AMERIGO VESPUCCI – Discover the Man Behind the Legend

Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian explorer, navigator and cartographer who first demonstrated that Brazil and the West Indies did not represent Asia's eastern outskirts as initially conjectured from Columbus' voyages, but instead constituted an entirely separate landmass hitherto unknown to Europeans. Colloquially named the New World, this second super continent came to be known as "Americas", deriving its name from Americus, the Latin transcription of Vespucci's first name. Learn more about the man who gave his name to the new continent, read his personal letters, diaries and what his contemporaries wrote about him.

Table of Contents:

Biography of Amerigo Vespucci by Frederick A. Ober

Life of Vespucci by Clements R. Markham

Letter of Amerigo Vespucci to a "Magnificent Lord"

Letter of Amerigo Vespucci to Lorenzo Pietro F. di Medici

Evidence of Alonso de Hojeda respecting his Voyage of 1499

Account of the Voyage of Hojeda, 1499-1500, by Navarrete

Letter of the Admiral Christopher Columbus to his Son

Letter of Vianelo to the Seigneury of Venice

Letter of Naturalization in Favour of Vespucci

Appointment of Amerigo Vespucci as Chief Pilot

Chapters from Las Casas, which discuss the Statements of Vespucci:

Evidence respecting the Voyage of Pinzon and Solis

Las Casas on the Voyage of Pinzon and Solis