Amerigo Vespucci
- For the Italian ship named after Vespucci, see Amerigo Vespucci (ship).
Amerigo Vespucci (March 9, 1454–February 22, 1512) was a Genoese merchant, navigator, and sea explorer who voyaged to and wrote about the Americas. His exploratory journeys along the eastern coastline of South America convinced him that a new continent had been discovered, a bold contention in his day when everyone, including Columbus, thought the seafaring trailblazers setting out from European docks were travelling to East Asia.
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.
The role of Vespucci has been much debated, particularly due to two of his letters whose authenticity has been brought into doubt: the Mundus Novus (New World) and the "Lettera" (or "The Four Voyages"). While some have suggested that Vespucci was exaggerating his role and constructing deliberate fabrications, others have instead proposed that the two letters were forgeries written by others of the same period.
It may have been the publication and wide-spread circulation of his letters that led Martin Waldseemüller to label the new continent "America" on his world map of 1507. Vespucci styled himself Americus Vespucius in his Latin) writings, so Waldseemüller based the new name on the Latin form of Vespucci's first name, taking the feminine form America (see naming of America).
The two disputed letters claim that Vespucci made four voyages to America, while at most three can be verified from other sources. It is now generally accepted by historians that no voyage was made in 1497 (which allegedly began from Cádiz on May 10th of that year). Little is known about the final voyage.
In 1499–1500, Vespucci joined an expedition led by Alonso de Ojeda. 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 and reaching 6°S, before turning around and seeing Trinidad and the Orinoco River and returning to Spain by way of Hispaniola.
His next voyage in 1501–1502 was in service of Portugal. The leader of this expedition is not known. On this voyage he sailed southward along the coast of South America. If his own account is to be believed, he reached the coast of Patagonia before turning back.
Little is known of his last voyage, in 1503–1504, not even whether it actually took place. Amerigo Vespucci died on February 22, 1512 in Seville.
Vespucci's real importance for history may well not lie in his discoveries per se, but in his letters, whether or not he wrote them all himself. From these letters, the European public for the first time got information about America, thus popularizing the subject.
Reference
- James A. Canaday, The Life of Amerigo Vespucci