what voyages did amerigo vespucci go on

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Amerigo Vespucci

By: History.com Editors

Updated: February 6, 2024 | Original: July 31, 2023

Amerigo Vespucci was a 16th-century Italian merchant and explorer remembered not only for his voyages that altered the course of history but for bestowing the New World with the name “America.”

Vespucci’s mapping of coastlines and constellations, cultural observations and identification of equatorial ocean currents led to the realization that his travels had taken him to a new continent, challenging the previously held belief that Christopher Columbus had reached the uncharted eastern edge of Asia.

Early Life and Education

Born March 9, 1454, in Florence, Italy, during the height of the Renaissance , Vespucci came from a prominent family with ties to the Medici dynasty . His father, a government notary, and his uncle, respected humanist Dominican friar Giorgio Antonio Vespucci, played influential roles in his education. Immersed in a world of trade and maritime culture from a young age, Vespucci developed interests and aptitude in astronomy, math, navigation and foreign languages. 

Early in his career, Vespucci worked for the Medici family as a banker and later supervised ship operations in Seville, Spain. Accounts vary, but many believe that Vespucci met Christopher Columbus in Seville in 1496, after Columbus’s historic 1492 voyage, and assisted Columbus in preparing for future expeditions.

Did you know? Thefirst use of the name "America" was in 1507, when a new world map was created based on the explorations of Amerigo Vespucci.

Vespucci's Voyages

Fueled by his own passion for discovery, Vespucci joined a Spanish expedition while in his 40s, serving as an astronomer and mapmaker in search of a passage to India. Led by Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojeda, they set sail from Cadiz, Spain, in May 1499 and reached the northeastern coast of South America.

Despite their belief that they had arrived in Asia, Ojeda explored the coast of Venezuela while Vespucci ventured south to coastal Brazil. During the voyage, Vespucci charted the constellations, noting their differences from those seen in Europe. He also documented the diverse flora and fauna, made extensive observations about the indigenous tribes he encountered and described what he thought was the Ganges River, but is now known to be the mouth of the Amazon River . 

In a letter recounting the journey, he wrote of discovering “an infinite number of birds or various forms and colors and trees so beautiful and fragrant that we thought we had entered the earthly Paradise.” 

In May 1501, Vespucci embarked on another voyage, this time under the patronage of King Manuel I of Portugal , again seeking passage to India. Sailing along the Brazilian and Argentinian coasts, Vespucci ventured further south to present-day Rio de Janeiro and the La Plata River. Once again, he observed unfamiliar constellations, unexplained equatorial currents and an absence of the riches he expected to find in India. Realizing that he was not in India or on an undiscovered island but on a separate continent across the Atlantic Ocean, he dubbed the land Mundus Novus, or the New World.

There are varying accounts and unconfirmed reports of Vespucci undertaking a third voyage to the New World in 1503, also in the name of Portugal. 

Although Vespucci’s discoveries were not considered highly significant at the time, the publication of his correspondence with friends and colleagues chronicling his voyages, known as the “Vespucci Letters,” played a pivotal role in dispelling the belief that Columbus had reached Asia. The letters brought Vespucci fame (although some believe the letters are fake).

Vespucci's Namesake and Reputation

The term “America” first took shape in 1507, when German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller drew a map of the newly recognized continent and labeled it “Americus” in Vespucci’s honor. This map, often referred to as “America’s birth certificate,” marked the usage of the name “America.”

Vespucci, who became a naturalized citizen of Spain in 1505, was given the prestigious title of master navigator of Spain in 1508. Charged with training and recruiting navigators and managing the country’s map collections, he held the position until he died of malaria in Seville on February 22, 1512, at the age of 58.

“The Map That Named America,” U.S. Library of Congress “Amerigo Vespucci,” by Frederick A.Ober “Amerigo Vespucci: Italian explorer who named America,” LiveScience “ Amerigo Vespucci,” T he Martimers’ Museum and Park

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Amerigo Vespucci

America was named after Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine navigator and explorer who played a prominent role in exploring the New World.

(1451-1512)

Who Was Amerigo Vespucci?

On May 10, 1497, explorer Amerigo Vespucci embarked on his first voyage. On his third and most successful voyage, he discovered present-day Rio de Janeiro and Rio de la Plata. Believing he had discovered a new continent, he called South America the New World. In 1507, America was named after him. He died of malaria in Seville, Spain, on February 22, 1512.

Navigator and explorer Amerigo Vespucci, the third son in a cultured family, was born on March 9, 1451, (some scholars say 1454) in Florence, Italy. Although born in Italy, Vespucci became a naturalized citizen of Spain in 1505.

Vespucci and his parents, Ser Nastagio and Lisabetta Mini, were friends of the wealthy and tempestuous Medici family, who ruled Italy from the 1400s to 1737. Vespucci's father worked as a notary in Florence. While his older brothers headed off to the University of Pisa in Tuscany, Vespucci received his early education from his paternal uncle, a Dominican friar named Giorgio Antonio Vespucci.

When Vespucci was in his early 20s, another uncle, Guido Antonio Vespucci, gave him one of the first of his many jobs. Guido Antonio Vespucci, who was ambassador of Florence under King Louis XI of France, sent his nephew on a brief diplomatic mission to Paris. The trip likely awakened Vespucci's fascination with travel and exploration.

Before Exploration

In the years before Vespucci embarked on his first voyage of exploration, he held a string of other jobs. When Vespucci was 24 years old, his father pressured him to go into business. Vespucci obliged. At first he undertook a variety of business endeavors in Florence. Later, he moved on to a banking business in Seville, Spain, where he formed a partnership with another man from Florence, named Gianetto Berardi. According to some accounts, from 1483 to 1492, Vespucci worked for the Medici family. During that time he is said to have learned that explorers were looking for a northwest passage through the Indies.

According to a letter that Vespucci might or might not have truly written, on May 10, 1497, he embarked on his first journey, departing from Cadiz with a fleet of Spanish ships. The controversial letter indicates that the ships sailed through the West Indies and made their way to the mainland of Central America within approximately five weeks. If the letter is authentic, this would mean that Vespucci discovered Venezuela a year before Columbus did. Vespucci and his fleets arrived back in Cadiz in October 1498.

In May 1499, sailing under the Spanish flag, Vespucci embarked on his next expedition, as a navigator under the command of Alonzo de Ojeda. Crossing the equator, they traveled to the coast of what is now Guyana, where it is believed that Vespucci left Ojeda and went on to explore the coast of Brazil. During this journey Vespucci is said to have discovered the Amazon River and Cape St. Augustine.

On May 14, 1501, Vespucci departed on another trans-Atlantic journey. Now on his third voyage, Vespucci set sail for Cape Verde — this time in service to King Manuel I of Portugal. Vespucci's third voyage is largely considered his most successful. While Vespucci did not start out commanding the expedition, when Portuguese officers asked him to take charge of the voyage he agreed. Vespucci's ships sailed along the coast of South America from Cape São Roque to Patagonia. Along the way, they discovered present-day Rio de Janeiro and Rio de la Plata. Vespucci and his fleets headed back via Sierra Leone and the Azores. Believing he had discovered a new continent, in a letter to Florence, Vespucci called South America the New World. His claim was largely based on Columbus' earlier conclusion: In 1498, when passing the mouth of the Orinoco River, Columbus had determined that such a big outpouring of fresh water must come from land "of continental proportions." Vespucci decided to start recording his accomplishments, writing that accounts of his voyages would allow him to leave "some fame behind me after I die."

On June 10, 1503, sailing again under the Portuguese flag, Vespucci, accompanied by Gonzal Coelho, headed back to Brazil. When the expedition didn't make any new discoveries, the fleet disbanded. To Vespucci's chagrin, the commander of the Portuguese ship was suddenly nowhere to be found. Despite the circumstances, Vespucci forged ahead, managing to discover Bahia and the island of South Georgia in the process. Soon after, he was forced to prematurely abort the voyage and return to Lisbon, Portugal, in 1504.

There is some speculation as to whether Vespucci made additional voyages. Based on Vespucci's accounts, some historians believe that he embarked on a fifth and sixth voyage with Juan de la Cosa, in 1505 and 1507, respectively. Other accounts indicate that Vespucci's fourth journey was his last.

America's Namesake

In 1507, some scholars at Saint-Dié-des-Vosges in northern France were working on a geography book called Cosmographiæ Introductio , which contained large cut-out maps that the reader could use to create his or her own globes. German cartographer Martin Waldseemüler, one of the book's authors, proposed that the newly discovered Brazilian portion of the New World be labeled America, the feminine version of the name Amerigo, after Amerigo Vespucci. The gesture was his means of honoring the person who discovered it, and indeed granted Vespucci the legacy of being America's namesake.

Decades later, in 1538, the mapmaker Mercator, working off the maps created at St-Dié, chose to mark the name America on both the northern and the southern parts of the continent, instead of just the southern portion. While the definition of America expanded to include more territory, Vespucci seemed to gain credit for areas that most would agree were actually first discovered by Columbus.

