Amerigo Vespucci (March 9, 1451 – February 22, 1512) was an Italian explorer, navigator and cartographer. The continent of America derives its name from the feminized Latin version of his first name (see Naming of America).

Vespucci participated in several voyages that explored the east coast of South America between 1499 to 1502. On the first of these voyages he discovered that South America extended much further (the Indies). Vespucci's voyages became widely known in Europe after two accounts attributed to him were published between 1502 and 1504. In 1507, Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the new continent America after Vespucci's first name, Amerigo. In an accompanying book, Waldseemüller published one of the Vespucci accounts, which led to criticism that Vespucci was trying to usurp Christopher Columbus' glory Fact: date=June 2008. However, the rediscovery in the 18th century of other letters by Vespucci, primarily the Soderini Letter, has led to the view that the early published accounts were fabrications, not by Vespucci, but by others.

Life

Illustration of the birthplace of Amerigo Vespucci.

Amerigo Vespucci was born and brought up in the Republic of Florence in what is now Italy.

Amerigo Vespucci worked for Lorenzo de' Medici and his brother, Giovanni. In 1492 they sent him to work at their agency in Seville, Spain.

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

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.Formisano, Luciano (Ed.) (1992). Letters from a New World: Amerigo Vespucci's Discovery of America. New York: Marsilio. ISBN 0-941419-62-2. Pp. xix-xxvi. 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 Vespuccij navigationes (Four Voyages of Amerigo Vespucci).

In 1508, King Ferdinand made Vespucci chief navigator of Spain at a huge salary and commissioned him to start a school for navigators out of his home to standardize and modernize navigation techniques used by Spanish sea captains exploring the world. Future luminaries such as Magellan learned at his knee, and Vespucci even developed a rudimentary, but fairly accurate method of determining longitude (which only more accurate chronometers would later improve upon).