AMERICO VESPUCIO: BIOGRAPHY AND TRAVELS - ARTE - 2025

Americo Vespucci (1454-1512) was an explorer, merchant and cosmographer born in Florence in March 1454. Although he related his participation in various trips to both the new continent and the African coasts, historians doubt that he was part of all of them. His name was used to give the American continent its name.

Vespucci, from a wealthy family, worked for the powerful Medici family for several years. In one of the missions that he was commissioned, the Florentine moved to Seville, where he put himself at the service of Juanoto Berardi. This merchant was in charge of supplying ships to explorers who traveled to the newly discovered lands.

Portrait of Americo Vespucci - Source: Crispijn van de Passe / Public domain

Between 1499 and 1502, Américo Vespucio was part of several explorations, some in the service of the Portuguese Crown. The explorer recorded these trips in several letters addressed to different people, although the veracity of some of his accounts is doubted.

Later, the Spanish Crown appointed him chief pilot of the Casa de la Contratación, in addition to commissioning him to draw up the Royal Register, a map on which all the new discoveries should appear.

Biography

Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian name of the explorer, was born on March 9, 1454 in Florence. Thanks to the good economic position of his family, both he and his brothers received a very complete education. Among other subjects, Américo studied philosophy, physics, astronomy, physics, Latin, and literature.

The Medici

The relationship of the Vespucci with the Medici family was fundamental in the first years of Americo. The first time he worked for them was at the age of 24, when he accompanied one of his relatives to Paris as envoys to the French king.

However, the wealth of the Americo family was not at its best. His father tried to get him to dedicate himself only to family businesses and convinced him not to study at the University of Pisa as he wanted.

Américo then began working as a commercial agent for the Medici, until the death of his father in 1482 made him responsible for family finances.

In 1489, Lorenzo de 'Medici fired his commercial representative in Seville, Spain and commissioned Américo to find someone to fill the position. The name he proposed was that of Juanoto Berardi, a Florentine businessman who had lived in the Andalusian city for years.

Seville

It is not known for sure when Américo moved to Seville, but it is believed that it was at the end of 1491 or at the beginning of 1492. At first he did so following the orders of the Medici, but soon began to work for Juanoto Berardi.

Berardi was dedicated to the slave and arms trade, in addition to providing everything necessary to merchant ships. When Christopher Columbus was looking for investments for his trip to the Indies, the Florentine merchant decided to participate. Vespucio and Colón became friends from this project.

Berardi passed away in December 1495 and Américo took over part of his business. In January of the following year, he moved to Sanlúcar de Barrameda, in Cádiz, to bring supplies to four skulls bound for Hispaniola. However, a storm caused the boats to run aground on the Andalusian coast

Trip with Alonso de Ojeda

Painting by Alonso de Ojeda

According to what he himself related, Vespucci's first voyage began in 1497. It is assumed that he left with four ships and that he reached the Orinoco a month later. However, most historians think it was a later invention of Americo.

The return of Columbus from his third voyage occurred in 1499 and represented a great change in the organization of trade in the then called Indies. The Genoese explorer was arrested and the Crown ended the Columbian monopoly.

More verisimilitude is granted to the second voyage recounted by Vespucci, at a time when many explorations were authorized in search of exploiting wealth. This journey took place in 1499, under the command of Alonso de Ojeda. The final destination was the current coast of Venezuela.

As he related in one of his letters, the coast of that part of the continent reminded him of Venice, which is why he named the area Venezuela. The expedition then continued to present-day Colombia and resulted in one of the first maps that reflected the contour of those coasts.

Américo Vespucio returned to Spain ill, but with a series of pearls that he was able to sell for more than 1000 ducats.

Portugal

Vespucci continued to do work for the Medici, although his desire for more travel was always on his mind.

At the beginning of 1501, Américo moved to Lisbon, for reasons that were not too clear. According to his version, the Portuguese king had sent him an invitation, but some historians point out that he may have acted as a spy for the Crown of Castile.

Third and fourth trips

In the same 1501, the explorer left Lisbon for the New World as part of an expedition sponsored by the Portuguese Crown. After passing through Cape Verde, the ships reached Brazil at the end of the year and followed the coast heading south. Finally, they reached Patagonia, very close to the strait that Magellan would later discover.

Already during that trip, Vespucci understood that these territories were not part of Asia, but were a new continent. All his adventures and conclusions were reflected in a letter addressed to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de Medici. This missive, entitled Mundus Novus (New World), was published in Paris in 1502.

Although there are serious doubts about its veracity, Vespucci related in other letters, called Carta Soderini, a third trip to the Indies, also under the flag of Portugal.

Back to Spain

A letter written by Girolamo Vianello, who was in the service of the Crown of Castile, stated that Vespucci had participated in a new journey in 1504. The expedition, which would have been under the command of Juan de la Cosa, seems to have occurred, but the historians doubt that the Florentine explorer's involvement in it.

There is evidence that shows that Américo Vespucio was in Seville and in 1505. The evidence comes from a letter from Christopher Columbus addressed to his son in which he affirms that Américo was residing in his house.

It is also known that the Florentine married at that time. His wife was María Cerezo, who is said to be the extramarital daughter of Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba.

Américo Vespucio began working for the crown in 1505. That same year, he was declared a native of the kingdoms of Castilla y León.

His next task was to supply the ships that were preparing to carry out an expedition that would find the way to the Spice Islands. Fernando de Aragón appointed Vicente Yañez Pinzón as head of the flotilla, but the trip never took place.

