Pictures and albums about Vespucci published in travel

Amerigo Vespucci (March 9, 1454 in Montefioralle - February 22, 1512) was an Italian merchant and cartographer who voyaged to and wrote about the Americas. His exploratory journeys along the eastern coastline of South America convinced him that a new continent had been discovered, a bold contention in his day when everyone, including Christopher Columbus, thought the seafaring trailblazers setting out from European docks were traveling to East Asia. It may have been the publication and widespread circulation of his letters that led Martin Waldseemüller to name the new continent America on his world map of 1507. Vespucci styled himself Americus Vespucius in his Latin writings, so Waldseemüller based the new name on the Latin form of Vespucci's first name, taking the feminine form America. Amerigo itself is an Italian form of Haimirich (in English, Henry). Vespucci's real importance for history may well not lie in his discoveries per se, but in his letters, whether or not he wrote them all himself. From these letters, the European public learned about America for the first time; its existence became generally known throughout Europe within a few years after their publication.