www.newadvent.org Open in urlscan Pro
2400:52e0:1e00::1079:1  Public Scan

Form analysis
1 forms found in the DOM

../utility/search.htm

<form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">
  <!-- Hidden Inputs -->
  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active">
  <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0">
  <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9">
  <!-- Search Box -->
  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label>
  <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel">
  <!-- Submit Button -->
  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label>
  <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel">
</form>

Text Content

 

Search: Submit Search



 Home   Encyclopedia   Summa   Fathers   Bible   Library 

 A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z 


Home > Catholic Encyclopedia > V > Amerigo Vespucci


AMERIGO VESPUCCI

Please help support the mission of New Advent and get the full contents of this
website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church
Fathers, Summa, Bible and more — all for only $19.99...

A famous Italian navigator, born at Florence, 9 March, 1451; died at Seville, 22
February, 1512. He was the third son of Ser Nastagio, a notary of Florence, son
of Amerigo Vespucci. His mother was Lisabetta, daughter of Ser Giovanni, son of
Ser Andrea Mini; her mother was Maria, daughter of Simone, son of Francesco di
Filicaia.

The date of Vespucci's birth, formerly much discussed, is now definitively
established by the books of the Ufficio delle Tratte, preserved in the Reale
Archivio di Stato of Florence, where the following passage is found: "Amerigo,
son of Ser Nastagio, son of Ser Amerigo Vespucci, on the IX day of March
MCCCCLI" (1451, common style). The mother of Amerigo's father was Nanna,
daughter of Mestro Michele, of the Onesti of Pescia, and sister of Mestro
Michele, the father of Nicolè and of Francesco, who resided in the magistrato
supremo of the Priors in the Republic of Florence.

Vespucci received his first instruction from his uncle Giorgio Antonio, a
Platonic philosopher who was a teacher of the greater part of the Florentine
nobility. Amerigo cultivated the study of literature, including that of the
Latin language, as is shown by a small autograph codex in the Biblioteca
Ricardiana of Florence, entitled "Dettati da mettere in latino" at the end of
which there is written the following: "This booklet was written by Amerigo Se
Anastagio Vespucci." He also wrote a letter in Latin to his father, dated 19
October, 1476, in which he gives an account of his studies. Possibly Vespucci
had relations with Toscanelli, who, as is known, died in 1482, two years after
Amerigo left for Spain. Thereafter, Amerigo devoted himself to the study of
physics, geometry, astronomy, and cosmography, in which sciences he made rapid
progress.



After the death of his father, which occurred about the year 1483, Amerigo,
perhaps on account of the unfortunate circumstances of his family, became
steward in the house of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, with various
charges that were multiplied in proportion as he acquired the confidence and the
affection of the sons of Pierfrancesco, of whose rural and commercial interests
he became superintendent, as appears from numerous letters written to him, which
have recently been published. From 1478 to 1480 he was attached to the embassy
at Paris, under his relative Guido Antonio Vespucci, ambassador of Florence to
Louis XI of France. Accordingly, he wrote many reports to the Signoria, which
are preserved in the Archivio di Stato at Florence. The sojourn of Vespucci at
Paris, and that of Duke Rene of Lorraine at Florence, earlier, explain why
Vespucci should have sent to Duke Rene a copy, in Latin, of the letter of the
four voyages, written in Italian to the gondolfiere perpetuo Piero Soderini, and
why one of the earliest editions of Vespucci's voyages (the third) should have
been made at Paris in 1504. The offices that Vespucci held from the younger
branch of the house of Medici explain why the former, between November of 1491
and February of 1492, joined, at Seville, Giannetto di Lorenzo Berardo Berardi,
chief of a house, established at that city, which had close financial relations
with the younger branch of the Medici, that is, with Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco
and his son. Through his intelligence, he became one of the chief agents of that
firm, which, later, had a leading part in fitting out the oceanic expeditions
that led to the discovery of the New World.

