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Amerigo Vespucci (1451–1512)
Vespucci, Amerigo, Latinized Americus Vespucius (ves-pö’chē). The celebrated Italian navigator, eponymous of the New World; born at Florence, March 9, 1451; died at Seville, Feb. 22, 1512. His ‘Letters’ (1502), giving an account of his voyages, especially of the voyage of 1501, were translated into Latin, Italian, French, and German, and were widely circulated. He wrote a diary called ‘The Four Journals,’ after his fourth voyage. The suggestion to name the newly discovered continent “America” was first offered by Martin Waldseemüller of St. Dié in Lorraine, in his work ‘Introduction to Cosmography’ (1507).