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<div style="border:1px solid; background-color:#ffdead;"> <div style="background-color:#000000; font color:#ffffff; margin-right:40px; margin-left:40px; line-height:1.5;"> <font color="#ffffff"> <big> For anyone wondering when I'll turn this page into something deserving the title "Wikipedia User Page", the answer is when I get the time. </big> </font> </div>
{{Otheruses4|the person|the ship|Amerigo Vespucci (ship)}}
'''Amerigo Vespucci''' ([[March 9]], [[1454]] - [[February 22]], [[1512]]) was an [[Italy|Italian]] merchant, explorer and [[cartography|cartographer]]. He played a senior role in two voyages which explored the east coast of [[South America]] between [[1499]] and [[1502]]. On the second of these voyages he discovered that South America extended much further south than previously known by [[Europe]]ans. This convinced him that this land was part of a new [[continent]], a bold contention at a time when other European explorers crossing the [[Atlantic Ocean]] thought they were reaching [[Asia]].
[[Image:Amerigo Vespucci01.jpg|thumb|180px|Statue at the [[Uffizi]], Florence]]
<div style="background-color:#ffa500; margin-right:60px; margin-left:60px; margin-top:20px;"> <font color="blue"> <center> <big> [[Special:Contributions/E%3DMC%5E2|My Contributions]] – [[User talk:E=MC^2|My talk]] – [[Special:Emailuser/E%3DMC%5E2|E-mail me]] – [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:E%3DMC%5E2&action=edit§ion=new Leave me a message] – [http://kohl.wikimedia.org/~kate/cgi-bin/count_edits.cgi?user=E%3DMC%5E2&dbname=enwiki My total number of edits]
Vespucci's voyages became widely known in Europe after two accounts attributed to him were published between 1502 and [[1504]].<ref name=formisano>Formisano, Luciano (Ed.) (1992). ''Letters from a New World: Amerigo Vespucci's Discovery of America''. New York: Marsilio. ISBN 0-941419-62-2. Pp. xix-xxvi.</ref> In [[1507]], [[Martin Waldseemüller]] produced a world map on which he named the new continent "[[Americas|America]]" after Vespucci's first name, Amerigo. In an accompanying book, Waldseemüller published one of the Vespucci accounts, which led to criticisms of Vespucci as trying to usurp [[Christopher Columbus]]'s glory. However, the rediscovery in the 18th century of other letters by Vespucci has led to the view that the early published accounts were fabrications, not by Vespucci, but by others.
Current Projects I am involved with:
<font color="blue"> <center> <big> [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Judaism|WikiProject Judaism]] – [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Stub Sorting|WikiProject Stub Sorting]]
== Life ==
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Vespucci was born in [[Florence]], [[Italy]], as the third child of a respected family. His father was a notary for the Money Changers' Guild of Florence. Amerigo Vespucci worked for [[Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici]] and his brother Giovanni and in [[1491]] they sent him to work at their agency in [[Seville]], [[Spain]].
In [[1508]], after at least two voyages to the Americas, the position of pilot major (chief of navigation) of Spain was created for Vespucci, with the responsibility of training pilots for ocean voyages. He died in Seville, Spain in [[1512]]
<div style="margin-right:5px;"> {{wstress3d|1|235|<big> <center> My current stress level </center> </big>}} </div>
== Letters ==
Two letters attributed to Vespucci were published during his lifetime. ''Mundus Novus'' ("New World") was a Latin translation of a lost Italian letter sent from [[Lisbon]] to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici. It describes a voyage to South America in 1501-1502. ''Mundus Novus'' was published in late 1502 or early 1503 and soon reprinted and distributed in numerous European countries.<ref name=formisano/>
<Hello. I am user [[wikibooks:User:E=MC^2|E=MC^2]] on [[wikibooks:Main Page|Wikibooks]] , and [[m:User:E=MC^2|E=MC^2]] on [[m:Main Page|meta]]. <s> I have decided to quit before I get into any major conflicts and end my involvement with Wikipedia. </s> I can't bring myself to leave forever, I'm too addicted!
