Date Published:
March 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Amerigo Vespuci

Vespucci, Amerigo, or Americus Vespucius (1451-1512), an Italian navigator and astronomer, was born in Florence, Italy, on March 9, 1451, and died in Seville, Spain, on February 22, 1512. He made several voyages to the northern coast of South America and, in 1498, is said to have skirted the coast of North America from Florida to Chesapeake bay. He reached the mainland of America in 1497, eighteen days before John Cabot. A geographical work published by one Waldseemüller at Freiburg, Germany, comments at some length on the discoveries of Vespucci, and in his remarks the publisher says: "Now a fourth part [of the world] has been found by Amerigo or Americus." Thus it was that the new world came to be known as America. See The first four voyages of Amerigo Vespucci (London, 1893).

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. VI, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 398p., p. 237.