Amerigo Vespucci
Italian explorer after whom the Americas are named.
Amerigo Vespucci was born on 9 March 1454 in Florence, a wealthy Italian city-state and a center of Renaissance art and learning.[1] He was the third son of Nastagio Vespucci, a Florentine notary, and Lisa di Giovanni Mini.[2]
Quick Facts
- Born
- 9 March 1454
- Birthplace
- Florence, Republic of Florence
- Died
- 22 February 1512
- Place of death
- Seville, Crown of Castile
- Occupation
- Merchant
- explorer
- cartographer
- Relatives
- Agostino Vespucci (cousin)
- Simonetta Vespucci (cousin-in-law)
- Catalina de Medrano (niece-in-law)
- Citizenship
- Republic of Florence; Crown of Castile (since 1508)
Facts from the source article.
Life and work
Vespucci was tutored by his uncle, Giorgio Antonio Vespucci, a Dominican friar who was one of the most celebrated humanist scholars in Florence at the time.[3][1] His uncle provided him with a broad education in literature, philosophy, rhetoric, and Latin, and also introduced him to geography and astronomy.[1] In 1478, Vespucci joined his uncle Guido Antonio Vespucci on a Florentine diplomatic mission to Paris.[4] Vespucci had made Seville his permanent home by 1492.[5]
The Casa de Contratación, Spain's central trading house for its overseas territories, appointed Vespucci as its chief pilot in March 1508.[1]
What the cited sources add
The Smithsonian article by Lester notes that printers in Florence printed a doctored version of one of Vespucci's letters under the title Mundus Novus, or New World, in late 1502 or early 1503.[6] The same source states that the Cosmographiae Introductio announced itself as including "the four voyages of Amerigo Vespucci"[6] Lester reports that Ringmann and Waldseemüller decided that the land Vespucci had explored was not a part of Asia.[6] Lester writes that the Waldseemüller map was titled "The Whole World According to the Tradition of Ptolemy and the Voyages of Amerigo Vespucci and Others"[6]
The Smithsonian account states that the map was decorated with prominent portraits of Ptolemy and Vespucci.[7][6] Ringmann created the name Amerigen, meaning "land of Amerigo," by joining the name Amerigo with the Greek word gen.[6]
References
- Wikipedia, "Amerigo Vespucci" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Fernández-Armesto 2007, p. 4 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Amerigo Vespucci" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Almagià, "Amerigo Vespucci", Encyclopedia Britannica, 8 December 2022; Formisano 1992, p. xix–xxvi (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Amerigo Vespucci" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Pohl 1944 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Amerigo Vespucci" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Fernández-Armesto 2007, p. 4; Arciniegas 1955 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Amerigo Vespucci" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Fernández-Armesto 2007, p. 4; Brinkbaumer Hoges 2004, p. 104–109 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Lester, "The Waldseemüller Map: Charting the New World", Smithsonian, December 2009. facts only, no text reused. smithsonianmag.com
- Wikipedia, "Amerigo Vespucci" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lester, "The Waldseemüller Map: Charting the New World", Smithsonian, December 2009 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Amerigo Vespucci (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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