==Wiki-Philosophies==
''Lettera di Amerigo Vespucci delle isole nuovamente trovate in quattro suoi viaggi'' ("Letter of Amerigo Vespucci concerning the isles newly discovered on his four voyages"), known as ''Lettera al Soderini'' or just ''Lettera'', was a letter in Italian addressed to [[Piero Soderini]]. Printed in 1504 or 1505, it claimed to be an account of four voyages to the Americas made by Vespucci between 1497 and 1504. A Latin translation was published by the German [[Martin Waldseemüller]] in 1507 in ''[[Cosmographiae Introductio]]'', a book on [[cosmography]] and [[geography]], as ''Quattuor Americi Vespuccij navigationes'' ("Four Voyages of Amerigo Vespucci").<ref name=formisano/>
*I am an [[inclusionist]]. Every book by an important author and all books considered important deserve their own [[Wikipedia]] article. Would you like it if someone grouped you up with others, not giving you individual attention or ignored you like [[m:mergist|mergists]] or [[m:deletionists|deletionists]] want to do?
*I believe that [[WP:RFA|admin status]] is fine just the way it is. We do not need stricter or more lenient criteria at this time. (However, with more and more users becoming long term contributors, we may need more stringent rules.)
==Existence is…==
In the 18th century three unpublished "familiar" letters from Vespucci to Lorenzo de' Medici were rediscovered. One describes a voyage made in 1499-1500 which corresponds with the second of the "four voyages". Another was written from [[Cap-Vert|Cape Verde]] in 1501 in the early part of the third of the "four voyages", before crossing the Atlantic. The third letter was sent from Lisbon after the completion of that voyage.<ref name=formisano/>
*[[The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything]]:
*"6 by 9."
*"42."
*"That's it. That's all there is."
==Things to do==
Some have suggested that Vespucci, in the two letters published in his lifetime, was exaggerating his role and constructed deliberate fabrications. However, many scholars now believe that the two letters were not written by him but were fabrications by others based in part on genuine letters by Vespucci.
*Expand:
**[[Exodus (novel)|Exodus]]
It was the publication and widespread circulation of the letters that led [[Martin Waldseemüller]] to name the new continent [[Americas|America]] on his world map of [[1507]] in [[Lorraine (province)|Lorraine]]. Vespucci used a [[Latinisation|latinised]] form of his name, ''Americus Vespucius'', in his [[Latin]] writings, which Waldseemüller used as a base for the new name, taking the feminine form ''America''. (See also [[Americas#Naming of America|Naming of America]].) ''Amerigo'' itself is an [[Italian language|Italian]] form of the medieval Latin ''Emericus'' (see also [[Emeric of Hungary (saint)|Saint Emeric of Hungary]]), which through the [[German language|German]] form [[Heinrich]] (in [[English language|English]], [[Henry]]) derived from the [[Germanic languages|Germanic]] name ''[[Haimirich]]''.
*Create:
**[[My name is Asher Lev]]
The two disputed letters claim that Vespucci made four voyages to America, while at most two can be verified from other sources. It is now generally accepted by historians that no voyage was made in [[1497]]. Little is known of his last voyage in [[1503]]–[[1504]] or even whether it actually took place.
**[[In the Beginning (book)|In the Beginning]]
**[[The Promise]]
Vespucci's real historical importance may well be more in his letters, whether he wrote them all or not, than in his discoveries. From these letters, the European public learned about the newly discovered continent of the Americas for the first time; its existence became generally known throughout Europe within a few years of the letters' publication.
