to find a better way of getting to these places."

Vespucci's business helped outfit one of Columbus's voyages, and in 1496 Vespucci had the opportunity to talk with the explorer. Both men were fascinated by the works of Marco Polo , who influenced many explorers' love of seafaring and exploration, said Cosme. 

This meeting further encouraged Vespucci's interest in travel and discovery. Like many explorers of the age, he wanted to gain new knowledge and see the world with his own eyes. "The Age of Exploration coincided with the Renaissance, which lasted from about 1300 to 1600," said Cosme. "Many people were gaining genuine curiosity about the world. Sciences like astronomy and cartography were surging. People wanted to know more about the geography, people, and cultures outside their own."

Vespucci's business was struggling, which made his decision to voyage even simpler. Furthermore, he possessed critical knowledge for seafaring, like cartography and astronomy, which were essential tools for early navigation, said Cosme. Now in his 40s, Vespucci decided to leave business behind and embark on a journey while he still could.

First voyage and letter controversy

"Amerigo Vespucci took at least three voyages westward," said Cosme. There is some controversy among historians about when Vespucci set sail on his first voyage. Many accounts place the sail date in 1499, seven years after Columbus landed in the Bahamas. On the 1499 voyage, Vespucci sailed to the northern part of South America and into the Amazon River . He gave places he saw names like the "Gulf of Ganges," thinking, as his explorer contemporaries did, that he was in Asia. He also made improvements to celestial navigation techniques. Vespucci predicted Earth’s circumference accurately within 50 miles, according to Springer .

But a letter dated in 1497 suggests that the 1499 voyage may have in fact been Vespucci's second trip, according to Fordham University . The letter is written in Vespucci's voice, though some historians dispute his authorship and the facts of the document, claiming it a forgery. The letter, written to the Gonfalonier of Florence (a high official on the city-state's supreme executive council), accounts a 1497 expedition to the Bahamas and Central America. If the accounts of this letter are true, then Vespucci reached the mainland of the Americas a few months before John Cabot and more than a year before Columbus.

1501 voyage and recognition of South America

On May 14, 1501, Vespucci set sail to the New World under the Portuguese flag on what would be his most successful voyage, according to Edward Shaw (" Discoverers and Explorers , " Weitsuechtig, 1900.)

Vespucci's ships traveled along the South American coast down to Patagonia, according to The New World Encyclopaedia . Along the way, he encountered the rivers Rio de Janeiro and Rio de la Plata. During this voyage, Vespucci came to suspect that he was looking at a continent entirely different from Asia. 

"Vespucci was both familiar with and fascinated by the accounts of Marco Polo and his time in Asia. The book by Polo gave great detail on the geography, people, and rich opportunities of the continent. Based on this information, Vespucci could make assumptions about the land they were exploring," Cosme said. 

"For starters, Vespucci noticed that the sky which they sailed under had different constellations that were not visible in Europe," Cosme said. "He also took note of the coastlines they traveled, recording their distance and length of time traveled. Vespucci, again a very skilled cartographer and astronomer, carefully studied and pondered over all of his information. 

"He found that the areas and land masses they had explored were actually larger and different than previous accounts of Asia's descriptions. This led him to the conclusion that what they had explored was indeed an entirely new continent."

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He verified his suspicion when sailing south to within 400 miles of Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost tip of South America, according to an article by Wired . This confirmed that he was encountering a new continent that extended far further south than anyone had guessed.

While on this voyage, Vespucci wrote letters to a friend in Europe describing his travels and identifying the New World as a separate continent from Asia. These letters also chronicle his encounters with the indigenous people and describe their culture. Vespucci described the natives' religious practices and beliefs, their diet , marriage habits, and, most appealingly to readers, their sexual and childbirth practices. These letters were published in several languages and sold well (better than Columbus' letters, according to Stanford University ) across Europe. This pleased Vespucci who, who recorded his adventures to better leave "some fame behind me after I die." 

Later voyages and other accomplishments

Vespucci's later voyages were not as successful as the 1501 expedition, and , according to Britannica , scholars are unsure of exactly how many later voyages he embarked upon. In 1503, he sailed to Brazil, but when his fleet failed to make any new discoveries, the ships disbanded. Vespucci pressed on, however, and discovered the island of Bahia and South Georgia before returning to Lisbon ahead of schedule (" The First Four Voyages of Amerigo Vespucci , " Forgotten Books, 2017) .

Vespucci may have gone on two more voyages, in 1505 and 1507, but accounts are unclear. In 1505, he became a naturalized citizen of Spain, and in 1508, he was named a Pilot Major of Spain, according to Frederick J Pohl ("Amerigo Vespucci", Columbia University Press, 1944). This was a prestigious position that required him to use his considerable navigational skills. Vespucci helped develop and standardize navigational techniques and to select new pilots.

He worked at this post until his death on Feb. 22, 1512. He contracted malaria and died in Spain at nearly 58 years of age. Vespucci is buried in Florence.

The naming of America

Vespucci's reputation has gone through periods of ridicule, and at times he has been viewed as a schemer who attempted to steal glory from Columbus, according to History.Info . But in reality, it wasn't Vespucci's ambition that got two continents named after him: it was the work of a German clergyman and amateur cartographer called Martin Waldseemüller.

In 1507, Waldseemüller and some other scholars were working on an introduction to cosmology that would contain large maps, according to the U.S. Library of Congress . Waldseemüller proposed that a portion of Brazil that Vespucci had explored be named "America," a feminized version of Vespucci's first name. Waldseemüller wrote, "I see no reason why anyone should justly object to calling this part ... America, after Amerigo [Vespucci], its discoverer, a man of great ability."

The name stuck. Waldseemüller's maps sold thousands of copies across Europe. Some reports suggest, for example the Library of Congress , that Waldseemüller had second thoughts about the name America, but it was too late. In 1538, a mapmaker named Gerardus Mercator applied the name "America" to both the northern and southern landmasses of the New World, according to Yale University and the continents have been known as such ever since.

Regardless, there is no underestimating the value of Vespucci's contributions to Europeans. Cosme said, "Amerigo Vespucci used his own knowledge and skill, plus the written knowledge from scholars and explorers before him to uncover a Mundus Novus (Latin for "new world") to Europeans."

To learn more about the Waldseemüller map from which America would get its name, check out this article from the Library of Congress . To learn more about Vespucci himself, read this piece from The Ma r iners' Museum . Or try this article from PBS World Explorers .

• Avihu Zakai (" Exile and Kingdom: History and Apocalypse in the Puritan Migration to America ", Cambridge University Press, 2002)
• Amerigo Vespucci, The New World Encyclopaedia
• Amerigo Vespucci, Ages of Exploration: Mariners Museum
• Amerigo Vespucci, Biography.com
• The Sea Route West to Cathay, Brittanica.com
• Edward Shaw (" Discoverers and Explorers ", Weitsuechtig,1900.)
• Randy Alfred, " The Man is a Continent…Or Two " Wired, March 9th 2020
• Amerigo Vespucci, " The First Four Voyages of Amerigo Vespucc i",Forgotten Books, 2017
• Frederick J Pohl (" Amerigo Vespucci ", Columbia University Press, 1944)
• " 1512: Amerigo Vespucci- The Man Who Stole The Glory From Christopher Columbus ", History.Info
• John R Herbert, " The Map That Named America ", Library of Congress
• " Mapamundi of 1538 ", Yale University
• Gyula Pápay, " Amerigo Vespucci's Contribution to the Modernization of Cartographic Representation " Springer (17th Century, 2020) 

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Jessie Szalay is a contributing writer to FSR Magazine. Prior to writing for Live Science, she was an editor at Living Social. She holds an MFA in nonfiction writing from George Mason University and a bachelor's degree in sociology from Kenyon College. 

