Virtual Museum of Art | Virtual Museum of History | Virtual Public Library | Virtual Science Center | Virtual Museum of Natural History | Virtual War Museum
   You are in: Museum of History >> Hall of Explorers >> Amerigo Vespucci





The Seven Flags of the New Orleans Tri-Centennial

For More Information go to New Orleans 300th Birthday


 


Amerigo Vespucci

1454-1512

AMERIGO VESPUCCI (or VESPUCIO) (ves-puteh'-ee), Italian navigator, born in Florence, Italy, 9 March, 1451; died in Seville, Spain, 22 Feb., 1512. He was of a wealthy family of merchants, and received his education from his uncle, Giorgi Antonio Vespucci, a Dominican friar, a friend and colleague of Savonarola. He engaged in business, first in Florence and afterward in Seville, where he met Columbus, perhaps as early as 1493, and where in 1497 he equipped the fleet with which that navigator sailed on his third voyage. He had previously, in 1496, had charge of fitting out a fleet for the Spanish government. 

Amerigo sailed from Spain in 1499 in an expedition that visited the neighborhood of Cape Paria and several hundred miles of coast, and returned in June, 1500. In May, 1501, he entered the service of Emanuel, of Portugal, and participated in an expedition that visited the coast of. Brazil. hi May, 1503, he commanded a caravel in a squadron that sailed for the discovery of Malacca, but parted company from the rest, and finally made his way to the coast of Brazil, where he discovered the bay of All Saints, remained there two months, then ran 260 leagues farther south, where he built a fort, somewhere near Cape Frio, and, leaving a colony there, returned to Lisbon in June, 1504. 

Early in 1505 he obtained from King Ferdinand of Spain letters of naturalization, and on 22 March, 1508, was appointed pilot-major of the kingdom, an office that he held until his death, taking charge of the preparation of a general description of coasts and accounts of new discoveries, and also superintending the construction of charts and the examination of pilots. The controversy as to whether Vespucci took precedence both of the (Jabots and of Columbus in the discovery of the mainland of America has been for centuries a matter of dispute. None of the original letters of Amerigo bearing on the subject are extant, except in translations, and these differ greatly among themselves and contain inconsistencies of fact and date. It is not even known in what language the letters were written. 

An account by Amerigo of his voyage of 1499, said to have been written 18 July, 1500, was published by Bandini in 1745. A letter of his to Lorenzo Piero de Medici, a cousin of Lorenzo the Magnificent, describing the voyage of 1501, was published in various editions, some in Latin, others in German, and in 1789 a new text, in Italian, was discovered by Bartolozzi. The Strasburg edition of 1505 bears the title " De Ora Antarctica." In 1507 a "Cosmo-graphiae Introductio " was published at the little college of St. Dig in Lorraine, and to it was appended an account by Amerigo of his voyages, purporting to be addressed to Rene II., duke of Lorraine, there it is asserted that four voyages were made, the date of the first being fixed at May, 1497. Amerigo would thus have reached the mainland a week or two earlier than Cabot, and about 14 months earlier than Columbus. It was also suggested in this book that Amerigo should give his name to the continent he had discovered. 

The best authorities now consider the evidence incontrovertible that this date of 1497 is incorrect, and doubt has thus been thrown upon the rest of Amerigo's narrative. He has been charged by many with deliberate falsification, and most of his apologists have contented themselves with defending his character, rather than the truth of his narrative, ascribing the inconsistencies of the latter to the errors of translators and copyists. 

Santarem, in his "Researches," says he could find no mention at all of Vespucci in the royal archives of Portugal, nor in the diplomatic records, where all new discoveries were mentioned, and the fact that his reputed discovery of the mainland was not used as evidence by the Spanish government in an action at law in 1512, where it would have been in their favor, seems to show that it was not given credence at that day. The name of America, however, suggested by the "Cosmographiae Introductio," began soon to be generally used, and it was not until the publication of Schoner's " Opuscululn Geographicum" (1533) that doubt began to be thrown on its propriety. See " Life and Voyages of Americus Vespueius," by C. E. Lester (New York, 1846); Santarem's "Vespucius and his Voyages," translated by E. V. Childe (Boston, 1850): and Winsor's "Narrative and Critical History of America" (Boston, 1884). -- Edited Appleton's American Biography Copyright© 2000 by VirtualologyTM


Start your search on Amerigo Vespucci.


The Congressional Evolution of the United States Henry Middleton


Unauthorized Site: This site and its contents are not affiliated, connected, associated with or authorized by the individual, family, friends, or trademarked entities utilizing any part or the subject's entire name. Any official or affiliated sites that are related to this subject will be hyper linked below upon submission and Evisum, Inc. review.