Final Years and Death

In 1505, Vespucci, who was born and raised in Italy, became a naturalized citizen of Spain. Three years later, he was awarded the office of piloto mayor , or master navigator, of Spain. In this role, Vespucci's job was to recruit and train other navigators, as well as to gather data on continued New World exploration. Vespucci held the position for the remainder of his life.

On February 22, 1512, Vespucci died of malaria in Seville, Spain.

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Amerigo Vespucci
• Birth Year: 1451
• Birth City: Florence
• Birth Country: Italy
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: America was named after Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine navigator and explorer who played a prominent role in exploring the New World.
• Nacionalities
• Death Year: 1512
• Death City: Seville
• Death Country: Spain

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Amerigo Vespucci: Italian explorer who named America

Amerigo Vespucci was a 16th century navigator, after whom the American continents are named.

• First voyage
• 1501 voyage and South America
• Later voyages
• Naming of America

Additional resources

Bibliography.

Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci is best known for his namesake: the continents of North and South America. But why were these continents named after him, especially since his voyages happened after Christopher Columbus arrived on the continent, in 1492? 

Vespucci was the first person to recognize North and South America as distinct continents that were previously unknown to Europeans, Asians and Africans, according to Avihu Zakai (" Exile and Kingdom: History and Apocalypse in the Puritan Migration to America ", Cambridge University Press, 2002). Prior to Vespucci's discovery, explorers, including Columbus, had assumed that the New World was part of Asia. Vespucci made his discovery while sailing near the tip of South America in 1501, according to The New World Encyclopaedia .

Amerigo Vespucci was one of many European explorers during the Age of Exploration, or Age of Discovery, which took place from the mid-1400s to mid-1500s. "The Age of Exploration was prompted by different motivations," said Erika Cosme , administrative coordinator of education and digital services at The Mariner’s Museum and Park in Virginia. "In the 15th century, Europe, Asia, and Africa were at the epicenter of a global exchange of goods; also, for Europeans, curiosities of different cultures continued to emerge. This Afro-Eurasian economy created an interwoven connection between India, China , the Middle East, Africa and Europe."

Spurred by curiosity and economic incentive, explorers traveled distances that were great feats for their day. But what makes the time period so important, said Cosme, was the role it played in "shaping the world that we know today." Recognizing the Americas was a major part of that understanding. 

Amerigo Vespucci was born on March 9, 1454, in Florence. As a young man, he was fascinated with books and maps, according to the Mariners Museum . The Vespuccis were a prominent family and friends with the powerful Medicis , a family who ruled Italy for more than 300 years and were prominent during the Renaissance . After being educated by his uncle, Vespucci himself worked for the Medicis as a banker and later supervisor of their ship-outfitting business, which operated in Seville, Spain. He moved to Spain in 1492, according to Biography.com

This business allowed Vespucci to see the great explorers' ships being prepared and to learn about the business of exploration. Goods like salt from Mali, coffee beans from Ethiopia, spices from India and the Molucca Islands and ginger, silk and tea from China were in high demand, said Cosme, who works in developing The Mariners' Museum's extensive Age of Exploration area.

Countries profited off trade and hoped to find riches like gold, silver and gems, Cosme explained . "European leaders saw exploration as a way to expand their empires and increase national glory."

At the time, explorers were searching for a northwest route to the Indies — the lands and islands of Southeast Asia — which would make trade easier and bring their country wealth, according to Britannica . "It would often take years to complete a trip," said Cosme. "By the mid-15th century, Muslims controlled the majority of the trade routes to Asia. This meant they could charge high prices for incoming and outgoing goods and vessels traveling to and from Europe and Asia. The desire to find ocean routes that were faster, safer, and cheaper stimulated a search to find a better way of getting to these places."

Vespucci's business helped outfit one of Columbus's voyages, and in 1496 Vespucci had the opportunity to talk with the explorer. Both men were fascinated by the works of Marco Polo , who influenced many explorers' love of seafaring and exploration, said Cosme. 

This meeting further encouraged Vespucci's interest in travel and discovery. Like many explorers of the age, he wanted to gain new knowledge and see the world with his own eyes. "The Age of Exploration coincided with the Renaissance, which lasted from about 1300 to 1600," said Cosme. "Many people were gaining genuine curiosity about the world. Sciences like astronomy and cartography were surging. People wanted to know more about the geography, people, and cultures outside their own."

Vespucci's business was struggling, which made his decision to voyage even simpler. Furthermore, he possessed critical knowledge for seafaring, like cartography and astronomy, which were essential tools for early navigation, said Cosme. Now in his 40s, Vespucci decided to leave business behind and embark on a journey while he still could.

First voyage and letter controversy

"Amerigo Vespucci took at least three voyages westward," said Cosme. There is some controversy among historians about when Vespucci set sail on his first voyage. Many accounts place the sail date in 1499, seven years after Columbus landed in the Bahamas. On the 1499 voyage, Vespucci sailed to the northern part of South America and into the Amazon River . He gave places he saw names like the "Gulf of Ganges," thinking, as his explorer contemporaries did, that he was in Asia. He also made improvements to celestial navigation techniques. Vespucci predicted Earth’s circumference accurately within 50 miles, according to Springer .

But a letter dated in 1497 suggests that the 1499 voyage may have in fact been Vespucci's second trip, according to Fordham University . The letter is written in Vespucci's voice, though some historians dispute his authorship and the facts of the document, claiming it a forgery. The letter, written to the Gonfalonier of Florence (a high official on the city-state's supreme executive council), accounts a 1497 expedition to the Bahamas and Central America. If the accounts of this letter are true, then Vespucci reached the mainland of the Americas a few months before John Cabot and more than a year before Columbus.

1501 voyage and recognition of South America

On May 14, 1501, Vespucci set sail to the New World under the Portuguese flag on what would be his most successful voyage, according to Edward Shaw (" Discoverers and Explorers , " Weitsuechtig, 1900.)

Vespucci's ships traveled along the South American coast down to Patagonia, according to The New World Encyclopaedia . Along the way, he encountered the rivers Rio de Janeiro and Rio de la Plata. During this voyage, Vespucci came to suspect that he was looking at a continent entirely different from Asia. 

"Vespucci was both familiar with and fascinated by the accounts of Marco Polo and his time in Asia. The book by Polo gave great detail on the geography, people, and rich opportunities of the continent. Based on this information, Vespucci could make assumptions about the land they were exploring," Cosme said. 

"For starters, Vespucci noticed that the sky which they sailed under had different constellations that were not visible in Europe," Cosme said. "He also took note of the coastlines they traveled, recording their distance and length of time traveled. Vespucci, again a very skilled cartographer and astronomer, carefully studied and pondered over all of his information. 

"He found that the areas and land masses they had explored were actually larger and different than previous accounts of Asia's descriptions. This led him to the conclusion that what they had explored was indeed an entirely new continent."

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He verified his suspicion when sailing south to within 400 miles of Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost tip of South America, according to an article by Wired . This confirmed that he was encountering a new continent that extended far further south than anyone had guessed.

While on this voyage, Vespucci wrote letters to a friend in Europe describing his travels and identifying the New World as a separate continent from Asia. These letters also chronicle his encounters with the indigenous people and describe their culture. Vespucci described the natives' religious practices and beliefs, their diet , marriage habits, and, most appealingly to readers, their sexual and childbirth practices. These letters were published in several languages and sold well (better than Columbus' letters, according to Stanford University ) across Europe. This pleased Vespucci who, who recorded his adventures to better leave "some fame behind me after I die." 

Later voyages and other accomplishments

Vespucci's later voyages were not as successful as the 1501 expedition, and , according to Britannica , scholars are unsure of exactly how many later voyages he embarked upon. In 1503, he sailed to Brazil, but when his fleet failed to make any new discoveries, the ships disbanded. Vespucci pressed on, however, and discovered the island of Bahia and South Georgia before returning to Lisbon ahead of schedule (" The First Four Voyages of Amerigo Vespucci , " Forgotten Books, 2017) .

Vespucci may have gone on two more voyages, in 1505 and 1507, but accounts are unclear. In 1505, he became a naturalized citizen of Spain, and in 1508, he was named a Pilot Major of Spain, according to Frederick J Pohl ("Amerigo Vespucci", Columbia University Press, 1944). This was a prestigious position that required him to use his considerable navigational skills. Vespucci helped develop and standardize navigational techniques and to select new pilots.

He worked at this post until his death on Feb. 22, 1512. He contracted malaria and died in Spain at nearly 58 years of age. Vespucci is buried in Florence.

The naming of America

Vespucci's reputation has gone through periods of ridicule, and at times he has been viewed as a schemer who attempted to steal glory from Columbus, according to History.Info . But in reality, it wasn't Vespucci's ambition that got two continents named after him: it was the work of a German clergyman and amateur cartographer called Martin Waldseemüller.