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Amerigo Vespucci Timeline of Discoveries and Accomplishments

Published: Aug 9, 2023 · Modified: Oct 19, 2023 by Russell Yost · This post may contain affiliate links ·

Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian merchant and explorer who completed four voyages to the Americas between 1497 and 1504. He was the first European to recognize that these lands were not part of Asia, but a new continent.

His letters describing his voyages helped to popularize the idea of the Americas as a new world, and his name was eventually given to the entire Western Hemisphere.

Vespucci was born in Florence, Italy, in 1454. He studied astronomy and navigation at the University of Florence and then worked as a merchant for the Medici family.

Early Life (1451 - 1478)

Early career (1482 - 1495), voyages and later years (1497 - 1512).

In 1497, he was hired by the King of Spain to participate in an expedition to the Americas. Vespucci's first voyage took him to the coast of South America, where he explored the coastline and made contact with the native people. He returned to Spain in 1499.

Vespucci made three more voyages to the Americas, in 1501-1502, 1503-1504, and 1505-1506.

On these voyages, he explored more of the coast of South America and also visited the Caribbean islands.

1451:  Amerigo Vespucci into the Vespucci family was a well-known surname that lived and was successful in Florence. He was born at the beginning of the Renaissance, and his family were good friends with the Medici family, who held most of the power within the city. There is a good chance that Amerigo Vespucci would have personally known Leonardo da Vinci during his teenage years.

1465 - 1470s:  His older brothers were sent to the University of Pisa for their education, but Amerigo was tutored by his uncle. His uncle happened to be one of the most respected and educated humanist thinkers of that time and taught his nephew all the liberal arts, including astronomy and Latin. This education was key to his development in the upcoming century.

1478: His cousin led a Florentine diplomatic mission to Paris and invited Amerigo Vespucci to join him. Amerigo's role is not clear, but it was likely as an attache or private secretary. Along the way, they had business in Bologna, Milan, and Lyon. Their objective in Paris was to obtain French support for Florence's war with Naples. The mission did not yield many results, but no doubt was an excellent experience for Vespucci.

1482:  After his father died, he went to work for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de Medici, head of the junior branch of the Medici family. Although Amerigo was twelve years older, they had been schoolmates under the tutelage of his uncle. Amerigo served first as a household manager and then gradually took on increasing responsibilities, handling various business dealings for the family both at home and abroad. Meanwhile, he continued to show an interest in geography, at one point buying an expensive map made by the master cartographer Gabriel de Vallseca.

1488: Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco became dissatisfied with his Seville business agent, Tomasso Capponi. He dispatched Vespucci to investigate the situation and provide an assessment of a suggested replacement, Florentine merchant Gianotto Berardi. 

1492:  Christopher Columbus discovered the New World and sent shockwaves throughout Europe. With a new route being opened, it created more opportunities. At this time, Vespucci had moved from Florence to Seville, where he worked with Gianotto Berardi. It was through Berardi that he became familiar with Christopher Columbus.

1495:  Berardi signed a contract with the crown to send 12 resupply ships to Hispaniola but then died unexpectedly in December without completing the terms of the contract. Vespucci was the executor of Berardi's will, collecting debts and paying outstanding obligations for the firm. Afterward, he was left owing 140,000 maravedis . He continued to provision ships bound for the West Indies, but his opportunities were diminishing; Columbus's expeditions were not providing the hoped-for profits, and his patron, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco Medici, was using other Florentine agents for his business in Seville.

During this time, he married.

1497 - 1500:  According to Amerigo Vespucci, he took two voyages under the Spanish Crown to the New World. These voyages have been disputed as fiction by historians, but they cannot be proven false. 

1501 - 1504:  Vespucci would sail under the Portuguese Crown during the next two voyages. While the first voyage is not disputed, the second voyage is disputed by some historians. Again, these accusations cannot be proven false, and there are primary sources of Vespucci's that state he was there.

Vespucci realized that he was not in Asia and had instead discovered a new continent on August 17, 1501. He was sailing along the coast of Brazil on his first voyage to the Americas when he noticed that the land did not match the descriptions of Asia that he had read. The rivers were larger, the mountains were higher, and the people were different. Vespucci also noticed that the land extended much further south than Asia was thought to extend.

1505 - 1506: He returned to Seville and served the Spanish Crown. The Spanish monarchy did not mind that he had served Portugal and wanted to know information that could possibly show them a new way to Asia. 

1508: He was named chief pilot for the  Casa de Contratación  or House of Commerce, which served as a central trading house for Spain's overseas possessions. He was paid an annual salary of 50,000  maravedis with an extra 25,000 for expenses. In his new role, Vespucci was responsible for ensuring that ships' pilots were adequately trained and licensed before sailing to the New World.

1512:  He died and left his modest estate to his wife and his books to his nephew. His fame would come later, and two continents and a country have his name.

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Amerigo Vespucci

A Florentine navigator and pilot major of Castile, Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512), for whom America is named, is no longer accused of having conspired to supplant Columbus; but interpretation of documents concerning his career remains controversial.

The father of Amerigo Vespucci was Nastagio Vespucci, and his uncle was the learned Dominican Giorgio Antonio Vespucci, who had charge of Amerigo's education. The entire family was cultured and friendly with the Medici rulers of Florence. Domenico Ghirlandaio painted Amerigo in a family portrait when the youth was about 19. However, the explorer had reached his 40s at the time he began voyaging to America, so Ghirlandaio furnishes only an approximate idea of Vespucci's mature appearance.

It is known that Vespucci visited France, in his uncle's company, when about 24, and that his father intended him for a business career. He did engage in commerce, first in Florence and then in Seville in a Medici branch bank. Later, in Seville, he entered a mercantile partnership with a fellow Florentine, Gianetto Berardi, and this lasted until Berardi's death at the end of 1495.

Meanwhile, Columbus had made his first two voyages to the West Indies , and he returned from the second in June 1496. At this time, he and Vespucci unquestionably met and conversed, and Amerigo appears to have been skeptical of the Admiral's belief that he had already reached the outskirts of Asia. Moreover, Vespucci's curiosity about the new lands had been aroused, together with a determination, though no longer young, to see them himself.

"First Voyage"

If the letter he reputedly wrote to Pero Soderini, Gonfalonier (Standard-bearer) of Florence, may be taken at face value, Vespucci embarked from Cadiz in a Spanish fleet May 10, 1497. Serious doubts have been raised about the letter's authenticity, because it does not fit chronologically with authenticated events, and because the voyage, if made, presents serious geographical problems and passes unnoticed by the cartographers and historians of the time. Alberto Magnaghi (1875-1945) believed the letter fabricated, or mostly so, by Vespucci admirers in Florence, who had no idea of the problems they were raising.

If the letter is taken literally, the ships passed through the West Indies , sighting no islands, and in 37 days reached the mainland at some Central American point. This would antedate the Columbus discovery of the mainland of Venezuela by a year. Following the coast, the ships reached "Lariab, " tentatively taken for Tamaulipas. They then continued along the Gulf of Mexico , rounded the tip of Florida, and went northward to Cape Hatteras or Chesapeake Bay . On the return to Spain, they discovered the inhabited island of "lti," identified by some as Bermuda, though by 1522 the Bermudas were unpopulated. The expedition reached Cadiz in October 1498. This voyage should have revealed the insularity of Cuba, yet it failed to establish the fact in contemporary minds, and it remained for Sebastián Ocampo to do so in 1509.

