Amerigo Vespucci

Amerigo Vespucci
Third Voyage: 1501-1502

Amerigo Vespucci
Born: 1454
Death: 1512
Rank: Explorer/Businessman

Mundus Novus

Before he gave his name to the land, Amerigo Vespucci referred to the mainland of South America as Mundus Novus: “New World.” He had not ‘discovered’ it, yet, his name is forever linked to the lands of the western hemisphere, which are known collectively as the Americas - or simply, America. Not bad for a man who spent his younger years as a pimp in his native Florence, and whose navigational skills were nowhere near those of an actual seamen like Columbus! Ralph Waldo Emerson’s verdict in the nineteenth century was perhaps the most severe, dubbing him, “the pickle dealer at Seville…[who] managed in this lying world to supplant Columbus and baptize half the world with his own dishonest name.” But Emerson was wrong in one very important point, for despite Amerigo’s faults, he did not christen America after himself; rather, that was the work of a German cartographer, named Martin Waldseemuller. Waldseemuller was a man so taken by Vespucci’s letters, that when he published the Cosmographiae Introductio (Introduction to Cosmography), in 1507, he included with his work the letters of Vespucci. His world map that followed was revolutionary as, “for the first time...it confidently depicted the New World as surrounded by water.” This continent he called America, after Amerigo himself.
The Man
Born into the Florence of the Medicis, Amerigo’s early jobs included that of a butler in the household of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de Medici. As their relationship broadened, though, Pierfrancesco expanded Vespucci’s responsibilities, and he soon flourished as a procurer of wine, women, and debt collection. In short, he was a small-time businessman, and a successful one. These experiences “served him well when, later in his career, a change in vocation turned him into a ship’s pilot, navigator, explorer, and cosmographer.” Soon, Amerigo took himself off to Spain, and to more lucrative business ventures. Amerigo wound up in Seville, along with Gianotto Berardi, a businessman whom Amerigo recommended to head Medici’s operations in Seville. Berardi was involved in something even more lucrative: that of financing Columbus’s first voyage across the Atlantic. Instrumental in financing and outfitting Columbus’s fleets, Berardi soon held sway over Columbus’s business affairs, and would continue to outfit ships for further voyages called upon by the monarchs of Spain. But these years of business made Amerigo hunger for more, and after the death of Berardi, he embarked upon one himself. He wrote in a letter to Piero Soderini, “I decided to give up trade and devote myself to more praiseworthy and firmer things. I prepared myself to go and observe a part of the world and its wonders.” Vespucci would become a sailor.
Voyages
Unlike Columbus, who hailed from the naval republic of Genoa, Vespucci was a landsman, and did not hold a position of command. As an observer, Amerigo had plenty of time to write down what he saw. In a letter republished in Waldseemuller’s Cosmographia of 1507, Vespucci details the interactions of the natives and his crew, their appearance, weaponry, the food they ate, their medicines, and the land in which they lived - he even went so far as to detail their sexual proclivities. Vibrant in character and forthright in style, Vespucci’s writings won him instant celebrity status back in Europe, where his letters were widely circulated. However, though a literary success, Vespucci’s claimed four voyages are seen by some historians to be wrong; they claim that, in reality, Vespucci only ever made two. Still, Amerigo was an explorer, a discoverer of lands even Columbus hadn’t seen, and he performed this task with due diligence. Even though he was not a sailor by trade, and recognizably not a navigator of the caliber of Columbus, his name soon rang throughout Europe as popularly as that of Columbus himself.
Amerigo worked for both the Kings of Spain and Portugal, and in an expedition of the latter’s employ, he uttered his famous remark of a “new world.” Writing to Lorenzo Medici, Amerigo speaks of an entirely new continent (claiming credit for its founding): one “more densely peopled and abounding in animals than our Europe or Asia or Africa…” Vespucci’s writings sold the idea of these lands to Europeans eager for information. He helped put them on the map, and by doing so, had his name transformed to encompass the entirety of the western Hemisphere and its people. In his case, it can truly be said that the pen is mightier than the sword; for Amerigo was simply along for the ride, and had sense enough to bring along paper and something to write with.
Did You Know?
Martin Waldseemuller had help in coming up with America as the name for the new continent. In compiling the Cosmographia Waldseemuller, he worked with a scholar named Vautrin Lud; his nephew, Nicolas Lud; the poet, Matthias Ringmann; Jean Basin, Vicar of the Local Church; and Waldseemuller himself.

Amerigo Vespucci (High School Activity) - Navigating before the invention of the compass was a hassle. It makes the achievements of the medieval Norse, the ancient Polynesians, and even Columbus himself all the more remarkable. Vespucci was no navigator, however, nor a seaman. And though he knew of the astrolabe, it was not for him to use one. For this activity, you'll have to wait until night, because you’re going to learn how to navigate by the stars. First thing you’ll want to do is look up and see if you can spot the Big Dipper. From there, you can draw a direct line to Polaris (The North Star). Congrats! You’ve taken your first steps on the road of a navigator. For a helpful video, check this out:

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