In 1507, Waldseemüller and some other scholars were working on an introduction to cosmology that would contain large maps, according to the U.S. Library of Congress . Waldseemüller proposed that a portion of Brazil that Vespucci had explored be named "America," a feminized version of Vespucci's first name. Waldseemüller wrote, "I see no reason why anyone should justly object to calling this part ... America, after Amerigo [Vespucci], its discoverer, a man of great ability."

The name stuck. Waldseemüller's maps sold thousands of copies across Europe. Some reports suggest, for example the Library of Congress , that Waldseemüller had second thoughts about the name America, but it was too late. In 1538, a mapmaker named Gerardus Mercator applied the name "America" to both the northern and southern landmasses of the New World, according to Yale University and the continents have been known as such ever since.

Regardless, there is no underestimating the value of Vespucci's contributions to Europeans. Cosme said, "Amerigo Vespucci used his own knowledge and skill, plus the written knowledge from scholars and explorers before him to uncover a Mundus Novus (Latin for "new world") to Europeans."

To learn more about the Waldseemüller map from which America would get its name, check out this article from the Library of Congress . To learn more about Vespucci himself, read this piece from The Ma r iners' Museum . Or try this article from PBS World Explorers .

• Avihu Zakai (" Exile and Kingdom: History and Apocalypse in the Puritan Migration to America ", Cambridge University Press, 2002)
• Amerigo Vespucci, The New World Encyclopaedia
• Amerigo Vespucci, Ages of Exploration: Mariners Museum
• Amerigo Vespucci, Biography.com
• The Sea Route West to Cathay, Brittanica.com
• Edward Shaw (" Discoverers and Explorers ", Weitsuechtig,1900.)
• Randy Alfred, " The Man is a Continent…Or Two " Wired, March 9th 2020
• Amerigo Vespucci, " The First Four Voyages of Amerigo Vespucc i",Forgotten Books, 2017
• Frederick J Pohl (" Amerigo Vespucci ", Columbia University Press, 1944)
• " 1512: Amerigo Vespucci- The Man Who Stole The Glory From Christopher Columbus ", History.Info
• John R Herbert, " The Map That Named America ", Library of Congress
• " Mapamundi of 1538 ", Yale University
• Gyula Pápay, " Amerigo Vespucci's Contribution to the Modernization of Cartographic Representation " Springer (17th Century, 2020) 

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Callum McKelvie is features editor for All About History Magazine . He has a both a Bachelor and Master's degree in History and Media History from Aberystwyth University . He was previously employed as an Editorial Assistant publishing digital versions of historical documents, working alongside museums and archives such as the British Library . He has also previously volunteered for The Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum , Gloucester Archives and Gloucester Cathedral . 

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Amerigo Vespucci, Explorer and Navigator

The Man Who Named America

The Alonso de Hojeda Expedition

Return to the new world, fame and celebrity.

• Ph.D., Spanish, Ohio State University
• M.A., Spanish, University of Montana
• B.A., Spanish, Penn State University

Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512) was a Florentine sailor, explorer, and trader. He was one of the more colorful characters of the early age of discovery in the Americas and captained one of the first journeys to the New World. His lurid descriptions of the Native people of the New World made his accounts extremely popular in Europe and as a result, it is his name - Amerigo - which eventually would be modified into "America" and given to two continents.

Amerigo was born into a wealthy family of Florentine silk traders who had a princely estate near the city of Peretola. They were very prominent citizens of Florence and many Vespuccis held important offices. Young Amerigo received an excellent education and served for a time as a diplomat before settling in Spain just in time to witness the excitement of Columbus' first voyage . He decided that he, too, wanted to be an explorer.

In 1499, Vespucci joined the expedition of Alonso de Hojeda (also spelled Ojeda), a veteran of Columbus' second voyage . The 1499 expedition included four ships and was accompanied by well-known cosmographer and cartographer Juan de la Cosa, who had gone on Columbus' first two voyages. The expedition explored much of the northeastern coast of South America, including stops in Trinidad and Guyana. They also visited a tranquil bay and named it "Venezuela," or "Little Venice." The name stuck.

Like Columbus, Vespucci suspected that he may have been looking at the long-lost Garden of Eden, the Earthly Paradise. The expedition found some gold, pearls, and emeralds. They also captured enslaved people. But the expedition was still not very profitable.

Vespucci had earned a reputation as a skilled sailor and leader during his time with Hojeda, and he was able to convince the King of Portugal to finance a three-ship expedition in 1501. He had become convinced during his first trip that the lands he had seen were not, in fact, Asia, but something altogether new and previously unknown. The purpose of his 1501-1502 journey, therefore, became the location of a practical passage to Asia. He explored the eastern coast of South America, including much of Brazil, and may have gone as far as the Platte River in Argentina before returning to Europe.

On this journey, he became more convinced than ever that the recently discovered lands were something new: the coast of Brazil that he had explored was much too far to the south to be India. This put him at odds with Christopher Columbus , who insisted until his death that the lands he had discovered were, in fact, Asia. In Vespucci's letters to his friends and patrons, he explained his new theories.

Vespucci's journey was not an extremely important one in relation to many of the others taking place at the time. Nevertheless, the seasoned navigator found himself something of a celebrity within a short time due to the publication of some letters he had allegedly written to his friend, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de Medici. Published under the name Mundus Novus ("New World") the letters became an immediate sensation. They included fairly direct (for the sixteenth century) descriptions of sexuality as well as the radical theory that the recently discovered lands were, in fact, new.

Mundus Novis was followed closely by a second publication, Quattuor Americi Vesputi Navigationes (Four Voyages of Amerigo Vespucci). Supposedly letters from Vespucci to Piero Soderini, a Florentine statesman, the publication describes four voyages (1497, 1499, 1501, and 1503) undertaken by Vespucci. Most historians believe some of the letters to be fakes: there is little other evidence that Vespucci even made the 1497 and 1503 journeys.

Whether some of the letters were fakes or not, the two books were immensely popular in Europe. Translated into several languages, they were passed around and discussed exhaustively. Vespucci became an instant celebrity and was asked to serve on the committee which advised the King of Spain about New World policy.

In 1507, Martin Waldseemüller, who worked in the town of Saint-Dié in Alsace, published two maps together with Cosmographiae Introductio, an introduction to cosmography. The book included the purported letters from Vespucci’s four voyages as well as sections reprinted from  Ptolemy . On the maps, he referred to the newly discovered lands as “America,” in honor of Vespucci. It included an engraving of Ptolemy looking to the East and Vespucci looking to the West.

Waldseemüller also gave Columbus plenty of credit, but it was the name America that stuck in the New World.

Vespucci only ever made two journeys to the New World. When his fame spread, he was named to a board of royal advisers in Spain along with former shipmate Juan de la Cosa, Vicente Yáñez Pinzón (captain of the Niña on Columbus’ first voyage) and Juan Díaz de Solís. Vespucci was named  Piloto Mayor , “Chief Pilot” of the Spanish Empire, in charge of establishing and documenting routes to the west. It was a lucrative and important position as all expeditions needed pilots and navigators, all of whom were answerable to him. Vespucci established a school of sorts, to train pilots and navigators, modernize long-distance navigation, collect charts and journals and basically collect and centralize all cartographic information. He died in 1512.

Were it not for his famous name, immortalized on not one but two continents, Amerigo Vespucci would today no doubt be a minor figure in world history, well-known to historians but unheard of outside of certain circles. Contemporaries such as Vicente Yáñez Pinzón and Juan de la Cosa were arguably more important explorers and navigators.

That’s not to lessen Vespucci’s accomplishments, which were considerable. He was a very talented navigator and explorer who was respected by his men. When he served as Piloto Mayor, he encouraged key advances in navigation and trained future navigators. His letters – whether he actually wrote them or not – inspired many to learn more about the New World and colonize it. He was neither the first nor the last to envision the route to the west that was eventually discovered by  Ferdinand Magellan  and  Juan Sebastián Elcano , but he was one of the best-known.

It’s even arguable that he deserves the eternal recognition of having his name on North and South America. He was one of the first to openly defy the still-influential Columbus and declare that the New World was, in fact, something new and unknown and not simply a previously-uncharted part of Asia. It took courage to contradict not only Columbus but all of the ancient writers (such as  Aristotle ) who had no knowledge of continents to the west.