Vespucci, in all probability, voyaged to America at the time ascribed, but he did not have command and as yet had had no practical experience of piloting. Amerigo, or whoever wrote the Soderini letter, deals in leagues covered, seldom in latitudes. These are badly off and at one point would have had the ships in the region of British Columbia . Inexperience could explain many of the errors, but the strong likelihood remains that the letter has been doctored.

In 1499 Vespucci sailed again, and this time there is documentary support of the expedition besides his own letters. His education had included mathematics, and he had surely learned a great deal from his first crossing. Alonso de Ojeda commanded the 1499 expedition at the start, and in his later report he named "Morigo Vespuche" as one of the pilots. From Cadiz, they first dropped to the Cape Verde Islands and then divided forces in the Atlantic. Ojeda went to the Guianas and then to Hispaniola without further discoveries.

Vespucci explored to Cape Santo Agostinho, at the shoulder of Brazil, after which he coasted westward past the Maracaibo Gulf until he too turned to Hispaniola. This may have been the first expedition to touch Brazil as well as the first to cross the Equator in New World waters. Vespucci probably discovered the Amazon mouth; he certainly did so if he remained close to land while sailing west.

A New World

Two years later, Amerigo went on by far his most important voyage, this time for Portugal, at the invitation of King Manuel I . In 1500 that King's commander, Pedro Álvares Cabral, on his way to the Cape of Good Hope and India, had discovered Brazil at latitude 16°52'S. Portugal claimed this land by the Treaty of Tordesillas , and the King wished to know whether it was merely an island or part of the continent Spanish explorers had encountered farther north. Vespucci, having already been to the Brazilian shoulder, seemed the person best qualified to go as an observer with the new expedition Manuel was sending. Vespucci did not command at the start—the Portuguese captain was probably Gonçalo Coelho—but ultimately took charge at the request of the Portuguese officers.

This voyage traced the South American coast from a point above Cape São Roque to approximately 47°S in Patagonia. Among the important discoveries were Guanabara Bay ( Rio de Janeiro ) and the Rio de la Plata , which soon began to appear on maps as Rio Jordán. Vespucci, whatever his earlier beliefs had been, now realized that this could be no part of Asia, as flora, fauna, and human inhabitants in no way corresponded to what ancient writers, and such later ones as Marco Polo , had described. The expedition returned by way of Sierra Leone and the Azores, and Vespucci, in a letter to Florence, called South America Mundus Novus (New World).

In 1503 Amerigo sailed in Portuguese service again to Brazil, but this expedition failed to make new discoveries. The fleet broke up, the Portuguese commander's ship disappeared, and Vespucci could proceed only a little past Bahia before returning to Lisbon in 1504. He did not sail again, and as there seemed no more work for him in Portugal he returned to Seville, where he settled permanently and where he had earlier married Maria de Cerezo. He was middle-aged, and the fact that there were no children might indicate that Maria was also past her youth.

Columbus never thought Vespucci had tried to steal his laurels, and in 1505 he wrote his son, Diego, saying of Amerigo, "It has always been his wish to please me; he is a man of good will; fortune has been unkind to him as to others; his labors have not brought him the rewards he in justice should have."

In 1507 a group of scholars at St-Dié in Lorraine brought out a book of geography entitled Cosmographiae introductio. One of the authors, Martin Waldseemüller, suggested the name America, especially for the Brazilian part of the New World, in honor of "the illustrious man who discovered it." To a conventional Ptolemy map of the Old World, there was now added as much of the new hemisphere as was then known, with the name America upon it. Some objected to this, and both Spain and Portugal proved slow and unwilling to adopt the name, but it prevailed, in part no doubt because of its pleasant sound. Vespucci was no party to this undoubted injustice to Columbus and possibly never heard of it.

In 1503 the Castilian crown created the Casa de Contratación at Seville to govern trade with the New World, and in 1508 King Ferdinand, regent for his mentally unstable daughter, Joanna, established the office of pilot major as a part of the Casa. Amerigo was the first holder of the office, and it became his duty to train pilots, examine them for proficiency in their craft, and collect data regarding New World navigation. This he incorporated in the great Padrôn Real, the master map kept in his Seville office. He remained pilot major until his death on Feb. 22, 1512, a month short of his fifty-eighth birthday.

Further Reading

Biographers differ sharply in their judgments of Vespucci. Frederick Julius Pohl, Amerigo Vespucci, Pilot Major (1944), rejects the first voyage entirely and considers the Soderini letter spurious, while Germán Arciniegas, Amerigo and the New World: The Life and Times of Amerigo Vespucci (trans. 1955), maintains that both voyage and letter are authentic. The controversy over the rival merits of Columbus and Vespucci is examined in De Lamer Jenson, ed., The Expansion of Europe: Motives, Methods, and Meanings (1967). A general survey of the Atlantic voyage is Gerald Roe Crone, The Discovery of America (1969). □

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• Vespucci, Amerigo

Born: March 9, 1451 Florence, Italy Died: February 22, 1512 Seville, Spain Italian navigator

A Florentine navigator and pilot major of Castile , Spain, Amerigo Vespucci , for whom America is named, played a major part in exploring the New World.

The father of Amerigo Vespucci was Nastagio Vespucci, and his uncle was the learned Dominican Giorgio Antonio Vespucci, who had charge of Amerigo's education. The entire family was cultured and friendly with the Medici rulers of Florence, a family that ruled Italy from the 1400s to 1737. Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449 – 1494) painted Amerigo in a family portrait when the youth was about nineteen. However, the explorer had reached his forties by the time he began his voyage to America, so Ghirlandaio's painting shows only an approximate idea of Vespucci's mature appearance.

It is known that Vespucci visited France , in his uncle's company, when he was about twenty-four years old, and that his father intended for him a business career. He did get involved in business, first in Florence and then in Seville, Spain, in a bank. Later, in Seville, he entered a partnership with a fellow Florentine, Gianetto Berardi, and this lasted until Berardi's death at the end of 1495.

Meanwhile, Christopher Columbus (1451 – 1506) had made his first two voyages to the West Indies , and he returned from the second in June 1496. At this time, he and Vespucci met and talked, and Amerigo appears to have been doubtful of Columbus's belief that he had already reached the outskirts of Asia . Moreover, Vespucci's curiosity about the new lands had been aroused, together with a determination — though no longer young — to see them himself.

First voyage

According to a controversial letter, Vespucci embarked from Cadiz, Spain, in a Spanish fleet on May 10, 1497. Serious doubts have been raised about the letter's authenticity (based on fact), because dates in the letter do not coordinate with authenticated events, and because the voyage, if made, presents serious geographical problems and seems to have passed unnoticed by the cartographers (mapmakers) and historians of the time.

If the letter is real, the ships passed through the West Indies — sighting no islands — and in thirty-seven days reached the mainland somewhere in Central America . This would predate Columbus's discovery of the mainland of Venezuela by a year. On their return to Spain, Vespucci's men discovered the inhabited island of "Iti," identified by some as Bermuda . However, by 1522 the Bermudas were unpopulated. The expedition returned to Cadiz in October 1498.

Vespucci, in all probability, voyaged to America at the time noted, but he did not have command and as yet had had no practical experience piloting a ship. Inexperience could explain many of the errors in the letter, but the strong likelihood remains that the letter was altered.

