VESPUCCI, Amerigo. Navigator, one of the greatest, indeed the greatest among the followers of Columbus, born in Florence in March 1454, the third of four sons of ser Nastagio, a notary, died in Seville on 22 February 1512.
The name, which was to remain forever attached to the New Continent, was traditional in the family. Vespucci received a humanistic education from his youth; in 1479 he accompanied, as a "garzone," a relative sent by the Medici as orator to the King of France, and upon his return entered the "banco" of Lorenzo and Giovanni di Pier Francesco de' Medici, gaining the full trust of his principals. At the end of 1491, they sent him to Seville, where they had an active agency directed by a Gianotto Berardi, who dealt with various business matters, but above all, it seems, with the outfitting of ships. Therefore, Vespucci most likely witnessed the return of Columbus from his first expedition, which Berardi had helped finance; later, he must have collaborated with Berardi again in outfitting a ship for Columbus's second expedition and others for the third; on this occasion, Vespucci and Columbus met in person. After Berardi's death at the end of 1495 or early 1496, Vespucci became his executor and then the effective head of the Seville agency.
The period during which Vespucci undertook his voyages falls between 1497 and 1504. At the beginning of 1505, called to the Spanish court for a consultation on confidential matters, Vespucci was hired as an expert at the famous Casa de Contratación de las Indias, established two years earlier in Seville, and in 1508 was appointed *piloto mayor* at the same institution: a very high and trusted position, which included the duty of examining all pilots and sea captains seeking licenses for overseas voyages, as well as preparing the official chart of newly discovered lands and the routes to them (*padron real*), collecting and coordinating all the information that pilots and sea captains were required to provide. This chart was a closely guarded secret, and its custodian had to be known for scrupulous conscience and fidelity. Vespucci, who had obtained Spanish citizenship, held this office until his death; his widow, Maria Cerezo, was granted a pension in recognition of her husband's other services.
Two series of documents exist regarding Vespucci's voyages. The first consists of: a letter written by Vespucci himself from Lisbon on 4 September 1504, in Italian, perhaps addressed to the Gonfaloniere Pier Soderini, printed in Florence in 1505; and two Latin versions or reworkings of this letter circulated in print under the titles *Quatuor Americi navigationes* and *Mundus Novus*. The second series consists of three private letters (i.e., not intended for publication) sent by Vespucci to his patrons Lorenzo and Giovanni di Pier Francesco de' Medici. In the documents of the first series, four voyages by Vespucci are mentioned, while in those of the second, only two. Until a few years ago, the documents of the first series were considered authentic, although the sequence of the four voyages raised countless uncertainties and doubts; according to a hypothesis formulated by Alberto Magnaghi, however, those documents would be the result of skillful manipulations (to which Vespucci was not a party), and the only authentic documents would instead be the private letters, reducing the confirmed voyages to two. The question, fundamental for evaluating Vespucci's work, has sparked heated debates and remains unresolved. The attempt to reconcile the two series of documents, recently repeated by the Argentine historian R. Levillier, cannot be considered successful.
Certainly authentic is the voyage undertaken by Vespucci between May 1499 and June 1500 as a pilot on a four-ship expedition sent by Spain and commanded by Alonso de Ojeda (it is the second voyage in the traditional series). Since Vespucci participated in it as a pilot, it must be considered certain that it was not his first experience; however, a previous voyage (1497–98), said to have taken place along the coasts of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic from Florida to Chesapeake Bay, cannot be admitted as having actually occurred.