Research Links

  • Mariner Museum
  • Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail

    Copyright© 2000 by Evisum Inc.TM. All rights reserved.
    Evisum Inc.TM Privacy Policy

  • Search:

    About Us

     

     

    Image Use

    Please join us in our mission to incorporate The Congressional Evolution of the United States of America discovery-based curriculum into the classroom of every primary and secondary school in the United States of America by July 2, 2026, the nation’s 250th birthday. , the United States of America: We The People Click Here

     

    Historic Documents

    Articles of Association

    Articles of Confederation 1775

    Articles of Confederation

    Article the First

    Coin Act

    Declaration of Independence

    Declaration of Independence

    Emancipation Proclamation

    Gettysburg Address

    Monroe Doctrine

    Northwest Ordinance

    No Taxation Without Representation

    Thanksgiving Proclamations

    Mayflower Compact

    Treaty of Paris 1763

    Treaty of Paris 1783

    Treaty of Versailles

    United Nations Charter

    United States In Congress Assembled

    US Bill of Rights

    United States Constitution

    US Continental Congress

    US Constitution of 1777

    US Constitution of 1787

    Virginia Declaration of Rights

     

    Historic Events

    Battle of New Orleans

    Battle of Yorktown

    Cabinet Room

    Civil Rights Movement

    Federalist Papers

    Fort Duquesne

    Fort Necessity

    Fort Pitt

    French and Indian War

    Jumonville Glen

    Manhattan Project

    Stamp Act Congress

    Underground Railroad

    US Hospitality

    US Presidency

    Vietnam War

    War of 1812

    West Virginia Statehood

    Woman Suffrage

    World War I

    World War II

     

    Is it Real?



    Declaration of
    Independence

    Digital Authentication
    Click Here

     

    America’s Four Republics
    The More or Less United States

     
    Continental Congress
    U.C. Presidents

    Peyton Randolph

    Henry Middleton

    Peyton Randolph

    John Hancock

      

    Continental Congress
    U.S. Presidents

    John Hancock

    Henry Laurens

    John Jay

    Samuel Huntington

      

    Constitution of 1777
    U.S. Presidents

    Samuel Huntington

    Samuel Johnston
    Elected but declined the office

    Thomas McKean

    John Hanson

    Elias Boudinot

    Thomas Mifflin

    Richard Henry Lee

    John Hancock
    [
    Chairman David Ramsay]

    Nathaniel Gorham

    Arthur St. Clair

    Cyrus Griffin

      

    Constitution of 1787
    U.S. Presidents

    George Washington 

    John Adams
    Federalist Party


    Thomas Jefferson
    Republican* Party

    James Madison 
    Republican* Party

    James Monroe
    Republican* Party

    John Quincy Adams
    Republican* Party
    Whig Party

    Andrew Jackson
    Republican* Party
    Democratic Party


    Martin Van Buren
    Democratic Party

    William H. Harrison
    Whig Party

    John Tyler
    Whig Party

    James K. Polk
    Democratic Party

    David Atchison**
    Democratic Party

    Zachary Taylor
    Whig Party

    Millard Fillmore
    Whig Party

    Franklin Pierce
    Democratic Party

    James Buchanan
    Democratic Party


    Abraham Lincoln 
    Republican Party

    Jefferson Davis***
    Democratic Party

    Andrew Johnson
    Republican Party

    Ulysses S. Grant 
    Republican Party

    Rutherford B. Hayes
    Republican Party

    James A. Garfield
    Republican Party

    Chester Arthur 
    Republican Party

    Grover Cleveland
    Democratic Party

    Benjamin Harrison
    Republican Party

    Grover Cleveland 
    Democratic Party

    William McKinley
    Republican Party

    Theodore Roosevelt
    Republican Party

    William H. Taft 
    Republican Party

    Woodrow Wilson
    Democratic Party

    Warren G. Harding 
    Republican Party

    Calvin Coolidge
    Republican Party

    Herbert C. Hoover
    Republican Party

    Franklin D. Roosevelt
    Democratic Party

    Harry S. Truman
    Democratic Party

    Dwight D. Eisenhower
    Republican Party

    John F. Kennedy
    Democratic Party

    Lyndon B. Johnson 
    Democratic Party 

    Richard M. Nixon 
    Republican Party

    Gerald R. Ford 
    Republican Party

    James Earl Carter, Jr. 
    Democratic Party

    Ronald Wilson Reagan 
    Republican Party

    George H. W. Bush
    Republican Party 

    William Jefferson Clinton
    Democratic Party

    George W. Bush 
    Republican Party

    Barack H. Obama
    Democratic Party

    Please Visit

    Forgotten Founders
    Norwich, CT

    Annapolis Continental
    Congress Society


    U.S. Presidency
    & Hospitality

    © Stan Klos

     

     

     

     


    Virtual Museum of Art | Virtual Museum of History | Virtual Public Library | Virtual Science Center | Virtual Museum of Natural History | Virtual War Museum