In 1499 Vespucci sailed again, and this time there is proof of the expedition besides his own letters. His education had included mathematics, and he had surely learned a great deal from his first crossing. From Cadiz, they first dropped to the Cape Verde Islands and then divided forces in the Atlantic. Vespucci explored to Cape Santo Agostinho, at the shoulder of Brazil , after which he coasted westward past the Maracaibo Gulf. This may have been the first expedition to touch Brazil as well as the first to cross the Equator in New World waters. During these travels, Vespucci probably discovered the mouth of the Amazon River.

A new world

Two years later Amerigo went on his most important voyage, this time for King Manuel I (1469 – 1521) to Brazil. Vespucci, having already been to the Brazilian shoulder, seemed the person best qualified to go as an observer with the new expedition. Vespucci did not command at the start but ultimately took charge at the request of the Portuguese officers.

This voyage traced the South American coast from a point above Cape S à o Roque to Patagonia. Among the important discoveries were Guanabara Bay ( Rio de Janeiro ) and the Rio de la Plata , which soon began to appear on maps as Rio Jord á n. The expedition returned by way of Sierra Leone and the Azores, and Vespucci, in a letter to Florence, called South America Mundus Novus (New World).

In 1503 Amerigo sailed in Portuguese service again to Brazil, but this expedition failed to make new discoveries. The fleet broke up, the Portuguese commander's ship disappeared, and Vespucci could proceed only a little past Bahia before returning to Lisbon , Portugal , in 1504. He never sailed again.

Vespucci's legacy

In 1507 a group of scholars at St-Di é in Lorraine brought out a book of geography entitled "Cosmographiae introductio." One of the authors, Martin Waldseem ü ller, suggested the name America, especially for the Brazilian part of the New World, in honor of "the illustrious man who discovered it." After some debate, the name was eventually adopted.

During his last years, Amerigo held the office of pilot major, and it became his duty to train pilots, examine them for ability in their craft, and collect data regarding New World navigation. He remained pilot major until his death on February 22, 1512, a month short of his fifty-eighth birthday.

For More Information

Arciniegas, Germ á n. Amerigo and the New World: The Life and Times of Amerigo Vespucci. New York : Knopf, 1955. Reprint, New York : Octagon Books, 1978.

Baker, Nina Brown. Amerigo Vespucci. New York : Knopf, 1956.

Donaldson-Forbes, Jeff. Amerigo Vespucci. New York: PowerKids Press, 2002.

Fradin, Dennis Brindell. Amerigo Vespucci. New York: Franklin Watts, 1991.

Pohl, Frederick Julius. Amerigo Vespucci, Pilot Major. New York: Columbia University Press, 1944, revised edition 1966.

Swan, Barry. Amerigo Vespucci. Wembly, Middlesex, England : Valley Press, 1998.

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Merchant, explorer, and navigator

Early Wealth. A native of Florence, Amerigo Vespucci was a wealthy businessman who traveled extensively. He was in Spain as a representative of the Medici family when Columbus sailed in 1492. While in Seville, Vespucci turned his hobby of geography and navigation into a new midlife career as an explorer. He made the first of at least two voyages to the Americas in 1499-1500. The first voyage was to Venezuela aboard a Spanish ship. Vespucci calculated longitude on the voyage by mapping the planets and the moon, a method so complicated that it was rarely used, despite remaining in navigation manuals for hundreds of years. After his second voyage he returned to Spain and was promoted to Chief Pilot of Spain, the first person to hold the office.

Brazil. Vespucci's second voyage was a direct result of Portuguese navigator Pedro Alvares Cabral 's sighting of Brazil. Cabral had sailed in a south-southwesterly direction and sighted the coast of Brazil in 1500. However, he did not explore the land because he was actually attempting to repeat Vasco da Gama 's voyage around the southern tip of Africa. Vespucci set sail in 1501 under the Portuguese flag in order to find and chart the Brazilian coast. He continued south along the coast of South America for more than two thousand miles until he crossed the “Line of Demarcation” (an imaginary boundary that divided the Portuguese and Spanish areas of exploration). Vespucci's two known voyages thus covered most of the Atlantic coast of South America . It was obvious to him and others that South America was a vast continent.

Propaganda. Unlike Columbus, who thought he was in the Indies, Vespucci claimed that he had sailed to a new land: “It is proper to call [it] a new world.” Vespucci was the first to popularize the wonders of the Americas despite the fact that he may not have actually written material attributed to him. In 1507, Fracanzano da Montalboddo published a collection of accounts titled Paesi novamente retrovati that included two essays purportedly written by Vespucci. The author's sexual imagination and eye for the outlandish filled the work with accounts of Amazon women, cannibals, and giants. For instance, a 1504 letter to Piero Sodarini vividly describes Vespucci's voyage of 1501-1502 to Brazil. He offers a stark contrast between the inhabitants of the new land and the Europeans, whom he refers to as Christians. One incident in the letter details how a woman killed a Christian on the beach. Within open eyesight of his ship, other women dragged the body to higher land, where it was butchered and cooked over a fire. Men and women from the new lands then flaunted their victory by waving portions of the body in the air. To make matters worse, they then reenacted how they had earlier killed and eaten two missing Christians. Vespucci expressed his disgust, yet his exotic descriptions were clearly meant to stir emotions in Europe.

Legacy. Vespucci's propaganda allowed him to win much of the fame that should have gone to Columbus. His claim of “a new world” so influenced German cartographer Martin Waldseemuller that his Cosmographiae introductio (1507) proposed the name America, after Amerigo Vespucci, for the newly found western lands. Waldseemuller's great world map states across the top that it is “according to the tradition of Ptolemy and the voyages of Amerigo Vespucci and others.” (Ptolemy's view of the world was not consistent with Vespucci's claim of new lands, and Waldseemuller later abandoned his support of Ptolemiac theory.) Vespucci's real legacy is in Waldseemuller's use of Amerigo's name for the new lands. Decades later Gerardus Mercator used the name for North America and South America. The term remains today despite the fact that Vespucci never saw the North American shore.

G. R. Crone, ed., The Explorers: Great Adventurers Tell Their Own Stories of Discovery ( New York : Crowell, 1962).

J. H. Parry, The Age of Reconnaissance: Discovery, Exploration and Settlement, 1450-1650 (Cleveland: World, 1963).

Frederick J. Pohl, Amerigo Vespucci, Pilot Major ( New York : Octagon, 1966).

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Italian Merchant and Geographer

A merigo Vespucci was one of the most important personalities of the European Age of Exploration. His vast knowledge of geography would set the stage for the European colonization of the Western hemisphere.

Amerigo Vespucci was a child of the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution. Nicholas Copernicus (1473-1543) would move the Earth from the center of creation to the position of third satellite orbiting the sun. Galileo (1564-1642) and his telescope proved the heliocentric theory, and a questioning attitude would define this early modern period. The development of the scientific method created a process through which humankind could decipher God's "Book of Nature."

Italy was at the center of this knowledge explosion. By the late fourteenth century, certain Italian city-states had seized control of the flow of spice, perfumes, and silk from the East. Florence was the most powerful of these city-states. Into this intellectually vibrant environment, in 1454, Amerigo Vespucci was born. The Vespucci family had been prominent for over a century, with family members holding important positions in the city's government. These family connections enabled Amerigo to receive an exceptional education, including an introduction to the latest geographic theories, and very early in his education he decided to make geography his intellectual focus. The turning point in his formation as a geographer came when he began an intellectual relationship with Paolo Toscanelli (1397-1492). Toscanelli was regarded as Florence's greatest intellectual, and he always stressed the importance of experience over authority. He believed that in the modern world one should reject all knowledge that did not stand the test of empirical examination.