• Thomas, Hugh.  Rivers of Gold: The Rise of the Spanish Empire, from Columbus to Magellan.  New York: Random House, 2005.
• Amerigo Vespucci, Italian Explorer and Cartographer
• Explorers and Discoverers
• A Timeline of North American Exploration: 1492–1585
• The History of Venezuela
• Biography of Christopher Columbus
• Biography of Christopher Columbus, Italian Explorer
• The Third Voyage of Christopher Columbus
• Biography of Vasco Núñez de Balboa, Conquistador and Explorer
• Biography and Legacy of Ferdinand Magellan
• The Second Voyage of Christopher Columbus
• The Fourth Voyage of Christopher Columbus
• The First New World Voyage of Christopher Columbus (1492)
• Biography of Juan Sebastián Elcano, Magellan's Replacement
• The Truth About Christopher Columbus
• 10 Facts About Christopher Columbus
• Profile of Prince Henry the Navigator

World History Edu

• Amerigo Vespucci / Famous Explorers

Amerigo Vespucci’s Greatest Achievements and Voyages

by World History Edu · November 4, 2021

Amerigo Vespucci – biography and achievements

Amerigo Vespucci, a Florence, Italy-born navigator, merchant, and explorer, was one of the most renowned European explorers of the late 15th and early 16th centuries. And did you know that the name of the Americas was obtained from Amerigo Vespucci’s name?

What impact did this Italian-born explorer have on the world of exploration and the New World? And what were some of his greatest discoveries?

Below, World History Edu takes a quick look at the life and major achievements of Amerigo Vespucci.

Quick facts about Amerigo Vespucci

Date of birth : c. 1454

Place of birth : Florence, Republic of Florence (present-day Italy)

Died : February 22, 1512

Place of death : Sevilla, Crown of Castile (present-day Spain)

Mother : Lisa di Giovanni Mini

Father : Nostagio Vespucci

Siblings : Antonio and Girolamo

Most famous for : His voyages to the New World; Lending his name to the name of “America”

Major achievements of Amerigo Vespucci

During his illustrious career in exploration and navigation, Amerigo Vespucci was able to accomplish a lot of outstanding things. Some of his major accomplishments are as follows:

A member of the delegation sent by influential Italian family Medici to visit the king of France

Amerigo Vespucci’s family had a cordial relation with the very influential Florentine family named the Medici family. Lorenzo de’ Medici, a member of the Medici family, was in effect the de facto ruler of Florence for many years.

To secure French support for Florence’s war with Naples, the Medici family in Florence sent a diplomatic delegation to France’s Louis XI (reign- 1461-1483), also known as “Louis the Prudent”. Vespucci was perhaps an attaché or private secretary of the delegation. Although the Louis did not want commit, Vespucci returned to Florence having gained a good deal of experience.

Amerigo Vespucci’s influences (from left to right): Strabo (c. 64 BC- c. 24 AD), Claudius Ptolemy (c. 100-170 AD), and Italian mathematician and cosmographer Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli (1398-1482).

Helped in the preparations for Columbus’s voyages to the New World

Proving himself a capable and well-educated man, Amerigo Vespucci gained the trust Medici family members such as Giovanni di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici, who a former classmate of Amerigo.

Steadily, Vespucci came to be assigned to Giannotto Berardi to help in the preparations for Christopher Columbus ’s third expeditions to the New World. He was also involved in preparing many other explorers for their voyages.

By the mid-1490s, he had risen to become the head of the Sevilla agency for Giovanni Medici.

Following the death of Giannotto Berardi in 1495, Vespucci was appointed the manager of the Medici Sevilla agency in Spain, where he helped organize a number of voyages for explorers, including Christopher Columbus. | Possible portrait of Lorenzo (1463-1503), by Sandro Botticelli

Vespucci popularized the discoveries made in the New World

His booklets in 1503 and 1505 about his voyages to the New World received critical acclaim across Europe. His reports helped to a large extent in making popular the discoveries that were made by European explorers at the time. They also boosted his reputation as a renowned navigator and explorer of the Age of Discovery (1400 to 1700 AD).

Amerigo Vespucci coined the term “New World” in 1503

Vespucci made popular the use of the term “New World” across Europe. | Sebastian Münster’s map of the New World, first published in 1540

In his 1503 letter – which was written to his friend and former employer Lorenzo di Pier Francesco de’ Medici – he used the term “New World” to refer to the Western Hemisphere that had become a popular destination for many European navigators and explorers. In the letter, which was later published in 1503 in Latin with the title Mundus Novus , Vespucci also makes mention of his voyage to Brazil in 1501-1502.

Vespucci strongly believed (and rightly so) that the Western Hemisphere lands discovered by navigators from Europe were not the edges of Asia, instead they were part of an entirely different continent. He came to that conclusion during his voyage to present-day Brazil in 1501. | Image: Amerigo Vespucci, Mundus Novus, Letter to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici in 1502/1503

Amerigo Vespucci’s letters

It is worth mentioning that there exist two series of documents on the various voyages (from 1497 to 1504) taken by Amerigo Vespucci. Those two documents are sometimes all that scholars have to understanding the voyages of Amerigo Vespucci to the New World.

The first document was a letter from Vespucci to Piero di Tommaso Soderini, the gonfalonier (an Italian magistrate). The letter, which was dated September 4, 1504, was written in Italian. Known as the Soderini letter, the document was published in Florence in 1505. It claims that Vespucci embarked upon four voyages in total. However, some modern historians and scholars have questioned the authorship and reliability of the letter. Regardless, the Soderini letter proved very useful when it came to naming the American continent. Also, two Latin versions of the letter appeared in works “Quattuor americi navigations” and “Mundus Novus”.

The second series of documents mentions two voyages by Amerigo Vespucci. The documents are made up of three private letters addressed to Vespucci’s former employer and patron Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici.

Amerigo Vespucci’s voyages (1497-1504)

Although still a subject of immense debate, Amerigo Vespucci’s first two voyages to the New World are alleged to have taken place in the late 1490s.

According to a 1504 letter he allegedly penned to a Florentine official named Piero di Tommaso Soderini, Vespucci first sailed to the New World on May 10, 1497. The voyage, which was licensed by the Crown of Castile, saw Vespucci act as a navigator. The voyage had Juan de la Cosa as the chief navigator, while Alonso de Ojeda served as the commander. The goal was to explore the area where Christopher Columbus had reported seeing pearls during his third voyage.

Because the Soderini letter is the only documentation that talks about this voyage, some scholars have opined that the Vespucci never made such voyages. They go on to state that the letter was most likely a forgery. | Image: Amerigo Vespucci’s second voyage depicted in the first known edition of his letter to Piero Soderini, published by Pietro Pacini in Florence c.1505

To this day, it remains a bit unclear as to the exact role of Vespucci during the voyage. It is possible that he served as a commercial representative of the financiers of the voyage. Some scholars state that he was a navigator on the expedition that saw four ships set sail from Spain in 1499.

The expedition first stopped in the Canary Islands and then sailed to South America. When they arrived at the coast of French Guyana or Surinam, Captain Ojeda split the expedition team into two and headed northwest to modern day Venezuela, while Vespucci team sailed south. Vespucci was part of the team that discovered the mouth of the Amazon River. They then went as far as Cape St. Augustine (latitude about 6° S) before making their way past Trinidad, seeing the mouth of the Orinoco River before heading to Haiti. After making a stop at the Spanish colony at Hispaniola in the West Indies, the team returned to Spain in June 1500.

Amerigo Vespucci’s second voyage of 1501-1502

Upon returning to Spain, Vespucci proposed a voyage to the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of the Ganges (present day Bay of Bengal), and Ceylon (today’s Sri Lanka). Unfortunately, his proposal was turned down by the Spanish government. Not wanting to dwell too much on the rejection, Vespucci decided to go into the service of Portugal and embark upon his second voyage.

Vespucci’s 1501-1502 voyage was licensed and supported by Manuel I of Portugal. The pilot for the voyage was Portuguese explorer Gonçalo Coelho, who was tasked to investigate a landmass far to the west in the Atlantic Ocean. Portugal had wanted to determine the extent of Portuguese nobleman and navigator and explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral’s discovery which was far to the west in the Atlantic Ocean (near present-day Brazil). The voyage was intended to allow Porrtugal to claim the land to the east of the line established by the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494).

With a total of three ships, Vespucci sailed from Lisbon, Portugal on May 13, 1501. They went through the Cape Verde Islands for resupply before journeying southwestward. In August 1501, the expedition made it to the coast of Brazil and then proceeded to Cape St. Augustine. They continued southward, coming into contact with Guanabara Bay (Rio de Janeiro’s bay). The crew named the bay Rio de Janeiro because it was January 1, 1502.

By going as far as Rio de la Plata in January 1502, Vespucci and the crew became the first European to find the estuary. Before setting sail back home, they passed by the coast of Patagonia (in present-day southern Argentina).

His alleged third voyage (1503-1504)

Vespucci’s third voyage came under the auspices of his Portuguese employers in 1503. However, there are some scholars that claim that the Italian explorer never made such voyage.

Those who support his claims of his third voyage cite a letter he wrote to Soderini. In the letter, it was mentioned that Vespucci travelled to the east coast of Brazil. Not much detail is known about the voyage. It must be noted that the expedition did not do much to advance the knowledge at the time.

