Amerigo Vespucci

Not much is known about his personal life other than the fact that he was married to a woman called Maria Cerezo.

He died of malaria on February 22, 1512 at his home in Seville, Spain. His body was buried at Vespucci family burial place in Florence, Italy.

Amerigo Vespucci was born on March 9, 1454, in Florence, Italy to Ser Nastagio (Anastasio), a Florentine notary, and Lisabetta Mini. He had two elder brothers.

He received his primary education from his paternal uncle, Fra Giorgio Antonio Vespucci, a Dominican friar of the monastery of San Marco.

His uncle Guido Antonio Vespucci was ambassador of Florence under King Louis XI of France, and he sent Amerigo on a brief diplomatic mission to Paris. This trip kindled a love for travelling and exploring in the young man.

Vespucci embarked on a mercantile career at his parents’ urging. He became a clerk at the Florentine commercial house of Medici, headed by Lorenzo de' Medici. As an employee he gained the favor of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici who became the head of the business in 1492.

Medici sent Vespucci to the Medici branch office in Cadiz, Spain in March 1492 to look into the operations as some of the managers in Cadiz were under suspicion of wrongdoings.

During the 1490s he also got the opportunity to meet Christopher Columbus after the latter returned from his voyage to America. This interaction further kindled Vespucci’s desire to travel around the world.

Vespucci heard that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain were willing to fund subsequent voyages by other explorers and he decided to approach them for an opportunity and was granted his wish.

Amerigo Vespucci is best known for his observation that the lands that constitute modern-day Brazil and West Indies were not a part of Asia as initially believed, but an entirely different continent hitherto unknown to Europeans. The new continent was eventually named “America”, derived from the Latin version of Vespucci's first name, Americus.