In 1492 Christopher Columbus (1456-1501) declared that he had reached India by sailing west. As this information became public Vespucci began to question the veracity of Columbus's claims. The length of his voyage was less than a month, and Vespucci believed that was too short a period of time to travel such a great distance. Most experienced geographers believed that a degree on the surface of the Earth was equal to 66⅔ miles (107.3 km). Columbus argued that his voyage was shorter than expected because in fact a degree was only equal to 56⅔ miles (91.2 km), thus making the circumference of the earth much smaller than previously thought. Vespucci's second problem was based upon the fact that Columbus had sailed directly west from Spain. It was common knowledge that Bartholomeu Dias's (1450-1500) voyage to the Cape of Good Hope not only had taken much longer than that of Columbus, but he also had to sail south of the equator. These two facts were in direct conflict with the information put forth by Columbus.

Following the training he received from Toscanelli, Vespucci set out to gather his own empirical data and signed on as an expert astronomer for the next expedition funded by the Spanish monarchy. Of the five ships assigned to this voyage, Vespucci was in charge of two. Both ships sailed westward and reached the coast of what is now Brazil. Along with mapping the entire coastline, he also charted territory, which consists of present-day Colombia, Uruguay, and Argentina. He then explored parts of the Amazon, the Para, and the La Plata rivers. The information from these detailed expeditions convinced European scholars that Columbus had not reached India but had found a vast uncharted territory. Vespucci's accurate maps would eventually be used for further exploration of the Western hemisphere, setting the stage for Europe's colonization of the New World. Amerigo Vespucci was held in such high esteem that in 1507 the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller (1470-1521) named this new region "America" to honor Vespucci's achievements as a geographer.

RICHARD D. FITZGERALD

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• Vespucci, Amerigo (1454–1512)

Vespucci, Amerigo (1454 – 1512)

Italian navigator whose name was given to the New World. Vespucci was a merchant of Florence who was hired by the Medici rulers of the city to work in Seville, Spain . He supplied essential goods to the expeditions of Christopher Columbus and was later taken on as a navigator by Alonso Ojeda. In 1499, Ojeda reached South America ; he and Vespucci separated and Vespucci sailed south from the Caribbean, becoming the first European to reach the mouth of the Amazon River. In 1502 Vespucci joined a second expedition to the New World, this one sponsored by Portugal and which reached Guanabara Bay, the present site of Rio de Janeiro , and the Rio de la Plata , which separates Argentina and Uruguay . Vespucci developed a new system for computing longitude and calculated the circumference of the earth to within 50 miles (80.5km) of the correct figure. Realizing that South America was an entirely new continent and not an unknown part of Asia or the East Indies , Vespucci provided European navigators with a more accurate concept of the distances facing them in their voyages of exploration.

An account of these voyages was read by the German mapmaker Martin Waldseem ü ller, who worked as a mapmaker for a merchant company of Seville. Waldseem ü ller came to believe, erroneously, that Vespucci had commanded an expedition of 1497 that was the first to reach the mainland of North America , one year before the same feat had been accomplished by Christopher Columbus . In 1507 Waldseem ü ller honored Vespucci by using his first name as a label for the new continent in his Cosmographiae Introductio , a series of maps. In the meantime, Vespucci was honored with the title of pilot major, a chief navigator for the king of Spain. He died of malaria that he had caught during his second voyage.

See Also: Columbus, Christopher

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Amerigo Vespucci (March 9, 1454–February 22, 1512) was an Italian explorer and cartographer. In the early 16th century, he showed that the New World was not part of Asia but was, in fact, its own distinct area. The Americas take their name from the Latin form of "Amerigo."

Fast Facts: Amerigo Vespucci

• Known For: Vespucci's expeditions led him to the realization that the New World was distinct from Asia; the Americas were named after him.
• Born: March 9, 1454 in Florence, Italy
• Parents: Ser Nastagio Vespucci and Lisabetta Mini
• Died: February 22, 1512 in Seville, Spain
• Spouse: Maria Cerezo

Amerigo Vespucci was born on March 9, 1454, to a prominent family in Florence, Italy. As a young man, he read widely and collected books and maps. He eventually began working for local bankers and was sent to Spain in 1492 to look after his employer's business interests.

While he was in Spain, Vespucci had the chance to meet Christopher Columbus , who had just returned from his voyage to America; the meeting increased Vespucci's interest in taking a journey across the Atlantic. He soon began working on ships, and he went on his first expedition in 1497. The Spanish ships passed through the West Indies, reached South America, and returned to Spain the following year. In 1499, Vespucci went on his second voyage, this time as an official navigator. The expedition reached the mouth of the Amazon River and explored the coast of South America. Vespucci was able to calculate how far west he had traveled by observing the conjunction of Mars and the Moon.

The New World

On his third voyage in 1501, Vespucci sailed under the Portuguese flag. After leaving Lisbon, it took Vespucci 64 days to cross the Atlantic Ocean due to light winds. His ships followed the South American coast to within 400 miles of the southern tip, Tierra del Fuego. Along the way, the Portuguese sailors in charge of the voyage asked Vespucci to take over as commander.

While he was on this expedition, Vespucci wrote two letters to a friend in Europe. He described his travels and was the first to identify the New World of North and South America as a separate landmass from Asia. (Christopher Columbus mistakenly believed he had reached Asia.) In one letter , dated March (or April) 1503, Vespucci described the diversity of life on the new continent:

We knew that land to be a continent, and not an island, from its long beaches extending without trending round, the infinite number of inhabitants, the numerous tribes and peoples, the numerous kinds of wild animals unknown in our country, and many others never seen before by us, touching which it would take long to make reference.

In his writings, Vespucci also described the culture of the indigenous people , focusing on their diet, religion, and—what made these letters very popular—their sexual, marriage, and childbirth practices. The letters were published in many languages and were distributed across Europe (they sold much better than Columbus's own diaries). Vespucci's descriptions of the natives were vivid and frank:

They are people gentle and tractable, and all of both sexes go naked, not covering any part of their bodies, just as they came from their mothers’ wombs, and so they go until their deaths...They are of a free and good-looking expression of countenance, which they themselves destroy by boring the nostrils and lips, the nose and ears...They stop up these perforations with blue stones, bits of marble, of crystal, or very fine alabaster, also with very white bones and other things.

Vespucci also described the richness of the land, and hinted that the region could be easily exploited for its valuable raw materials, including gold and pearls:

The land is very fertile, abounding in many hills and valleys, and in large rivers, and is irrigated by very refreshing springs. It is covered with extensive and dense forests...No kind of metal has been found except gold, in which the country abounds, though we have brought none back in this our first navigation. The natives, however, assured us that there was an immense quantity of gold underground, and nothing was to be had from them for a price. Pearls abound, as I wrote to you.

Scholars are not certain whether or not Vespucci participated in a fourth voyage to the Americas in 1503. If he did, there is little record of it, and we can assume the expedition was not very successful. Nevertheless, Vespucci did assist in the planning of other voyages to the New World.

European colonization of this region accelerated in the years after Vespucci's voyages, resulting in settlements in Mexico, the West Indies, and South America. The Italian explorer's work played an important role in helping colonizers navigate the territory.