The name “America” was derived from Amerigo Vespucci’s name

Around 1000 AD, the Vikings, under the leadership of Norse explorer Leif Erikson, “discovered” the continent of America. Half a millennium later Christopher Columbus’ expeditions would introduce Europeans to many Caribbean and Central American islands.

And somehow, Amerigo Vespucci’s name is the name given to the continent. That was due to the work of German cartographers and humanists Martin Waldseemüller (c. 1470-1520) and Matthias Ringmann (1482-1511), who named those “discovered” land areas after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci.

The word “America” appeared for the first time in 1507 in Waldseemüller and Ringmann’s pamphlet titled “Cosmographiae Introductio” ( Introduction to Cosmography ). After and a new world map drawn by Waldseemüller. The pamphlet also made its way into the Latin translation of the Soderini letter.

A thousand copies of the world map were printed with the title Universal Geography According to the Tradition of Ptolemy and the Contributions of Amerigo Vespucci and Others. | Image: Waldseemüller map from 1507 is the first map to include the name “America” and the first to depict the Americas as separate from Asia. The name initially applied only to South America, but it later extended to North and Central America.  

The name “America” was derived from the Latinized first name of Amerigo Vespucci. German cartographers and humanists Martin Waldseemüller (c. 1470-1520) and Matthias Ringmann (1482-1511) used named the continent in honor of the invaluable contributions made by Vespucci.

Waldseemüller (c. 1470-1520) was also the first to map South America as a continent separate from Asia, the first to produce a printed globe and the first to create a printed wall map of Europe. After the publication of Waldseemüller’s work in 1507, other cartographers followed suit, and by 1532 the name America was permanently affixed to the newly discovered continents.

It must be noted that the name “America” referred to only the South American continent, as the North and Central America had not yet been “discovered” by European explorers. In any case, the name came to be used synonymous with the New World, i.e. name of the western hemisphere of the world.

German humanist scholars and cosmographers Matthias Ringmann and Martin Waldseemüll’s 1507 book “Cosmographiae Introductio” (Introduction to Cosmography) included the Latin translation of the Soderini letter, a letter Vespucci wrote Soderini. Prior to the coming out of “Cosmographiae Introductio” (Introduction to Cosmography), Martin Waldseemuller had reprinted the “Quattuor Americi navigationes” (“Four Voyages of Amerigo”).

Distinguished consultant in the court of King Ferdinand of Spain

In 1508, he was appointed by the Crown of Castile to serve as the piloto mayor (master navigator) in the  Casa de Contratación (House of Trade) in Seville. Image: Statue of Vespucci outside the Uffizi in Florence, Italy

By 1505, Vespucci’s name had become known all across Europe, almost to the same reverence as fellow Italian explorer Christopher Columbus. Vespucci was invited by Ferdinand of Spain to serve the monarch on matters of navigation and exploration.

He was employed by Spain to facilitate exploration into the New World by prepare explorers for the voyages. Based in Seville, the very respected navigator and explorer was also tasked to working out western passage from Europe to India. Vespucci even got paid for his work, receiving an annual salary of about 50,000 maravedis and other allowances and benefits.

He also worked as the chief navigator for the Casa de Contratación  de las Indias (Commercial House for the Indies), an agency founded in 1503 in Sevilla to not only train pilots and ship masters but to also issue out licenses to ship captains and navigators. Vespucci stayed in that position until his death in 1512.

Read More: 10 Greatest Explorers of All Time

Other notable accomplishments of Amerigo Vespucci

Amerigo Vespucci accomplishments

In addition to being one of the most famous pioneers of Atlantic exploration, Amerigo Vespucci’s discoveries helped expand our knowledge of the New World. The following are other notable accomplishments of the Florence-born explorer and navigator:

• In April 1505, Amerigo Vespucci was made a citizen of Castile and León under the auspices of a royal proclamation.
• From 1505 to 1512, he worked for the Spanish crown, prepared official map of newly found lands and routes. Those maps were meant for organizing and coordinating expeditions to the New World.

More Amerigo Vespucci facts

He grew up in middle-income family in Santa Lucia d’Ognissanti. | Image: – Portrait engraving of Vespucci by Crispijn van de Passe, which titles him discoverer and conqueror of Brazilian land

Here are 10 other notable facts about the Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci:

• It is widely held that Amerigo Vespucci was born on March 9, 1451. However, there have been some claims that put his birth year in 1454.
• While working in Seville as a business agent for the Medici family, he married a Spanish woman named Maria Cerezo. In Amerigo’s will, he describes her as the daughter of Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba.
• The meaning of his name Vespucci translates into “Home Ruler”.
• Amerigo Vespucci was the third son of Nostagio Vespucci, a notary worker in Florence, Italy, and Lisa di Giovanni Mini.
• He was named after his grandfather Amerigo Vespucci, who was an important member of the Florentine government (the Signoria ).
• Amerigo Vespucci received his early education from his uncle Giorgio Antonio, a member of the Order of Preachers (also known as the Dominacan friar) in the monastery of San Marco. Giorgio was a renowned humanist scholar in Florence. Amerigo had the opportunity to learn a great deal of things from Giorgio, including Latin, rhetoric, and philosophy.
• His uncle also introduced him to works of classical Greek astronomers and geographers such as Strabo (c. 64 BC- c. 24 AD) and Claudius Ptolemy (c. 100-170 AD). Amerigo also derived a bit of influence from the works of Italian mathematician and cosmographer Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli (1398-1482).
• While working for the Medici family, he purchased a very expensive map drawn by Gabriel de Vallseca, a renowned cartographer.
• He embarked upon at least two expeditions to the New World; the first (1499-1500) was on behalf of Spain, while the second (1501-1502) was for his Portuguese employers.
• His critics accused him of taking credit for other people’s accomplishments. In some cases, it’s been said that other scholars erroneously appropriated works and discoveries of other explorers to him.

Bibliography

Ann Fitzpatrick Alper,  Forgotten Voyager: The Story of Amerigo Vespucci (Minneapolis: Lerner Publishing Group, 1991)

Edwards, Charles Lester; Vespucci, Amerigo (2009).  Amerigo Vespucci . Viartis

Fernández-Armesto, Felipe (2007).  Amerigo: The Man Who Gave His Name to America . New York: Random House

Formisano, Luciano (1992).  Letters from a New World: Amerigo Vespucci’s Discovery of America . New York: Marsilio

Lynn Hoogenboom,  Amerigo Vespucci: A Primary Source Biography (New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc., 2006)

Mundus Novus: Letter to Lorenzo Pietro Di Medici, by Amerigo Vespucci; translation by George Tyler Northrup, Princeton University Press; 1916.

M.H.Davidson (1997)  Columbus Then and Now, a life re-examined. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press , p. 417)

Ray, Kurt (2004).  Amerigo Vespucci: Italian Explorer of the Americas . New York: The Rosen Publishing Group

Schulz, Norbert; Vespucci, Amerigo (2007).  Amerigo Vespucci, Mundus Novus (mit Zweittexten) . MMO-Verlag

Vigneras, Louis-André (1976).  The Discovery of South America and the Andalusian Voyages . Chicago: University of Chicago Press

The Cosmographer Who Unknowingly Gave His Name to the Americas, by Mistake. Accessed on Nov 2, 2021

Tags: Amerigo Vespucci Florence-Italy Italian explorers The New World

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A Voyage Westward: Amerigo Vespucci and a Whole New World

Historical questions remain, but vespucci's voyages defined the "new world" as we know it..

Amerigo Vespucci (born March 9, 1454; died Feb. 22, 1512) was an Italian  explorer , financier , navigator and cartographer . Born in the Republic of Florence , he became a naturalized citizen of the Crown of Castile in 1505.

Vespucci first demonstrated, in about 1502, that Brazil and the West Indies did not represent Asia’s eastern outskirts, as initially believed during  Columbus’ voyages , but instead constituted an entirely separate landmass unknown to people of the Old World . Colloquially referred to as the New World , it came to be termed “ the Americas “, a name derived from Americus , the Latin version of Vespucci’s first name .

In April 1495, the Crown of Castile broke their monopoly deal with Christopher Columbus and began handing out licenses to other navigators for the West Indies .

At the invitation of king Manuel I of Portugal , Vespucci participated as observer in several voyages that explored the east coast of South America between 1499 and 1502. On the first of these voyages he was aboard the ship that discovered that South America extended much further south than previously thought.

The expeditions became widely known in Europe after two accounts attributed to Vespucci were published between 1502 and 1504. In 1507, Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the new continent America after the feminine Latin version of Vespucci’s first name. In an accompanying book, Waldseemüller published one of the Vespucci accounts, which led to criticism that Vespucci was trying to upset Christopher Columbus ‘ glory. However, the rediscovery in the 18th century of other letters by Vespucci has led to the view that the early published accounts, notably the Soderini Letter , could be fabrications, not by Vespucci, but by others.

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

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.