The successful voyages of Christopher Columbus increased Vespucci's desire to
take a part in the general European movement to seek a western passage to the
Indies. Having obtained three ships from Ferdinand, King of Castille, Vespucci
was able to undertake his first voyage. Accordingly, he set sail from Cadiz on
10 May, 1497, sailing toward the Fortunate Islands, and then laying his course
towards the west. After twenty-seven or thirty-seven days, on 6 or 10 April, he
touched the mainland (Guiana or Brazil?), and was well received by the
inhabitants. In this first voyage he may have entered the Gulf of Mexico and
coasted along a great portion of the United States, as far as the Gulf of St.
Lawrence. Then he returned to Spain, and landed at Cadiz on 15 October, 1498.
There is no other relation of this first voyage than that contained in the first
letter of Amerigo Vespucci concerning the islands newly found in his four
voyages, addressed to Piero Soderini, Gonfaloniere of Florence.

On 16 May, 1499, Vespucci sailed from Cadiz on his second voyage, with Alonzo de
Ojeda and Juan de la Cosa. He directed his course to Cape Verde, crossed the
Equator, and saw land, on the coast of Brazil, at 4° or 5° S., possibly near
Aracati. From there, he coasted along the Guianas and the continent, from the
Gulf of Paria to Maracaibo and Cape de la Vela; he discovered Cape St. Augustine
and the River Amazon, and made notable observations of the sea currents, of the
Southern Cross and other southern constellations. He returned to Spain in
September, 1500. There two expeditions were undertaken in the service of Spain;
the third and the fourth, in that of Portugal. In consequence of the long
fatigues of his second voyage, Vespucci was taken ill of the quartan ague. When
his health was re-established, he wrote an account of his voyage to Lorenzo di
Pierfrancesco de' Medici.

On 14 May, 1501, he sailed from Lisbon to Cape Verde, and thence westward,
until, on 1 January, 1502, he came to a gulf at 13° S., to which he gave the
name of Bahia de Todos Santos, and upon the shores of which the city of Bahia
now stands. From there he coasted along South America, as far as the Plata. On
his return, he discovered the island of South Georgia, at 54° S., and 1200 miles
east of Tierra del Fuego. He arrived at Lisbon on 7 September, 1502. On his
fourth voyage, he sailed with Gonzal Coelho from Lisbon, on 10 June, 1503,
touched land at the Cape Verde Islands, and bent his course towards the Bay of
All Saints. At Cape Frio, having found great quantities of brazil-wood, he
established an agency, exactly on the Tropic of Capricorn. Thereafter, he
coasted along the continent, nearly to the Rio de la Plata, and then returned to
Lisbon, where he arrived on 18 June, 1504. Vespucci made a fifth voyage with
Juan de la Cosa, between May and December, 1505; they visited the Gulf of
Darien, and sailed 200 miles up the Atrato River. During that voyage, they
collected gold and pearls, and received information of there being a great
abundance of those substances in that region. This voyage was repeated by the
two navigators in 1507. Of these two expeditions, however, there is no special
account by Vespucci. It should be added that, in 1506, Vespucci was busy in
Spain, fitting out the expedition of Pinzón, which was abandoned in March, 1507.

The facts regarding the voyages of Vespucci are accepted as given in the above
narrative by the majority of the authoritative biographers of that navigator;
but the inexactness of the printed texts, the difficulty of identifying the
names of places, used by Vespucci, with the modern ones, and the error of
attributing sincerity to all assertions contained in official documents,
especially in those relating to legal proceedings, have given rise to enormous
confusion in all that relates to the voyages of Amerigo Vespucci, of which the
chief base for future criticism will be the investigation of the apocryphal
codices of the narratives of the voyages of Vespucci, written at the time when
the authentic ones appeared. Vespucci was certainly held in high esteem in
Spain, where he established himself after his voyages in the service of
Portugal. In 1505, by a royal decree of 14 April of that year, he had received
Spanish naturalization, and a decree of 6 August, 1508, named him piloto mayor
de España, a title corresponding to the modern one of head of the admiralty, and
which was borne by Vespucci until his death.



Amerigo Vespucci married Maria Cerezo, apparently in 1505. The only precise
information concerning her is furnished by the royal decree of 28 March, 1512,
according her a pension, on account of the satisfaction given by her husband as
piloto mayor, which pension was confirmed by the decree of 16 November, 1523. On
the other hand, a decree of 26 December, 1524, grants the remainder of her
pension to her sister Catalina Cerezo; which proves that Maria died between the
two latter dates, and that she left no children. With Amerigo Vespucci, however,
was the son of his brother Antonio, Giovanni, who was born on 6 March, 1486, and
who was named piloto mayor in 1512, upon the death of his predecessor and uncle,
Amerigo. For information concerning him, see Harrisse, "The Discovery of North
America" (1892), 744-5.

