Amerigo Vespucci (
March 9, 1454 –
February 22, 1512) was an Italian
explorer, navigator and
cartographer. The continent of
America is popularly believed to have derived its name from the
feminized Latin version of his
first name.
[1]Amerigo Vespucci was born and brought up by his uncle in the Republic of Florence in what is now Italy. Amerigo Vespucci was born in Montefioralle, a small village near Greve in Chianti, south of Florence.
Amerigo Vespucci worked for Lorenzo de' Medici and his son, Giovanni. In 1492 he was sent to work at the agency of Medici bank in Seville, Spain.
At the invitation of Spain Vespucci participated as observer in several voyages that explored the east coast of South America between 1499 and 1502. In 1500 that King's commander, Pedro Álvares Cabral, on his way to the Cape of Good Hope and India, had discovered Brazil at latitude 16°52'S. Portugal claimed this land by the Treaty of Tordesillas, and the King wished to know whether it was merely an island or part of the continent Spanish explorers had encountered farther north.
