Amerigo Vespucci (Illustrated Edition) (Dodo Press)

Amerigo Vespucci (1454 -1512) was an Italian merchant, explorer and cartographer. He played a senior role in two voyages which explored the east coast of South America between 1499 and 1502. On the second of these voyages he discovered that South America extended much further south than previously known by Europeans. This convinced him that this land was part of a new continent, a bold contention at a time when other European explorers crossing the Atlantic Ocean thought they were reaching Asia. Vespucci's voyages became widely known in Europe after two accounts attributed to him were published between 1502 and 1504. In 1507, Martin Waldseemller produced a world map on which he named the new continent "America" after Vespucci's first name, Amerigo. Frederick Albion Ober (1849-1913) was an American author, travel writer, biographer and historian.