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== Voyages ==
In about [[1499]]–[[1500]], Vespucci joined an expedition in the service of [[Spain]] with [[Alonso de Ojeda]] (or Hojeda) as the fleet commander. The intention was to sail around the southern end of the African mainland into the [[Indian Ocean]].<ref name=OGorman>{{cite book | last = O'Gorman | first = Edmundo | authorlink = Edmundo O'Gorman | title = The Invention of America | publisher = Indiana University Press | date = 1961 | pages = p. 106-107}}</ref> After hitting land at the coast of what is now [[Guyana]], the two seem to have separated. Vespucci sailed southward, discovering the mouth of the [[Amazon River]] and reaching 6°S, before turning around and seeing [[Trinidad]] and the [[Orinoco River]] and returning to Spain by way of [[Hispaniola]]. Vespucci claimed, in a letter to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, that he determined his longitude celestially on August 23, 1499, while on this voyage. But his claim is clearly fraudulent, which casts more doubt on Vespucci's credibility.
His last certain voyage was one led by [[Gonçalo Coelho]] in [[1501]]–[[1502]] in the service of [[Portugal]]. Departing from [[Lisbon]], the fleet sailed first to [[Cap-Vert|Cape Verde]] where they met two of [[Pedro Álvares Cabral]]'s ships returning from [[India]]. In a letter from Cape Verde, Vespucci says that he hopes to visit the same lands that Álvares Cabral had explored, suggesting that the intention is to sail west to Asia, as on the 1499-1500 voyage.<ref name=OGorman/> On reaching the coast of [[Brazil]], they sailed south along the coast of [[South America]] to [[Rio de Janeiro]]'s bay. If his own account is to be believed, he reached the latitude of [[Patagonia]] before turning back; although this also seems doubtful, since his account does not mention the broad estuary of the [[Río de la Plata]], which he must have seen if he had gotten that far south. Portuguese maps of South America following the voyage of Coelho and Vespucci do not show any land south of present-day [[Cananéia]] at 25º S, so this may represent the southernmost extent of their voyages. During the first half of this expedition in [[1501]], Vespucci mapped the two [[star]]s, [[Alpha Centauri]] and [[Beta Centauri]] as well as the stars of the [[constellation]] [[Crux]]. Although these stars were known to the ancient [[Greece|Greeks]], gradual [[precession]] had lowered them below the [[Europe]]an skyline so that they were forgotten.<ref>Dinwiddie, Robert (2005). ''[[Universe (book)|Universe: The Definitive Visual Dictionary]]''. DK Adult Publishing, p. 396.</ref>
On return to Lisbon, Vespucci wrote in a letter to de' Medici that the land masses they explored were much larger than anticipated and unlike the Asia described by earlier Europeans and, therefore, must be a New World, that is, a previously unknown fourth continent, after Europe, Asia, and Africa.
==See also==
[[Americas#Naming of America|Naming of America]]
==Footnotes==
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<references />
</div>
==References and further reading==
* Canaday, James A. ''[http://www.millersville.edu/~columbus/papers/canaday.html The Life of Amerigo Vespucci]''.
* Fernández-Armesto, Felipe. ''Amerigo: the Man Who Gave His Name to America''. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006 (hardcover, ISBN 0-297-84802-X).
** [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2006/10/29/bofer22.xml Reviewed] by David Horspool in [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ ''The Telegraph''], October 29, 2006.
==External links==
* [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1497vespucci%2Damerica.html Account of 'The First Voyage', 1497: Letter of Amerigo Vespucci To Pier Soderini - Fordham University (U.S.) Internet Modern History Sourcebook]
* {{gutenberg|no=19997|name=Amerigo Vespucci by Frederick A. Ober}}
[[Category:Italian explorers|Vespucci, Amerigo]]
[[Category:Italian cartographers|Vespucci, Amerigo]]
[[Category:Natives of Florence|Vespucci, Amerigo]]
[[Category:1454 births|Vespucci, Amerigo]]
[[Category:1512 deaths|Vespucci, Amerigo]]
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[[uk:Веспуччі Амеріго]]
[[zh:阿美利哥·维斯普西]]
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