It is impossible to determine, here, the place of Amerigo Vespucci in the
history of the discovery of the New World, in relation to those of Christopher
Columbus, of Sebastian Cabot, and of the brothers Pinzón. First it is necessary
to distinguish between the geographical, and the social, discovery of America.
The former is due to the Icelanders, who established, on the eastern coast of
Greenland, a colony that was maintained from the tenth to the fifteenth century,
of the history of which a very good compendium is given by Fischer in "The
Discoveries of the Norsemen in America" (London, 1902); in connection with this
work there should be consulted the collection of documents concerning the
relations of the Church of Rome with Greenland during these centuries, published
by order of Leo XIII.

The discovery of America was due to the failure of the crusade against the Turks
which was attempted by Pius II, and the success of which was frustrated by the
rivalry and corruption of the states of Europe at that time. Europe then felt
the necessity of going to the East by another way, of seeking the East by way of
the West, a motto that became the flag of the navigators of that age. Paolo
Toscanelli, whose sincerity of religious sentiment was not less than his great
merit of scientific attainment (see the present writer's work on Toscanelli, I,
1894, in the "Raccolta Colombiana", part V), foresaw, before Portugal foresaw
it, that the time had come for that country to take the place of Italy as the
intermediary of the commerce between Europe and Asia, and therefore, as the
starting-point of navigators and adventurers, seduced by the desire of being the
executors of the great emprise. Columbus was the first to reach land to the west
— one of the islands of the Bahamas — on 12 October, 1492, convinced that he had
reached one of the islands of eastern Asia. He was followed by Vespucci, Cabot,
and many others, each proposing to himself to reach the land of spices, that is,
India.

We may not, here, enter into the very intricate question of which, of the three
navigators named, was the first to tread the mainland of the New World. For
that, it would be necessary to have before us the correct texts of all the
fundamental documents concerning those navigators. As regards Columbus, the
"Raccolta Colombiana", published by the Italian Government on the occasion of
the fourth centenary of the discovery of America, is an exhaustive document.
Very important, for all the history of the discovery of America, are the
collection of Navarrete, the books and documents published by Harrisse, the
Duchess of Alba, and many others. But as regards Vespucci, there are, at
Florence, the apocryphal synchronous copies of all the accounts of his voyages,
except the text that was used for the publication of the "Mundus novus", of
which accounts, as will be seen further on, a correct edition is lacking.

The first editions of the documents relating to the voyages of Vespucci may be
classified as follows:

 * A. Parisian text
    * A. "Mundus novus" (third voyage), 1st ed., 1503 or 1504.

 * B. Florentine texts
    * Ba. Letter of the four voyages in the years 1497-98, 1499-1500, 1501-2,
      1503-4; 1st ed., 1507
    * Bb. Letter published by Baldini in 1745, relating to the second voyage
    * Bc. Letter published by Bartolozzi in 1789, relating to the third voyage
    * Bd. Letter published by Baldelli Boni in 1827, relating to the third
      voyage.

 * C. Venetian texts:
    * Ca. Letter of Girolamo Vianello to the Signoria of Venice, dated 23
      December, 1506, relating to a fifth voyage, published for the first time
      by Humboldt, in 1839.
    * Cb. Letter of Francesco Corner to the Signoria of Venice, dated 19 June,
      1508, relating to a sixth voyage, published for the first time by
      Harrisee, in 1892.

The principal question turns, at once, upon the authenticity of the voyage and
upon that of the publications A, Ba, Bb, Bc, Bd, Ca, and Cb. In general, a very
erroneous confusion is made between two points: nearly every one admits the
authenticity of the publications A and Ba, but many reject the authenticity of
the first voyage, made by Vespucci in the years 1497 and 1498, and described in
the publication Ba. Some, as Varuhagen and others, deny the authenticity of the
texts Bb, Bc, and Bd, while others hold the contrary opinion with regard to one
or another, or to all three, of these texts. Nearly all regard as inadmissible
the fifth and the sixth voyages, narrated in the texts Ca and Cb.