Vespucci was named pilot-major of Spain in 1508. He was proud of this accomplishment, writing that "I was more skillful than all the shipmates of the whole world." Vespucci contracted malaria and died in Spain in 1512 at the age of 57.

The German clergyman-scholar Martin Waldseemüller liked to make up names. He even created his own last name by combining the words for "wood," "lake," and "mill." Waldseemüller was working on a contemporary world map in 1507, based on the Greek geography of Ptolemy , and he had read of Vespucci's travels and knew that the New World was indeed two continents.

In honor of Vespucci's discovery of this portion of the world, Waldseemüller printed a wood block map (called "Carta Mariana") with the name "America" spread across the southern continent of the New World. Waldseemüller sold 1,000 copies of the map across Europe.

Within a few years, Waldseemüller had changed his mind about the name for the New World—but it was too late. The name America had stuck. Gerardus Mercator's world map of 1538 was the first to include North America and South America. Vespucci's legacy lives on through the continents named in his honor.

• Fernández-Armesto Felipe. "Amerigo: the Man Who Gave His Name to America." Random House, 2008.
• Vespucci, Amerigo. “The Letters of Amerigo Vespucci.” Early Americas Digital Archive (EADA) .
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World History Edu

• Amerigo Vespucci / Famous Explorers

Amerigo Vespucci’s Greatest Achievements and Voyages

by World History Edu · November 4, 2021

Amerigo Vespucci – biography and achievements

Amerigo Vespucci, a Florence, Italy-born navigator, merchant, and explorer, was one of the most renowned European explorers of the late 15th and early 16th centuries. And did you know that the name of the Americas was obtained from Amerigo Vespucci’s name?

What impact did this Italian-born explorer have on the world of exploration and the New World? And what were some of his greatest discoveries?

Below, World History Edu takes a quick look at the life and major achievements of Amerigo Vespucci.

Quick facts about Amerigo Vespucci

Date of birth : c. 1454

Place of birth : Florence, Republic of Florence (present-day Italy)

Died : February 22, 1512

Place of death : Sevilla, Crown of Castile (present-day Spain)

Mother : Lisa di Giovanni Mini

Father : Nostagio Vespucci

Siblings : Antonio and Girolamo

Most famous for : His voyages to the New World; Lending his name to the name of “America”

Major achievements of Amerigo Vespucci

During his illustrious career in exploration and navigation, Amerigo Vespucci was able to accomplish a lot of outstanding things. Some of his major accomplishments are as follows:

A member of the delegation sent by influential Italian family Medici to visit the king of France

Amerigo Vespucci’s family had a cordial relation with the very influential Florentine family named the Medici family. Lorenzo de’ Medici, a member of the Medici family, was in effect the de facto ruler of Florence for many years.

To secure French support for Florence’s war with Naples, the Medici family in Florence sent a diplomatic delegation to France’s Louis XI (reign- 1461-1483), also known as “Louis the Prudent”. Vespucci was perhaps an attaché or private secretary of the delegation. Although the Louis did not want commit, Vespucci returned to Florence having gained a good deal of experience.

Amerigo Vespucci’s influences (from left to right): Strabo (c. 64 BC- c. 24 AD), Claudius Ptolemy (c. 100-170 AD), and Italian mathematician and cosmographer Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli (1398-1482).

Helped in the preparations for Columbus’s voyages to the New World

Proving himself a capable and well-educated man, Amerigo Vespucci gained the trust Medici family members such as Giovanni di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici, who a former classmate of Amerigo.

Steadily, Vespucci came to be assigned to Giannotto Berardi to help in the preparations for Christopher Columbus ’s third expeditions to the New World. He was also involved in preparing many other explorers for their voyages.

By the mid-1490s, he had risen to become the head of the Sevilla agency for Giovanni Medici.

Following the death of Giannotto Berardi in 1495, Vespucci was appointed the manager of the Medici Sevilla agency in Spain, where he helped organize a number of voyages for explorers, including Christopher Columbus. | Possible portrait of Lorenzo (1463-1503), by Sandro Botticelli

Vespucci popularized the discoveries made in the New World

His booklets in 1503 and 1505 about his voyages to the New World received critical acclaim across Europe. His reports helped to a large extent in making popular the discoveries that were made by European explorers at the time. They also boosted his reputation as a renowned navigator and explorer of the Age of Discovery (1400 to 1700 AD).

Amerigo Vespucci coined the term “New World” in 1503

Vespucci made popular the use of the term “New World” across Europe. | Sebastian Münster’s map of the New World, first published in 1540

In his 1503 letter – which was written to his friend and former employer Lorenzo di Pier Francesco de’ Medici – he used the term “New World” to refer to the Western Hemisphere that had become a popular destination for many European navigators and explorers. In the letter, which was later published in 1503 in Latin with the title Mundus Novus , Vespucci also makes mention of his voyage to Brazil in 1501-1502.

Vespucci strongly believed (and rightly so) that the Western Hemisphere lands discovered by navigators from Europe were not the edges of Asia, instead they were part of an entirely different continent. He came to that conclusion during his voyage to present-day Brazil in 1501. | Image: Amerigo Vespucci, Mundus Novus, Letter to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici in 1502/1503

Amerigo Vespucci’s letters

It is worth mentioning that there exist two series of documents on the various voyages (from 1497 to 1504) taken by Amerigo Vespucci. Those two documents are sometimes all that scholars have to understanding the voyages of Amerigo Vespucci to the New World.

The first document was a letter from Vespucci to Piero di Tommaso Soderini, the gonfalonier (an Italian magistrate). The letter, which was dated September 4, 1504, was written in Italian. Known as the Soderini letter, the document was published in Florence in 1505. It claims that Vespucci embarked upon four voyages in total. However, some modern historians and scholars have questioned the authorship and reliability of the letter. Regardless, the Soderini letter proved very useful when it came to naming the American continent. Also, two Latin versions of the letter appeared in works “Quattuor americi navigations” and “Mundus Novus”.

The second series of documents mentions two voyages by Amerigo Vespucci. The documents are made up of three private letters addressed to Vespucci’s former employer and patron Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici.

Amerigo Vespucci’s voyages (1497-1504)

Although still a subject of immense debate, Amerigo Vespucci’s first two voyages to the New World are alleged to have taken place in the late 1490s.

According to a 1504 letter he allegedly penned to a Florentine official named Piero di Tommaso Soderini, Vespucci first sailed to the New World on May 10, 1497. The voyage, which was licensed by the Crown of Castile, saw Vespucci act as a navigator. The voyage had Juan de la Cosa as the chief navigator, while Alonso de Ojeda served as the commander. The goal was to explore the area where Christopher Columbus had reported seeing pearls during his third voyage.

Because the Soderini letter is the only documentation that talks about this voyage, some scholars have opined that the Vespucci never made such voyages. They go on to state that the letter was most likely a forgery. | Image: Amerigo Vespucci’s second voyage depicted in the first known edition of his letter to Piero Soderini, published by Pietro Pacini in Florence c.1505

To this day, it remains a bit unclear as to the exact role of Vespucci during the voyage. It is possible that he served as a commercial representative of the financiers of the voyage. Some scholars state that he was a navigator on the expedition that saw four ships set sail from Spain in 1499.

The expedition first stopped in the Canary Islands and then sailed to South America. When they arrived at the coast of French Guyana or Surinam, Captain Ojeda split the expedition team into two and headed northwest to modern day Venezuela, while Vespucci team sailed south. Vespucci was part of the team that discovered the mouth of the Amazon River. They then went as far as Cape St. Augustine (latitude about 6° S) before making their way past Trinidad, seeing the mouth of the Orinoco River before heading to Haiti. After making a stop at the Spanish colony at Hispaniola in the West Indies, the team returned to Spain in June 1500.