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 Vespucij navigationes (Four Voyages of Amerigo Vespucci).

On March 22, 1508, King Ferdinand made Vespucci chief navigator of Spain and commissioned him to found a school of navigation, in order to standardize and modernize navigation techniques used by Iberian sea captains then exploring the world. Vespucci even developed a rudimentary, but fairly accurate method of determining longitude (which only more accurate chronometers would later improve upon).

In the 18th century, three unpublished familiar letters from Vespucci to Lorenzo de’ Medici were rediscovered. One describes a voyage made in 1499–1500 which corresponds with the second of the “four voyages”. Another was written from Cape Verde in 1501 in the early part of the third of the four voyages, before crossing the Atlantic. The third letter was sent from Lisbon after the completion of that voyage.

Some have suggested that Vespucci, in the two letters published in his lifetime, was exaggerating his role and constructed deliberate fabrications. However, many scholars now believe that the two letters were not written by him but were fabrications by others based in part on genuine letters by Vespucci. It was the publication and widespread circulation of the letters that might have led Waldseemüller to name the new continent America on his world map of 1507 in Lorraine . The book accompanying the map stated: “I do not see what right any one would have to object to calling this part, after Americus who discovered it and who is a man of intelligence, Amerige, that is, the Land of Americus, or America: since both Europa and Asia got their names from women”. It is possible that Vespucci was not aware that Waldseemüller had named the continent after him.

The two disputed letters claim that Vespucci made four voyages to America, while at most two can be verified from other sources. At the moment, there is a dispute between historians on when Vespucci visited the mainland the first time. Some historians, like Germán Arciniegas and Gabriel Camargo Pérez, think that his first voyage was made in June 1497 with the Spanish pilot Juan de la Cosa .

Vespucci’s real historical importance may well rest more in his letters, whether he wrote them all or not, than in his discoveries. From these letters, the European public learned about the newly discovered continents of the Americas for the first time; their existence became generally known throughout Europe within a few years of the letters’ publication. In Vespucci’s words:

“…concerning my return from those new regions which we found and explored … we may rightly call a new world. Because our ancestors had no knowledge of them, and it will be a matter wholly new to all those who hear about them, for this transcends the view held by our ancients, inasmuch as most of them hold that there is no continent to the south beyond the equator, but only the sea which they named the Atlantic and if some of them did aver that a continent there was, they denied with abundant argument that it was a habitable land. But that this their opinion is false and utterly opposed to the truth … my last voyage has made manifest; for in those southern parts I have found a continent more densely peopled and abounding in animals than our Europe Asia or Africa, and, in addition, a climate milder and more delightful than in any other region known to us, as you shall learn in the following account.”

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Amerigo Vespucci Timeline of Discoveries and Accomplishments

Published: Aug 9, 2023 · Modified: Oct 19, 2023 by Russell Yost · This post may contain affiliate links ·

Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian merchant and explorer who completed four voyages to the Americas between 1497 and 1504. He was the first European to recognize that these lands were not part of Asia, but a new continent.

His letters describing his voyages helped to popularize the idea of the Americas as a new world, and his name was eventually given to the entire Western Hemisphere.

Vespucci was born in Florence, Italy, in 1454. He studied astronomy and navigation at the University of Florence and then worked as a merchant for the Medici family.

Early Life (1451 - 1478)

Early career (1482 - 1495), voyages and later years (1497 - 1512).

In 1497, he was hired by the King of Spain to participate in an expedition to the Americas. Vespucci's first voyage took him to the coast of South America, where he explored the coastline and made contact with the native people. He returned to Spain in 1499.

Vespucci made three more voyages to the Americas, in 1501-1502, 1503-1504, and 1505-1506.

On these voyages, he explored more of the coast of South America and also visited the Caribbean islands.

1451:  Amerigo Vespucci into the Vespucci family was a well-known surname that lived and was successful in Florence. He was born at the beginning of the Renaissance, and his family were good friends with the Medici family, who held most of the power within the city. There is a good chance that Amerigo Vespucci would have personally known Leonardo da Vinci during his teenage years.

1465 - 1470s:  His older brothers were sent to the University of Pisa for their education, but Amerigo was tutored by his uncle. His uncle happened to be one of the most respected and educated humanist thinkers of that time and taught his nephew all the liberal arts, including astronomy and Latin. This education was key to his development in the upcoming century.

1478: His cousin led a Florentine diplomatic mission to Paris and invited Amerigo Vespucci to join him. Amerigo's role is not clear, but it was likely as an attache or private secretary. Along the way, they had business in Bologna, Milan, and Lyon. Their objective in Paris was to obtain French support for Florence's war with Naples. The mission did not yield many results, but no doubt was an excellent experience for Vespucci.

1482:  After his father died, he went to work for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de Medici, head of the junior branch of the Medici family. Although Amerigo was twelve years older, they had been schoolmates under the tutelage of his uncle. Amerigo served first as a household manager and then gradually took on increasing responsibilities, handling various business dealings for the family both at home and abroad. Meanwhile, he continued to show an interest in geography, at one point buying an expensive map made by the master cartographer Gabriel de Vallseca.

1488: Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco became dissatisfied with his Seville business agent, Tomasso Capponi. He dispatched Vespucci to investigate the situation and provide an assessment of a suggested replacement, Florentine merchant Gianotto Berardi. 

1492:  Christopher Columbus discovered the New World and sent shockwaves throughout Europe. With a new route being opened, it created more opportunities. At this time, Vespucci had moved from Florence to Seville, where he worked with Gianotto Berardi. It was through Berardi that he became familiar with Christopher Columbus.

1495:  Berardi signed a contract with the crown to send 12 resupply ships to Hispaniola but then died unexpectedly in December without completing the terms of the contract. Vespucci was the executor of Berardi's will, collecting debts and paying outstanding obligations for the firm. Afterward, he was left owing 140,000 maravedis . He continued to provision ships bound for the West Indies, but his opportunities were diminishing; Columbus's expeditions were not providing the hoped-for profits, and his patron, Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco Medici, was using other Florentine agents for his business in Seville.

During this time, he married.

1497 - 1500:  According to Amerigo Vespucci, he took two voyages under the Spanish Crown to the New World. These voyages have been disputed as fiction by historians, but they cannot be proven false. 

1501 - 1504:  Vespucci would sail under the Portuguese Crown during the next two voyages. While the first voyage is not disputed, the second voyage is disputed by some historians. Again, these accusations cannot be proven false, and there are primary sources of Vespucci's that state he was there.

Vespucci realized that he was not in Asia and had instead discovered a new continent on August 17, 1501. He was sailing along the coast of Brazil on his first voyage to the Americas when he noticed that the land did not match the descriptions of Asia that he had read. The rivers were larger, the mountains were higher, and the people were different. Vespucci also noticed that the land extended much further south than Asia was thought to extend.

1505 - 1506: He returned to Seville and served the Spanish Crown. The Spanish monarchy did not mind that he had served Portugal and wanted to know information that could possibly show them a new way to Asia. 

1508: He was named chief pilot for the  Casa de Contratación  or House of Commerce, which served as a central trading house for Spain's overseas possessions. He was paid an annual salary of 50,000  maravedis with an extra 25,000 for expenses. In his new role, Vespucci was responsible for ensuring that ships' pilots were adequately trained and licensed before sailing to the New World.

1512:  He died and left his modest estate to his wife and his books to his nephew. His fame would come later, and two continents and a country have his name.

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Amerigo Vespucci, a Lurid Pamphlet and the Naming of America

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On permanent display in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., is an enormous, 500-year-old world map that was the very first to use the name "America." It's the only surviving copy of what's known as the 1507 Waldseemüller Map , a priceless historical artifact discovered in the basement of a German castle in 1901 and purchased by the Library of Congress for $10 million in 2003.

"It's the birth certificate of America," says Chet Van Duzer, a mapmaking historian who has worked with the Library of Congress and is now affiliated with the Lazarus Project , which uses multi-spectral imaging to recover and decipher ancient documents.

But equally as fascinating as the 1507 map is the one that's mounted next to it at the Library of Congress, the Carta Marina of 1516 . This world map was published just nine years later by the very same man, Martin Waldseemüller, but the word "America" is nowhere to be found. In its place is simply " Terra Nova " or "New World."

"The most amazing thing about the name 'America' is that the guy who invented it decided it wasn't the right name," says Van Duzer.

Amerigo Vespucci, the Self-Promoter

Mapping the 'land of amerigo', a humbling correction, but too late.

Everyone knows that Christopher Columbus "discovered" America in 1492, even though he never set foot in North America and died insisting that he had found a Western route to Asia. So why didn't the makers of the 1507 Waldseemüller map name the newly discovered lands "Columbia" instead of "America"?

Probably because Columbus didn't write a best-selling pamphlet about his travels full of sex, violence and naked cannibals like his fellow Italian explorer, Amerigo Vespucci, who sailed to the New World a decade after Columbus.