During the 1499–1500 voyage, Vespucci separated from Ojeda after reaching the coasts of present-day Guyana and sailed south, discovering the mouths of the Amazon River, then proceeding along the coasts of present-day Brazil to Cape de la Consolación or Cape S. Agostino (around 6° S. latitude), then retraced his steps, reached Trinidad, saw the mouths of the Orinoco, and rejoined Ojeda's ships in Haiti. The voyage was important from a scientific standpoint, and Vespucci believed he had sailed along the coasts of an easternmost peninsula of Asia, the one in which Ptolemy placed the commercial emporium of Cattigara; indeed, he sought the westernmost extremity of this peninsula, Cape Cattigara, which, as Vespucci stated, once crossed, the ships would, in his view, have reached the seas of southern Asia. Upon his return to Spain, he immediately set about preparing a new expedition (in competition with one being outfitted at the time by Vasco de Gama) with the aim of reaching the Indian Ocean, the Ganges Gulf, and the island of Taprobane. However, the Spanish government did not accept Vespucci's proposals, and at the end of 1500, for reasons unknown, he entered the service of Portugal and under Portuguese auspices undertook a second expedition, which departed from Lisbon on 13 May 1501. After a stop at the Cape Verde Islands, the ships crossed the ocean southwestward, reached the coasts of Brazil near Cape Agostino, discovering (in January 1502) the bay called Rio de Janeiro, and certainly sailed as far as the Río de la Plata, of which Vespucci is considered the first discoverer. Most likely, a rapid run carried the ships even further south along the coasts of Patagonia, as far as San Julián Bay or perhaps beyond. The return itinerary is unknown. The ships arrived in Lisbon on 22 July 1502.
Whatever the southernmost point reached by Vespucci on this voyage, it holds fundamental and decisive importance in the history of geographical discoveries, as it firmly established in Vespucci himself and spread among scholars the conviction that the newly discovered lands were not part of Asia but constituted a New World. It is therefore not surprising that in a circle of German scholars in St-Dié in Lorraine, a humanist, Martin Waldseemüller, reprinting in 1507 the *Quatuor Americi navigationes*, preceded by a short pamphlet titled *Cosmographiae Introductio*, proposed that the newly revealed world be named "ab Americo inventore... Amerigen quasi Americi terram sive Americam." The proposal is also enshrined in a large world map by the same Waldseemüller, in which the name America appears for the first time, though applied only to South America. The proposal enjoyed perhaps unexpected success; the extension of the name to North America came later. At the top of the map, corresponding to the hemisphere encompassing the Old Continent, is the portrait of Ptolemy; corresponding to the one where the New World is outlined is the portrait of Vespucci.
However, he limited himself only to South America. The proposal met with perhaps unexpected success; but the extension of the name to North America is more belated. In the upper part of the map, corresponding to the hemisphere embracing the Old Continent, there is a portrait of Ptolemy; corresponding to that where the New World is outlined, there is a portrait of the V.
That he took part in another expedition on behalf of the Portuguese government (it is said in the very doubtful one commanded by G. Coelho) is uncertain, indeed improbable. In any case, this expedition did not contribute any new knowledge. Subsequently, the V. returned to the service of Spain and certainly, as piloto mayor, contributed to the preparation of other expeditions, but did not personally take part in any more.
Judgments on the V. were very disparaging: there has been no lack of those who considered him ignorant, a forger, a charlatan usurping others' ideas, etc. To refute these accusations, it is enough to note that Spain entrusted to him, a foreigner, and in preference to any compatriot, the very high office of piloto mayor, which implies that he was recognized as having eminent scientific and practical qualities in nautical matters, moral integrity, and such scrupulousness as to be able to guard materials and elements of exceptional and highly confidential importance. Whatever the reasons for his temporary service with Portugal, it is certain that the Spanish government made no charge against him for this. The fame of the V. is now definitively consecrated as that of a seaman and navigator of the highest value, such as to be placed on a par with Columbus, who also held him in the greatest esteem, as is evident from an autograph letter. The antagonism with which the two great Italians were once contrasted is now definitively resolved: to Columbus belongs the incomparable merit of having first crossed the western Ocean, long considered impassable, and of having discovered the lands of the "other shore"; to the V. Asia, but constituted a new Continent.
The V. carried out the survey of the coasts he had discovered and drew up a map of them, but this, like the ship's logs, has been lost. Some maps, however, remain