Amerigo Vespucci’s second voyage of 1501-1502

Upon returning to Spain, Vespucci proposed a voyage to the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of the Ganges (present day Bay of Bengal), and Ceylon (today’s Sri Lanka). Unfortunately, his proposal was turned down by the Spanish government. Not wanting to dwell too much on the rejection, Vespucci decided to go into the service of Portugal and embark upon his second voyage.

Vespucci’s 1501-1502 voyage was licensed and supported by Manuel I of Portugal. The pilot for the voyage was Portuguese explorer Gonçalo Coelho, who was tasked to investigate a landmass far to the west in the Atlantic Ocean. Portugal had wanted to determine the extent of Portuguese nobleman and navigator and explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral’s discovery which was far to the west in the Atlantic Ocean (near present-day Brazil). The voyage was intended to allow Porrtugal to claim the land to the east of the line established by the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494).

With a total of three ships, Vespucci sailed from Lisbon, Portugal on May 13, 1501. They went through the Cape Verde Islands for resupply before journeying southwestward. In August 1501, the expedition made it to the coast of Brazil and then proceeded to Cape St. Augustine. They continued southward, coming into contact with Guanabara Bay (Rio de Janeiro’s bay). The crew named the bay Rio de Janeiro because it was January 1, 1502.

By going as far as Rio de la Plata in January 1502, Vespucci and the crew became the first European to find the estuary. Before setting sail back home, they passed by the coast of Patagonia (in present-day southern Argentina).

His alleged third voyage (1503-1504)

Vespucci’s third voyage came under the auspices of his Portuguese employers in 1503. However, there are some scholars that claim that the Italian explorer never made such voyage.

Those who support his claims of his third voyage cite a letter he wrote to Soderini. In the letter, it was mentioned that Vespucci travelled to the east coast of Brazil. Not much detail is known about the voyage. It must be noted that the expedition did not do much to advance the knowledge at the time.

The name “America” was derived from Amerigo Vespucci’s name

Around 1000 AD, the Vikings, under the leadership of Norse explorer Leif Erikson, “discovered” the continent of America. Half a millennium later Christopher Columbus’ expeditions would introduce Europeans to many Caribbean and Central American islands.

And somehow, Amerigo Vespucci’s name is the name given to the continent. That was due to the work of German cartographers and humanists Martin Waldseemüller (c. 1470-1520) and Matthias Ringmann (1482-1511), who named those “discovered” land areas after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci.

The word “America” appeared for the first time in 1507 in Waldseemüller and Ringmann’s pamphlet titled “Cosmographiae Introductio” ( Introduction to Cosmography ). After and a new world map drawn by Waldseemüller. The pamphlet also made its way into the Latin translation of the Soderini letter.

A thousand copies of the world map were printed with the title Universal Geography According to the Tradition of Ptolemy and the Contributions of Amerigo Vespucci and Others. | Image: Waldseemüller map from 1507 is the first map to include the name “America” and the first to depict the Americas as separate from Asia. The name initially applied only to South America, but it later extended to North and Central America.  

The name “America” was derived from the Latinized first name of Amerigo Vespucci. German cartographers and humanists Martin Waldseemüller (c. 1470-1520) and Matthias Ringmann (1482-1511) used named the continent in honor of the invaluable contributions made by Vespucci.

Waldseemüller (c. 1470-1520) was also the first to map South America as a continent separate from Asia, the first to produce a printed globe and the first to create a printed wall map of Europe. After the publication of Waldseemüller’s work in 1507, other cartographers followed suit, and by 1532 the name America was permanently affixed to the newly discovered continents.

It must be noted that the name “America” referred to only the South American continent, as the North and Central America had not yet been “discovered” by European explorers. In any case, the name came to be used synonymous with the New World, i.e. name of the western hemisphere of the world.

German humanist scholars and cosmographers Matthias Ringmann and Martin Waldseemüll’s 1507 book “Cosmographiae Introductio” (Introduction to Cosmography) included the Latin translation of the Soderini letter, a letter Vespucci wrote Soderini. Prior to the coming out of “Cosmographiae Introductio” (Introduction to Cosmography), Martin Waldseemuller had reprinted the “Quattuor Americi navigationes” (“Four Voyages of Amerigo”).

Distinguished consultant in the court of King Ferdinand of Spain

In 1508, he was appointed by the Crown of Castile to serve as the piloto mayor (master navigator) in the  Casa de Contratación (House of Trade) in Seville. Image: Statue of Vespucci outside the Uffizi in Florence, Italy

By 1505, Vespucci’s name had become known all across Europe, almost to the same reverence as fellow Italian explorer Christopher Columbus. Vespucci was invited by Ferdinand of Spain to serve the monarch on matters of navigation and exploration.

He was employed by Spain to facilitate exploration into the New World by prepare explorers for the voyages. Based in Seville, the very respected navigator and explorer was also tasked to working out western passage from Europe to India. Vespucci even got paid for his work, receiving an annual salary of about 50,000 maravedis and other allowances and benefits.

He also worked as the chief navigator for the Casa de Contratación  de las Indias (Commercial House for the Indies), an agency founded in 1503 in Sevilla to not only train pilots and ship masters but to also issue out licenses to ship captains and navigators. Vespucci stayed in that position until his death in 1512.

Read More: 10 Greatest Explorers of All Time

Other notable accomplishments of Amerigo Vespucci

Amerigo Vespucci accomplishments

In addition to being one of the most famous pioneers of Atlantic exploration, Amerigo Vespucci’s discoveries helped expand our knowledge of the New World. The following are other notable accomplishments of the Florence-born explorer and navigator:

• In April 1505, Amerigo Vespucci was made a citizen of Castile and León under the auspices of a royal proclamation.
• From 1505 to 1512, he worked for the Spanish crown, prepared official map of newly found lands and routes. Those maps were meant for organizing and coordinating expeditions to the New World.

More Amerigo Vespucci facts

He grew up in middle-income family in Santa Lucia d’Ognissanti. | Image: – Portrait engraving of Vespucci by Crispijn van de Passe, which titles him discoverer and conqueror of Brazilian land

Here are 10 other notable facts about the Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci:

• It is widely held that Amerigo Vespucci was born on March 9, 1451. However, there have been some claims that put his birth year in 1454.
• While working in Seville as a business agent for the Medici family, he married a Spanish woman named Maria Cerezo. In Amerigo’s will, he describes her as the daughter of Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba.
• The meaning of his name Vespucci translates into “Home Ruler”.
• Amerigo Vespucci was the third son of Nostagio Vespucci, a notary worker in Florence, Italy, and Lisa di Giovanni Mini.
• He was named after his grandfather Amerigo Vespucci, who was an important member of the Florentine government (the Signoria ).
• Amerigo Vespucci received his early education from his uncle Giorgio Antonio, a member of the Order of Preachers (also known as the Dominacan friar) in the monastery of San Marco. Giorgio was a renowned humanist scholar in Florence. Amerigo had the opportunity to learn a great deal of things from Giorgio, including Latin, rhetoric, and philosophy.
• His uncle also introduced him to works of classical Greek astronomers and geographers such as Strabo (c. 64 BC- c. 24 AD) and Claudius Ptolemy (c. 100-170 AD). Amerigo also derived a bit of influence from the works of Italian mathematician and cosmographer Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli (1398-1482).
• While working for the Medici family, he purchased a very expensive map drawn by Gabriel de Vallseca, a renowned cartographer.
• He embarked upon at least two expeditions to the New World; the first (1499-1500) was on behalf of Spain, while the second (1501-1502) was for his Portuguese employers.
• His critics accused him of taking credit for other people’s accomplishments. In some cases, it’s been said that other scholars erroneously appropriated works and discoveries of other explorers to him.

