Vespucci, Amerigo

Vespucci, Amerigo (1451-1512), Italian explorer.

Amerigo Vespucci settled in Spain and from there made a number of long voyages of discovery for Spain and Portugal.

He wrote accounts of four, but historians believe that at least one of these is not true.

According to Vespucci, he landed on the mainland of South America in 1497, being the first person from Europe to do so. At this time, people called America the 'New World'.

There are a few different accounts of the naming of America. One of the best known is that in 1507, a teacher in Germany was writing a geography book. He wanted to give a name to the southern part of the New World and the name he chose was America after Amerigo Vespucci. In time, the name America was given to the northern part of the continent as well as the southern.

On his last voyage, in 1502, Vespucci claimed to have sailed further south than any man before him and discovered the island of South Georgia.

In 1508, he was made Pilot-Major of Spain, the head of all that country's sea captains.

See The Naming of America: Martin Waldseemuller's 1507 World Map and the Cosmographiae Introductio ~ Martin Waldseemüller