Vespucci, Amerigo (ämārē`gō vāsp
t`chē), 1454–1512, Italian navigator in whose honor America was named, b. Florence. He entered the commercial service of the Medici and in 1492 moved to Seville. He accompanied Alonso de Ojeda Ojeda, Alonso de (älōn`sō thā ōhā`thä), c.1466–1515?, Spanish conquistador.
..... Click the link for more information. in 1499, but by agreement the two separated shortly before land was sighted in the West Indies, and Vespucci alone explored the mouths of the Amazon. Subsequently he sailed along the northern shore of South America and among the islands. He returned to Spain in 1500, and in 1501 he entered Portuguese service to explore the southern coast of South America. Vespucci found the mouth of the Río de la Plata and probably went as far as lat. 50°S. He explored c.6,000 mi (9,700 km) of coastline, but it is in the scientific application of his discoveries that his achievements are remarkable. He evolved a system for computing nearly exact longitude (previously determined by dead reckoning); he arrived at a figure for the earth's equatorial circumference only 50 mi (80 km) short of the correct measurement. Vespucci accepted South America as a new continent, not part of Asia. Consequently cosmography was radically altered, and in 1507, with the publication of Martin Waldseemüller's Cosmographiae introductio, the name America first appeared as applied to the continent. His voyage completed in 1502, Vespucci returned to Spain, where in 1508 he was made pilot major, a high and prestigious position. He died of malaria contracted on his voyages. Vespucci's achievements were long belittled by scholars, but the conclusions of Alberto Magnaghi in the 1920s and 30s are now widely accepted, and the pilot major is given his due. An edition of Vespucci's letters and other documents appeared in English in 1894.
(born 1454, Florence—died 1512, Sevilla) Italian-born Spanish navigator and explorer of the New World. He entered the Medici family business and in 1491 was sent to Sevilla, where he helped outfit the ships for the expeditions of Christopher Columbus. By 1496 he was manager of the Sevilla agency. He took part in two (or four—the number is disputed) voyages to the New World; he was navigator on a Spanish expedition (1499–1500) that probably discovered the mouth of the Amazon River, and he led a Portuguese expedition (1501–02) that discovered Guanabara Bay (Rio de Janeiro) and the Río de la Plata. In the accounts of the voyages (published 1507), the terms America and New World were first used to describe the lands visited by Amerigo Vespucci (in Latin, Americus Vespucius). As chief navigator for the Sevilla-based Commercial House for the West Indies (from 1508), he prepared maps of newly discovered lands from data supplied by ships' captains.
t`chē), 1454–1512, Italian navigator in whose honor America was named, b. Florence. He entered the commercial service of the Medici and in 1492 moved to Seville. He accompanied Alonso de Ojeda Ojeda, Alonso de (älōn`sō thā ōhā`thä), c.1466–1515?, Spanish conquistador...... Click the link for more information. in 1499, but by agreement the two separated shortly before land was sighted in the West Indies, and Vespucci alone explored the mouths of the Amazon. Subsequently he sailed along the northern shore of South America and among the islands. He returned to Spain in 1500, and in 1501 he entered Portuguese service to explore the southern coast of South America. Vespucci found the mouth of the Río de la Plata and probably went as far as lat. 50°S. He explored c.6,000 mi (9,700 km) of coastline, but it is in the scientific application of his discoveries that his achievements are remarkable. He evolved a system for computing nearly exact longitude (previously determined by dead reckoning); he arrived at a figure for the earth's equatorial circumference only 50 mi (80 km) short of the correct measurement. Vespucci accepted South America as a new continent, not part of Asia. Consequently cosmography was radically altered, and in 1507, with the publication of Martin Waldseemüller's Cosmographiae introductio, the name America first appeared as applied to the continent. His voyage completed in 1502, Vespucci returned to Spain, where in 1508 he was made pilot major, a high and prestigious position. He died of malaria contracted on his voyages. Vespucci's achievements were long belittled by scholars, but the conclusions of Alberto Magnaghi in the 1920s and 30s are now widely accepted, and the pilot major is given his due. An edition of Vespucci's letters and other documents appeared in English in 1894.
Bibliography
See biographies by G. Arciniegas (tr. 1955) and F. J. Pohl (1966); J. B. Thacher, The Continent of America (1971).
Vespucci, Amerigo
)
Amerigo Vespucci, portrait by an unknown artist; in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
(credit: Alinari/Art Resource, New York)
Vespucci, Amerigo
(1454–1512) Italian navigator-explorer from whose name America is derived. [Am. Hist.: EB, X: 410]
See : America
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