"Vespucci was a better self-promoter than Columbus," says Van Duzer, "and his accounts are more lurid, shall we say, than Columbus's, so they were reprinted more often."

Vespucci published two wildly popular accounts of his voyages to the New World. The first, written in 1504, was called " Mondus Novis " and clearly asserted Vespucci's claim that the lands across the Atlantic were indeed a new continent, not an extension of Asia or just a big island.

"For this transcends the view held by our ancients... that there is no continent to the south beyond the equator, but only the sea which they named the Atlantic," wrote Vespucci. "But that this their opinion is false and utterly opposed to the truth, this my last voyage has made manifest; for in those southern parts I have found a continent more densely peopled and abounding in animals than our Europe or Asia or Africa." By following the South American coast to just 400 miles (643 kilometers) short of Tierra Del Fuego, Vespucci was convinced that he was traveling around a new continent.

"Mondus Novis" also included plenty of colorful details about the "curious natives," whom Vespucci depicted as gentle and almost childlike in nature, but nevertheless barbarous and decidedly un-Christian in their customs, which included facial piercings, cannibalism and sexual promiscuity.

A second pamphlet known as the " Soderini Letter ," which may not have been written entirely by Vespucci, made the rounds in 1505. The disputed text doubled down on Vespucci's descriptions of the naked locals and provided play-by-play accounts of a few violent clashes between Vespucci's men and the more aggressive tribes.

In one "laughable affair," Vespucci’s men welcomed some of the more adventurous Indians onto their ship where the Europeans decided to "fire off some of our great guns."

"[A]nd when the explosion took place, most of them through fear cast themselves (into the sea) to swim, not otherwise than frogs on the margins of a pond, when they see something that frightens them, will jump into the water, just so did those people," wrote Vespucci. "[A]nd those who remained in the ships were so terrified that we regretted our action."

Vespucci's accounts were widely read throughout Europe, including the small village of Saint-Dié-des-Vosges in Lorraine, France, where mapmaker Martin Waldseemüller and his collaborator Matthias Ringmann were compiling an ambitious new map of the world.

As the historians William Connell and Stanislao Pugliese note in " The Routledge History of Italian Americans ," when Waldseemüller and Ringmann got their hands on Vespucci's Soderini Letter in 1507, "the two men believed it to be the latest word on the discoveries in the western ocean."

Waldseemüller and Ringmann had undoubtedly heard of Columbus, but were unimpressed. At the top of their giant 1507 map, which measures 4.2 feet by 7.6 feet (1.28 meters by 2.33 meters), they engraved portraits of the two men they believed to be the two greatest geographers of the ancient and modern world: the Greek mathematician Ptolemy and our friend Vespucci.

In a text that accompanied the 1507 Waldseemüller Map, the two men explained exactly why they named the new continent, which is modern-day South America, after Vespucci.

"[A]nd the fourth part of the earth, which, because Amerigo discovered it, we may call Amerige, the land of Amerigo, so to speak, or America."

Waldseemüller and Ringmann named the continent America "because Amerigo discovered it." Case closed.

It didn't take long for Waldseemüller and Ringmann to realize their mistake. But since 16th-century mapmaking and printmaking was a painstakingly slow process, it took a full nine years — downright speedy in those days — for the men to publish a corrected map, the Carta Marina of 1516, along with a wordy mea culpa.

In the Carta Marina of 1516, the name America is gone, substituted with "Terra Nova." Presumably the men had figured out that Columbus, not Vespucci, was the true discoverer of America. But by 1516, at least six other world maps had been published using the name America. And despite Waldseemüller and Ringmann's belated retraction, the original name stuck.

America was America from then on.

Unlike Columbus, Vespucci didn't attempt to rule over a New World colony and kill thousands of people in the process, but he wasn't a saint, either. Vespucci wrote that he returned from his first voyage with "222 captive slaves" whom he sold upon arrival in the Spanish port of Cadiz.

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The Ages of Exploration

Amerigo vespucci interactive map, age of discovery.

Quick Facts:

Amerigo Vespucci’s voyages across the Atlantic helped prove that Columbus did not reach Asia, but instead found a New World to the Europeans

Click on the world map to view an example of the explorer’s voyage.

How to Use the Map

• Click on either the map icons or on the location name in the expanded column to view more information about that place or event

• Original "EXPLORATION through the AGES" site
• The Mariners' Educational Programs

Amerigo Vespucci: The Forgotten Explorer Who Named America

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The age of discovery is certainly one of the most dramatic periods of European history - a period of revolutionary voyages and contacts with the fascinating and mysterious New World .

Many prominent navigators, explorers and captains were fascinated by the possibilities of a world outside the known boundaries of Europe, a world far across the expanses of the ocean. In this New World there were many opportunities, including those of trade, gold, conquest, and riches.

Today we know this New World as America, but do you know where its name came from? The  famous Florentine navigator, the man who is often overshadowed by Columbus, is the one who further confirmed Columbus’ ‘discoveries’ and gave his name to the continent. He is Amerigo Vespucci, and here is his story.

Portrait of Amerigo Vespucci with a map. Possibly painted by Cristofano dell'Altissimo.    Source: Public domain

The Early Life of Amerigo Vespucci

Before we begin the story of this famous navigator, we need to talk about the so-called New World. The American continent was not first encountered by Columbus, nor Vespucci, as was believed at the time. History has known many sailors through the ages, and many seafaring civilizations. And once you set out on the ocean, you’re bound to discover America sooner or later.

Some of the first seafarers to reach America were the Vikings . Under the leadership of an Icelandic Viking, Leif Erikson , the Norsemen successfully traversed the ocean and reached the coast of North America. This occurred around 1000 AD, almost five centuries before Columbus. In 1492, the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus was the first European that reached the islands of the Caribbean. But mistakenly, he thought he had at last reached the outskirts of Asia, and thus named these islands “the Indies”. It was his countryman and contemporary that would prove him wrong - Amerigo Vespucci.

A depiction of Leif Eriksson discovering the Americas, painted in 1893. (Christian Krohg / Public domain )

Amerigo was born in 1454, into the prominent Vespucci family, in Florence, Italy. The Vespuccis were a respected family who were Florence natives for over two centuries. Most people connected their name to Italian nobility. But that does not mean that they were a rich aristocratic family. Instead, they were relatively poor, and often engaged in trading and other mercantile ventures.

From a young age, Amerigo was educated by his uncle, a Dominican friar by the name of Giorgio Antonio Vespucci. Even as a boy, Amerigo studied the arts, literature, mathematics, and above all - geography. Later in his life, he was sent to the University of Pisa, where he received a higher education. During Amerigo’s youth and later life, Florence - thanks to the House of Medici - was an epicenter of art, literature, and the beginnings of the Renaissance .

Eventually, Amerigo was acquainted with the members of this prominent Medici family, and subsequently embraced a mercantile life. As a trader, he acquired a position in the well-known trading house of Lorenzo de’ Medici. Due to his birth and his ties, Amerigo obtained the position with the Medicis, as the latter sought capable men. Trading in Florence required a skill in diplomacy, speech, and a good grasp of commercial business. Amerigo had all of these skills well mastered.

Portrait of Lorenzo de’ Medici from the 16 th century. (Agnolo Bronzino / Public domain )

After receiving the position, he soon travelled to Barcelona in Spain, as required by his work. The Iberian Peninsula of that age was a lucrative place for business and adventure, especially because of the Portuguese and Spanish explorers and navigators.

Vespucci became engaged in a lot of business in Spain, particularly Seville, where he conducted the outfitting of Spanish vessels that were used in discovery voyages. Around this time, the Crown of Castile fell out with Christopher Columbus and broke the monopoly deal they had with him. Subsequently, they began licensing and seeking out other prominent navigators to sail to the West Indies.

When the Ocean Beckons: His Earliest Voyages

He became increasingly interested in these exploratory voyages himself. It is thought at some point, he came into contact and sailed with Christopher Columbus. But eventually, Vespucci wanted to go on his own explorations. He had the necessary prerequisites - a good education, fantastic connections in Italy and Spain, a sailing background, and a great deal of skills in trading, business, geography, and astronomy.

He sailed with Alonso de Hojeda on one of his journeys, accompanying him as an astronomer and a merchant. Vespucci was no ordinary explorer, and that was clear. As a learned man, he pursued astronomy, studying the stars as they sailed, hoping to find the southern celestial pole. Many believe that once he started these sailing voyages in earnest, Vespucci truly embraced this calling and fully transformed from a businessman into a scholar and a navigator.

Once back in Spain, Amerigo Vespucci declined (for unknown reasons) the offer of three ships and supplies to sail once again for the Spanish government. But seeing the success of the Portuguese sailor Vasco da Gama , who successfully sailed around the African continent, Vespucci realized that he too needed to sail for the Portuguese in order to make headlines. This was also because the Portuguese boasted much quicker and sturdier ships than the Spanish ones.