For the various editions of the "Mundus novus", the publication of Sarnow and of
Trubenbach is exhaustive, but there is no critical edition of any of the other
texts, which were printed with many errors; while, as has been said, the
apocryphal, though contemporary, texts of all of them are preserved at Florence.
The present writer proposed the preparation of a critical edition of this kind,
and the proposition was approved by three National Geographical Congresses of
Italy, held at Florence (1898), at Milan (1901), and at Naples (1904),
respectively, and by the International Congress of Americanists, held at
Stuttgart, in August, 1904. Recently, a commission has been created at Florence,
for the execution of that purpose, under the presidency of the Marchese Filippo
Corsini, president of the Society of Geographical and Colonial Study resident at
Florence; of this commission, Professor Attilo Mori, of the Military
Geographical Institute, and the writer of this article are members. Until the
publication in question appears, it will be useless to discuss the genuineness
of the voyages of Vespucci, basing such discussion upon the incorrect texts that
are now available--exception being made of the "Mundus novus", cited above.
Those seeking further details in regard to these codices may consult Harrisse,
"Biblioteca americana vetustissima" (1868), and "Additions" (1872). All the
works of that author, whether bibliographical or historical, are the basis for
any work on the discovery of America.

It is well known today that Vespucci was in no way responsible for the fact that
his name, and not that of Columbus, was given to the New World, and therefore,
that he certainly does not deserve the charge of theft that has been made
against him by many; among them, the famous American publicist, Emerson, who was
led into error by partisan writers. On the other hand, the affectionate
correspondence between the two great navigators would suffice to disprove all
unworthy accusations. The charge received some support from the efforts of a
considerable portion of the clergy, throughout the world, to obtain the
canonization of Columbus, which, however, was unsuccessful, when the merits of
the case were examined, by order of Leo XIII, on the occasion of the fourth
centenary of the discovery of America. At that time, the general outcry against
Amerigo Vespucci was so great that the famous American statesman Blaine, upon
the occasion of the exposition at Chicago, published a book under the title of
"Columbus and Columbia," in order that it might not be contaminated by the
unholy name of Vespucci.

It may be remarked that, at the time of the discovery of America, as is now
clearly proven, the narratives of the voyages of Vespucci were more widely
disseminated, by far, than were those of the voyages of Columbus, and that
Florence was the chief centre for the diffusion of news on the discovery of the
New World. To the close relations that existed between Gianfrancesco Pico, Duke
della Mirandola, and Florence, and between Gian Francesco and the learned
German, Matthew Ringmann, who, in 1504, edited one of the most important
editions of the "Mundus novus", under the title of "De ora antartica per regem
Portugalliae pridem inventa", and to the close relations between Ringmann and
the geographer Martin Waldseemüller (Hylacomilus), is due the fact that when, in
1507, Waldseemuller published the celebrated work "Cosmographiae introductio",
at Saint-Dié, in Lorraine, he gave the name of America to the New World, arguing
that, since the three continents then known, Europe, Asia, and Africa, had names
of women, it was proper to give the newly-discovered continent also the name of
a woman, taking it from the baptismal name of the discoverer of the new
continent, Vespucci.

Many attempts were made to name the New World Columbia, as justice seemed to
demand, but all such efforts failed. The writer has tried to clear up these
points and to prove the honesty of Vespucci; and his efforts have received the
approbation of the Numismatic and Archaeological Society of New York; for, the
latter, having resolved to strike, each year, a medal commemorative of some
benefactor of America, decided that the first of these medals should be coined
in honour of Amerigo Vespucci, and requested the writer to proposed the best
portrait of the great navigator for reproduction. The Society accepted the
writer's suggestion and gave the preference to the portrait of the Galleria
degli Uffizi of Florence, which is generally considered to be the most genuine,
but thought that they should take into account the great map of Waldseemuller,
of 1507, on which there is a portrait of Amerigo Vespucci; and therefore, the
medal was struck with the two portraits, one on either side.




