Amerigo Vespucci (Vespucci Amerigo)

(1451-1512), also known under the name Vespuchius Americus (Americus Vespucius)
Born in Florence on March 18, 1454 in the family notary. He studied at the University of Pisa. In 1478-1480 was secretary to his uncle Guido Antonio Vespucci, a Florentine ambassador in Paris. Since 1480 he served in the banking house of Medici in Florence. At the end of 1491 went to Seville as an Assistant Janette Berardi, representing the interests of the Medici family in the maritime trade.
In May 1499 Vespucci as a navigator in the expedition of Captain Alonso Ojeda made a trip to the north-east of South America. The expedition surveyed the coast of Brazil, the Orinoco Delta and the mouth of the Amazon. One of the vessels cast anchor in the Gulf of Paria, Columbus opened in 1498. Finding the island off the coast of Venezuela, the expedition in mid-June 1500 returned to Spain.

Places landings, routes and chronology of these two expeditions in the details are not known. Letter Vespucci Piero Francesco de 'Medici, dated 18 July 1500, and Letters (1504) from Piero Soderini contain conflicting information. However, the maps published in 1500-1502 are shown in the letters referred to shorelines.

The most significant was a journey Vespucci, undertaken on behalf of and at the expense of the Portuguese King Manuel I. The task of the expedition was to survey the Earth of the Holy Cross (Brazil), Pedro Cabral open and adopted them for the island, as well as finding the passage to the south. Flotilla under the command of Gonzalo Coelho, consisting of three ships set sail from Lisbon May 13, 1501. August 7 expedition landed on the northern coast of Brazil. Next court sailed along the coast to the east and then south, reaching a place where, according to Vespucci, 'Ursa Minor could not be seen as the Big Dipper was on the horizon'. This latitude is estimated equal to 25 б° 35 'S, located just south of the Tropic of Capricorn. Every day shore steeper turns south-south-west, and the court entered the waters under the jurisdiction of Spain. Perhaps on this occasion a meeting was convened, and, although some officers have been reminded to observe the Spanish-Portuguese Treaty of Tordesillas 1494, it was decided to continue swimming. NEWS flotilla tasked Vespucci, who had commanded until then, Coelho has not ordered to return.

In 1505, King Ferdinand granted Vespucci Castilian citizenship, and in 1508 appointed him chief helmsman Chamber of Commerce. In this position Vespucci took part in the preparation of a number of expeditions. Vespucci himself had intended to make another expedition to the New World to find the passage, which, in his opinion, existed at the southern tip of the continent.

Vespucci died in Seville on February 22, 1512.