18 March 1454 Florence - †22 February 1512 Seville
Amerigo Vespucci was an Italian navigator, explorer and cartographer, first citizen of the Florentine Republic and subject of the Kingdom of Castile from 24 April 1505.
He was among the first explorers of the New World, so much so that he left his name to the continent.
America is named after his first name
During his travels he explored large parts of the east coast of South America. The German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller named the double continent America after him in 1507.
Vespucci's fundamental intuition was that he understood that the new lands did not constitute portions of the territory of Asia, but represented a "fourth part of the globe" independent and separate from the Asian continent. In fact, he noted, while making a trip to the service of Portugal in 1501, that the extension of the uncovered areas went up to the 50th degree of south latitude. From this remarkable size he understood that he was in the presence of a continent hitherto unknown. Third son of Anastasio or Nastagio Vespucci, a Florentine notary, and of Elisabetta or Lisa Mini, noblewoman of Montevarchi, was born on March 9, 1454, and was baptized on March 16, 1454, as evidenced by the baptismal certificate of S. Maria del Fiore; in 1489 he moved to Seville on behalf of the banker Lorenzo il Popolano. In Seville he met Christopher Columbus.
In 1499 he joined Alonso de Ojeda, who had been commissioned from Spain to explore, in a southerly direction, the coasts of the continent discovered by Columbus.
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