SOURCES

In the following bibliography, we have deemed it useless to cite the general
works upon America, and upon its discovery, which, although not concerning
Vespucci specially, refer to him, as are those of ASENSIO, FISKE, GAFFAREL,
HERRERA, HUGUES, HUMBOLDT, IRVING, PAYNE, ROBERTSON, ROSELLY DE LORGUES,
TIRABOSCHI, WINDSOR, etc., for which the reader is referred to the articles
AMERICA and COLUMBUS; we have, on the contrary, limited our citations to the
works that have brought new facts to light, and are not, therefore, expositions
of the opinions of their authors. For the bibliography of the various editions
of the voyages of Vespucci and of the authors who wrote concerning them between
the years 1492 and 1551, see HARRISSE, Biblioteca americana veiustissima (New
York, 1866); IDEM, Additions (Paris, 1872); and for the same, but, to the
present day, see FUMAGALLI, Bibliographia di Amerigo Vespucci in BANDINI, Vita
di Amerigo Vespucci illustrata e commentata da Gustavo Uzielli (Florence, 1898),
104-28. Some may find it strange that certain authors are not cited, as, for
example, Hugues, who has written numerous very learned works on Vespucci,
totally devoid, however, of criticism; they are all cited in the Bibliografia of
Fumagalli. Hugues and Varnhagen regard as apocryphal some narratives of voyages
of Vespucci that are regarded by other writers as being the most authentic; and
they base this view on the fact that the narratives in question were published
two or three centuries after the death of Vespucci. By that reasoning, one
should declare the commentary of Pietro Alighieri on the "Divine Comedy" to be
apocryphal, for it was published five centuries after Dante's death. Hugues and
Berchet, however, in accordance with that reasoning, have omitted some of the
accounts of the voyages of Vespucci, contained in the "Raccolta Colombiana",
part V, vol. II, and, like all students of Vespucci, except Sarnow and
Trubenbach, they have entirely omitted any critical study of the texts of the
narratives, accepting the current publications as they stand, without taking
heed to compare them with the codices. RAMUSIO, Navigationi et viaggi, I
(Venice, 1550-59); BANDINI, Vita e letters di Amerigo Vespucci (Florence, 1745);
BARTOLOZZI, Ricerche istorico-critiche circa alle scoperte di Amerigo Vespucci
(Florence, 1789); CANOVAI, Viaggi d'Amerigo Vespucci (Florence, 1817);
BALDELLI-BONI, Il milione, I (Florence, 1827), p. liii-lix; NAVARRETE, Coleccion
de los viages y descubrimientos, III (Madrid, 1825-37); HUMBOLDT, Examen
critique de l'histoire du nouveau continent, XI (Paris, 1836-39), 157; SANTAREM,
Recherches sur Americ Vespuce et ses voyages (Paris, 1842); AVEZAC, Les voyaes
d'Americ Vespuce au compte de l'Espagne in Bulletin de la societe de geographie
de Paris (1858); VARNHAGEN, Amerigo Vespucci, Son caractere, ses ecrits (meme
les moins authentiques), sa vie et ses navigations (Lima, 1865); HARRISSE,
Bibliotheca americana vetustissima. Additions (Paris, 1872), p. xxviii; IDEM,
The Discovery of North America (London, 1892); TOSCANELLI, Notes et documents
concernant les rapports entre l'Italie et l'Amerique (Florence, 1893); MARKHAM,
Vespucci. The Letters and other Documents illustrative of his Career (London,
1894); HARRISSE, Americus Vespuccius (London, 1895); THATCHER, The Continent of
America: its Discovery and its Baptism (New York, 1896); UZIELLI, Amerigo
Vespucci davanti la critica storica in Atti del Congresso Geografico Italiano
(Florence, 1898); BANDINI, Vita di Amerigo Vespucci, illustrata e commentata da
Gustavo Uzielli (Florence, 1898); MASETTI BENCINI AND HOWARD SMITH, La vita di
Amerigo Vespucci in Firenze (Florence, 1903); SARNOW AND TRUBENBACH, Mundus
novus (Strasburg, 1903); FISCHER AND WIESER, The oldest Map with the name of
America of the year 1507 and the Carta Marina of the year 1516 by M.
Waldseemuller (Ilacomilus) (Innsbruck, 1903); Proceedings and Papers of the
American Numismatic and Archaeological Society of New York City, 46th annual
meeting (1904), 8-15.


ABOUT THIS PAGE

APA citation. Uzielli, G. (1912). Amerigo Vespucci. In The Catholic
Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15384b.htm

MLA citation. Uzielli, Gustavo. "Amerigo Vespucci." The Catholic Encyclopedia.
Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912.
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15384b.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by Thomas M. Barrett.
Dedicated to the memory of Amerigo Vespucci.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.

Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address
is webmaster at newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I
greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical
errors and inappropriate ads.

Copyright © 2023 by New Advent LLC. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

CONTACT US | ADVERTISE WITH NEW ADVENT