House of Contracting

Hiring House in the Alcázar of Seville - Source: Iantomferry at English Wikipedia

The role of Américo Vespucio in the Casa de la Contratación in Seville had become essential by 1506. Thus, he was in charge of organizing and supplying all expeditions destined for the new continent.

Although there are references about a possible new trip in 1507, the truth is that at the end of that year, Vespucci was summoned to a meeting by the king. Navigators, cosmographers and explorers such as Yáñez Pinzón, Juan de la cosa and Díaz de Solís participated in this meeting, which was called the Junta de Burgos.

The Junta de Burgos, chaired by King Fernando (who had regained the throne of Castile) decided to give a boost to the exploration of the new continent. The explorers were commissioned to find the southern pass to La Especiería and Vespucio was named “Major Pilot of Castile”.

This position depended on the Casa de Contratación and consisted of teaching the new pilots everything necessary to navigate. This included the use of the astrolabe and the quadrant, notions of cosmography and, of course, piloting.

Likewise, Vespucio had to be in charge of sanctioning those pilots who violated the rules, that all navigation instruments were in good condition and of investigating any incident.

Finally, he was commissioned to maintain a cartographic record and to make the Royal Register, a map on which all the new discoveries would appear. This work was never finished.

New projects

During the following years, Vespucio not only worked in the Casa de Contratación. Thus, in addition to continuing to supply the different expeditions to America, the Florentine participated in a project to create a colony in Veragua. The plan was a failure and caused him great financial losses.

Many historians credit Vespucci with the idea of ​​building ships with their lead-lined hull in Vizcaya. It was a way to make them more resistant in order to withstand the reefs present in the Caribbean.

At that time, Vespucio's salary as a senior pilot was quite high: about 75,000 maravedíes a year. Thanks to that money he could live in a comfortable way, although without great luxuries.

Death

Américo Vespucio died in Seville on February 22, 1512. All his assets were bequeathed to his wife, María Cerezo, with the exception of his properties in Florence, which he left to his mother and brothers.

The Crown, in recognition of Vespucci's achievements and his work as a pilot major, issued a legal decree by which he granted a pension to his wife.

Americo Vespucio himself wrote in his will the place where he wanted to be buried: the Church of San Miguel or, failing that, the convent of San Francisco. The authorities respected his will and the explorer was buried in the designated church.

Today, however, his tomb is in the church of Ognissanti, in Florence, his hometown.

Name of the new continent

The contributions of Américo Vespucio were remarkable. It was the Florentine explorer who realized that the new lands to which Columbus arrived were not part of Asia and he was the first to use the expression New World in the letter he wrote with that title (Mundus Novus).

In addition, he was responsible for naming Venezuela and participated in the expedition that discovered the mouth of the Amazon. For a few kilometers, he did not discover the so-called Cape of Magellan.

However, Americo Vespucci is best known for another fact that, in a sense, did not depend on himself: naming the new continent.

According to his writings, it seems clear that Vespucci had shared the belief that it was Asia until his third voyage. After returning, his opinion had changed, as can be seen in his Mundus Novus:

"In that southern part I have discovered the continent inhabited by more multitude of peoples and animals than our Europe, or Asia, or well Africa."

After Vespucci had announced that Columbus was wrong and that he had actually arrived on a new continent, many had tried to give him a name. Among those names were "the great Land of the South", "Vera Cruz", "Land of Brazil", "New India" or "Land of Parrots".

Martin Waldseemüller

The letters written by Vespucci in which he recounted his travels impressed several editors. Although, today, many historians doubt the veracity of several of the stories, at that time all wanted to publish them.

Several of these publishers, who worked in the printing house of the abbey of Saint-Dié-des-Vosges in France, had access to two of the letters: Lettera and Mundus Novus.

Around the same time, the German cosmographer Martin Waldseemüller was another of those who was amazed by Vespucci's stories. For this reason, in 1507 he decided to edit them together with his own work, the Cosmographiae Introductio.

The work, which included portraits of Vespucci himself and Ptolemy, had a preface in which the following was read:

«Now that these parts of the world have been extensively examined and another quarter has been discovered by Americo Vespucci, I see no reason why we should not call it America, that is, land of Americo, its discoverer, as well as Europe, Africa and Asia received women's names. "

Name expansion

By the time Waldseemüller published his work, Vespucci had already made his name in Spanish. Thus, in 1505, he had begun to use Americo in place of the original Italian, Amerigo.

His popularity as a sailor and as a merchant had grown enormously, something that favored the German cosmographer's proposal to have a great acceptance.

By the time Vespucci died, in 1512, the new continent was definitely known as America.

References

1. Colliat, Julien. Why the New World took the name of Americo Vespucci and not that of Columbus. Obtained from infobae.com
2. Mirror, José Luis. Americo Vespucci, the man who gave its name to a continent. Obtained fromvanaguardia.com
3. Crespo Garay, Cristina. The travel letters of Américo Vespucio, the navigator who gives America its name. Obtained from nationalgeographic.es
4. Biography.com Editors. Amerigo Vespucci Biography. Retrieved from biography.com
5. Almagià, Roberto. Amerigo Vespucci. Retrieved from britannica.com
6. Szalay, Jessie. Amerigo Vespucci: Facts, Biography & Naming of America. Retrieved from livescience.com
7. History.com Editors. Amerigo Vespucci. Retrieved from history.com
8. Famous Explorers. Amerigo Vespucci - Italian Explorer. Retrieved from famous-explorers.com