Bibliography

Ann Fitzpatrick Alper,  Forgotten Voyager: The Story of Amerigo Vespucci (Minneapolis: Lerner Publishing Group, 1991)

Edwards, Charles Lester; Vespucci, Amerigo (2009).  Amerigo Vespucci . Viartis

Fernández-Armesto, Felipe (2007).  Amerigo: The Man Who Gave His Name to America . New York: Random House

Formisano, Luciano (1992).  Letters from a New World: Amerigo Vespucci’s Discovery of America . New York: Marsilio

Lynn Hoogenboom,  Amerigo Vespucci: A Primary Source Biography (New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc., 2006)

Mundus Novus: Letter to Lorenzo Pietro Di Medici, by Amerigo Vespucci; translation by George Tyler Northrup, Princeton University Press; 1916.

M.H.Davidson (1997)  Columbus Then and Now, a life re-examined. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press , p. 417)

Ray, Kurt (2004).  Amerigo Vespucci: Italian Explorer of the Americas . New York: The Rosen Publishing Group

Schulz, Norbert; Vespucci, Amerigo (2007).  Amerigo Vespucci, Mundus Novus (mit Zweittexten) . MMO-Verlag

Vigneras, Louis-André (1976).  The Discovery of South America and the Andalusian Voyages . Chicago: University of Chicago Press

The Cosmographer Who Unknowingly Gave His Name to the Americas, by Mistake. Accessed on Nov 2, 2021

Tags: Amerigo Vespucci Florence-Italy Italian explorers The New World

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A Voyage Westward: Amerigo Vespucci and a Whole New World

Historical questions remain, but vespucci's voyages defined the "new world" as we know it..

Amerigo Vespucci (born March 9, 1454; died Feb. 22, 1512) was an Italian  explorer , financier , navigator and cartographer . Born in the Republic of Florence , he became a naturalized citizen of the Crown of Castile in 1505.

Vespucci first demonstrated, in about 1502, that Brazil and the West Indies did not represent Asia’s eastern outskirts, as initially believed during  Columbus’ voyages , but instead constituted an entirely separate landmass unknown to people of the Old World . Colloquially referred to as the New World , it came to be termed “ the Americas “, a name derived from Americus , the Latin version of Vespucci’s first name .

In April 1495, the Crown of Castile broke their monopoly deal with Christopher Columbus and began handing out licenses to other navigators for the West Indies .

At the invitation of king Manuel I of Portugal , Vespucci participated as observer in several voyages that explored the east coast of South America between 1499 and 1502. On the first of these voyages he was aboard the ship that discovered that South America extended much further south than previously thought.

The expeditions became widely known in Europe after two accounts attributed to Vespucci were published between 1502 and 1504. In 1507, Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the new continent America after the feminine Latin version of Vespucci’s first name. In an accompanying book, Waldseemüller published one of the Vespucci accounts, which led to criticism that Vespucci was trying to upset Christopher Columbus ‘ glory. However, the rediscovery in the 18th century of other letters by Vespucci has led to the view that the early published accounts, notably the Soderini Letter , could be fabrications, not by Vespucci, but by others.

In 1508, the position of chief of navigation of Spain ( piloto mayor de Indias ) was created for Vespucci, with the responsibility of planning navigation for voyages to the Indies.

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.

Lettera di Amerigo Vespucci delle isole nuovamente trovate in quattro suoi viaggi (Letter of Amerigo Vespucci concerning the isles newly discovered on his four voyages), known as Lettera al Soderini or just Lettera , was a letter in Italian addressed to Piero Soderini . Printed in 1504 or 1505, it claimed to be an account of four voyages to the Americas made by Vespucci between 1497 and 1504. A Latin translation was published by the German Martin Waldseemüller in 1507 in Cosmographiae Introductio , a book on cosmography and geography , as Quattuor Americi Vespucij navigationes (Four Voyages of Amerigo Vespucci).

On March 22, 1508, King Ferdinand made Vespucci chief navigator of Spain and commissioned him to found a school of navigation, in order to standardize and modernize navigation techniques used by Iberian sea captains then exploring the world. Vespucci even developed a rudimentary, but fairly accurate method of determining longitude (which only more accurate chronometers would later improve upon).

In the 18th century, three unpublished familiar letters from Vespucci to Lorenzo de’ Medici were rediscovered. One describes a voyage made in 1499–1500 which corresponds with the second of the “four voyages”. Another was written from Cape Verde in 1501 in the early part of the third of the four voyages, before crossing the Atlantic. The third letter was sent from Lisbon after the completion of that voyage.

Some have suggested that Vespucci, in the two letters published in his lifetime, was exaggerating his role and constructed deliberate fabrications. However, many scholars now believe that the two letters were not written by him but were fabrications by others based in part on genuine letters by Vespucci. It was the publication and widespread circulation of the letters that might have led Waldseemüller to name the new continent America on his world map of 1507 in Lorraine . The book accompanying the map stated: “I do not see what right any one would have to object to calling this part, after Americus who discovered it and who is a man of intelligence, Amerige, that is, the Land of Americus, or America: since both Europa and Asia got their names from women”. It is possible that Vespucci was not aware that Waldseemüller had named the continent after him.

The two disputed letters claim that Vespucci made four voyages to America, while at most two can be verified from other sources. At the moment, there is a dispute between historians on when Vespucci visited the mainland the first time. Some historians, like Germán Arciniegas and Gabriel Camargo Pérez, think that his first voyage was made in June 1497 with the Spanish pilot Juan de la Cosa .

Vespucci’s real historical importance may well rest more in his letters, whether he wrote them all or not, than in his discoveries. From these letters, the European public learned about the newly discovered continents of the Americas for the first time; their existence became generally known throughout Europe within a few years of the letters’ publication. In Vespucci’s words:

“…concerning my return from those new regions which we found and explored … we may rightly call a new world. Because our ancestors had no knowledge of them, and it will be a matter wholly new to all those who hear about them, for this transcends the view held by our ancients, inasmuch as most of them hold that there is no continent to the south beyond the equator, but only the sea which they named the Atlantic and if some of them did aver that a continent there was, they denied with abundant argument that it was a habitable land. But that this their opinion is false and utterly opposed to the truth … my last voyage has made manifest; for in those southern parts I have found a continent more densely peopled and abounding in animals than our Europe Asia or Africa, and, in addition, a climate milder and more delightful than in any other region known to us, as you shall learn in the following account.”

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1454-born in florence italy, 1478-travles to france with his uncle who trained and educated him for a business career, 1492-amerigo travles to spain to prepare ships to sail including columbus's ships, 1499-sails to new world with four ships to what is now south america, 1501-working for portugal amerigo sailed back to south america explored brazil and argentina, 1502-the americas are named in his honor, 1503-a pamphlet is published describing amerigos travles in brazil, 1507-a forged letter claimed vespucci discovered the americas before columbus, 1508-becomes chief navigator for spain and thier future voyages, 1512-died from malaria, download pdf, more options, download image, spreadsheet export.