Portrait of Vasco de Gama. (António Manuel da Fonseca / Public domain )

Therefore, Vespucci acquired the command of three Portuguese ships, which he had complete control over. It was at this time that he made his second voyage, which is the first one that scholars have confirmed as authentic. He set out from Portugal in May 1501, and he made it his mission to discover the so-called Strait of Catigara , a passage that Ptolemy claimed, in his writings, would lead to Asia.

Finding a Whole New World

Instead, this voyage actually took Vespucci along the coast of South America, but it is also the one that would eventually make him a famous man. When he realized that he was nowhere near Asia, he knew he had discovered a wholly new continent that lay between Asia and Europe. Since he had a keen knowledge of geography and was aware of its imperfections and inconsistencies, his sailing along the coast and careful observations allowed him to deduce that it was indeed a continent that had been unknown to Europe.

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Ancient map of the Americas from 1606. (Abraham Ortelius / Public domain )

He hastened to write to Lorenzo Medici from what is today Cape Verde. He described in detail the inhabitants of the place he sailed to, the flora and fauna, and the land itself. It is from this letter, we can understand that Vespucci was truly a learned man and well ahead of his time.

In the letter to Medici, he said that he had found a new continent, and gave remarkable claims for his certainty. He spoke of the number of people he had seen, and he explained that their variety signified the enormity of the land, as well as the sheer size of the coastline and the size of the rivers.

Four Voyages and Forged Letters

Amerigo Vespucci made a total of four voyages to the New World, even though scholars today are uncertain of two of these voyages. Most of the accounts of his travels are found in several letters that Vespucci wrote, which detail his explorations.

The first letter claimed that the voyage begun in May 1497 and ended in October 1498. But from historical accounts, we have learnt that at this time, Amerigo was working as a ship outfitter in Seville, and his first sailing voyage with Hojeda begun in May of 1499. Therefore, many scholars believe that this letter is in fact a forgery created in the years after Vespucci’s death, in order to give an earlier date for his explorations.

Another seemingly fake letter attributed to Vespucci is the so-called Mundus Novus letter. It was presented after the death of Lorenzo Medici and is full of inaccuracies and false claims. The same goes for another fake letter called the Four Voyages , which was supposedly written by Vespucci to Piero Soderini, the chief magistrate of Florence. It is believed that Soderini wrote these letters out of jealousy for Lorenzo di Medici, who had received all of Vespucci’s attention and correspondence. The contents of this letter seemingly follow the pattern of Columbus’ voyages and are today the source of most false beliefs connected to Vespucci and his voyages.

Posthumous portrait of Christopher Columbus, 1519. There are no known authentic portraits of Columbus. (Sebastiano del Piombo / Public domain )

A Navigator That Sailed No More

After his revolutionary explorations of the Americas, and his understanding of it as a new continent, Vespucci returned to Portugal and remained there until 1504. After that he returned to Seville in Spain. He had extensive plans to make further explorations, but these were cut short when the Spanish King Ferdinand proclaimed Vespucci as the Pilot Major of Spain in 1508. This position required him to teach the pilots (navigators) of the Spanish fleet skills of navigation, astronomy and cosmography, which he had mastered and utilized during his career.

This put him into a very important position, where he ultimately presided over the Spanish fleet and had control over all its voyages, as well as all the trade between Spain and the colonies in the New World. Sadly, he didn’t hold the post for too long, nor would he ever sail again as he wished. Amerigo Vespucci died of malaria on 22nd of February 1512. He was married but had no children.

A Heritage to Last Eternally

Vespucci left behind an eternal legacy. He truly was a man of “firsts”, a pioneer of trans-oceanic exploration and long voyages. He inspired and trained a whole generation of future navigators, many of whom continued his legacy and repeatedly sought a passage to Asia, by sailing around the tip of South America.

The Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian Navy training ship, which was dedicated to the famous explorer and is still being used today. ( Stefano Garau / Adobe stock)

Amerigo’s achievements changed the fate of maritime exploration. First of all, Vespucci was the first European man to sight and reach the shores of Brazil, and to explore its coastline. During his voyages, he explored around 6,000 miles (~9,700 kilometers) of coastline - a feat that hasn’t been accomplished by any other man to date. He was also the first European man to step onto the shores of Colombia, Argentina, and Uruguay, and the first to discover the Amazon, Plata, and Pavia rivers.

Additionally, he was the first to discover the existence of the equatorial current, and to utilize the lunar cycle in order to accurately determine a precise longitude. But of course, his most important achievement was his realization that the “outskirts of Asia,” which his contemporary Columbus discovered, were nowhere near Asia at all, and that they were in fact a new continent. And this New World was named America, the female form of Amerigo’s name in Latin. A heritage to last eternally.

It is certain that Vespucci had an advanced understanding of the world around him, and that he was born in the right age for exploration. He studied the accounts of Marco Polo and Ptolemy, and this helped him to quickly understand that the inhabitants and the landscapes of South America were not Asian in any way whatsoever. He managed to sail extraordinary lengths, and due to this feat, he realized that such a diversity of native tribes, the enormity of coastline, and a mild, warm, and tropical climate, were all telltale signs of a new continent. This realization was one of the most important discoveries in European history.

A statue of Amerigo Vespucci to recognize his achievements and life, Uffizi Museum, Florence. ( NICOLAS LARENTO / Adobe stock)

Alas, Amerigo Vespucci is often in the shadow of Christopher Columbus, who admittedly ‘discovered’ the American continent, but without realizing it as such. Furthermore, the account of Vespucci’s life is often marred with the debates regarding his voyages and the false letters, none of which were created by Vespucci himself. In the end, many agree that Amerigo Vespucci made three journeys to the New World, and all know that he truly revolutionized the world of sailing and navigation. However, all of his deeds and explorations are often forgotten, as the ages that came after him, seldom brought any good from the fabled New World.

Top image: Native Americans see the arrival of an explorer’s ship. Credit: ginettigino / Adobe Stock

By Aleksa Vučković

Canaday, J. 2010. The Life of Amerigo Vespucci. Millersville University.

Hoogenboom, L. 2006. Amerigo Vespucci - A Primary Source Biography. Rosen Publishing Group.

Ray, K. 2004. Amerigo Vespucci: Italian Explorer of the Americas. Rosen Publishing Group.

Love the story and the first photo, however Natives we’re riding horses when they first saw ships, horses came later.

and what of the idea that America was named after Richard de Americ who funded American exploration from Bristol?

I am a published author of over ten historical fiction novels, and I specialize in Slavic linguistics. Always pursuing my passions for writing, history and literature, I strive to deliver a thrilling and captivating read that touches upon history's most... Read More

Today, meet our national namesake. The University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them.

O ur country's named after the Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci instead of the Italian navigator Christopher Columbus. But why? Who was Amerigo Vespucci, and what did he do?

He was an Italian merchant, born in 1454 in Florence and employed by the Medicis. They sent him to look after their ship-outfitting business, which operated out of Seville, about the time Columbus made his first voyage. In fact, the business had a part in outfitting Columbus's third voyage.

Vespucci finally outfitted his own voyage in quest of the passage to the Indian subcontinent that had eluded Columbus. He sailed in 1499 -- seven years after Columbus first landed in the West Indies. Vespucci made two voyages between 1499 and 1502 and possibly a third one in 1503.

During his first voyage he explored the northern coast of South America to well beyond the mouth of the Amazon. He gave names like "Gulf of the Ganges," and other Asian place-names he knew about, to the things he saw. He also made significant improvements in navigational techniques. During this trip he predicted the earth's circumference to within 50 miles.

But the big breakthrough came on Vespucci's second trip. And that was the realization that what he was looking at was not India at all, but an entirely new continent. He verified the fact by following the coast of South America down to within 400 miles of Tierra del Fuego. Columbus found the new world, but Vespucci was the man who recognized that it was a new world.

And who wrote Vespucci's Christian name on the maps? The King of Spain? Our founding fathers? Vespucci himself? No -- it was none of these. We were given our name by an obscure German clergyman and amateur geographer named Waldseemuller. Waldseemuller was a member of a little literary club that published an introduction to cosmology in 1507. In it he wrote of the new land mass that Vespucci had explored:

I see no reason why anyone should justly object to calling this part ... America, after Amerigo [Vespucci], its discoverer, a man of great ability.

The name stuck, and when a second huge land mass was discovered to the north, the names North and South America were applied to the two continents.

All this leads us to ask, "Who really discovered America?" Was it the person who first found it or the person who first recognized it for what it was? Perhaps I'd better leave you to decide that question.

I'm John Lienhard, at the University of Houston, where we're interested in the way inventive minds work.

(Theme music)

Wilford, J.N., The Mapmakers . New York: Vintage Books, 1982.

See your Encyclopaedia Britannica for more on Vespucci.

This episode has been extensively modified in Episode 1350 .

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