Character Catalog

A Latin letter describing Vespucci's second voyage to Brazil, asserting for the first time that the lands discovered constituted a 'New World'. Translated into several languages and reprinted many times, it made Vespucci a celebrity across Europe.

A lengthy letter addressed to Piero Soderini, Gonfaloniere of Florence, describing four voyages to the New World. This foundational text established Vespucci's reputation as the discoverer of the American continent.

As Piloto Mayor, Vespucci was tasked with maintaining Spain's secret official map of all discovered lands. Though little known to the general public, this state cartographic work was a major contribution to the geography of the era.

Vespucci recorded unprecedented observations of constellations in the southern hemisphere, unknown to Europeans at the time. His measurements of the Southern Cross and other austral stars helped renew the field of celestial cartography.

The inhabitants of these regions have neither king nor lord, know nothing of obedience, and each lives as he pleases. They have no lands of their own, for all things are held in common.

I have concluded that these lands constitute a New World, for none of our ancestors had any knowledge of them, and what I have seen there surpasses everything they ever wrote.

We sailed along this coast for about two thousand leagues, always pressing onward in discovery, and never did we find a passage toward the Eastern Sea.

Since Americus Vespucius made its discovery, we see no reason why it could not be called Amerige — that is, the Land of Americus — or America.

Vespucci's birthplace and the intellectual and artistic heart of the Renaissance. It was here that he received his humanist education and forged his ties with the Medici family, connections that would shape his entire career.

The main departure port for expeditions to the New World, and the city where Vespucci settled from 1492 onward. He held the position of Piloto Mayor there until his death in 1512.

The regions explored by Vespucci during his voyages from 1499 to 1504. It was by sailing along thousands of kilometers of these coastlines that he realized these lands formed a continent distinct from Asia.

The town where cartographer Waldseemüller published in 1507 the map on which the name 'America' appeared for the very first time. This place symbolizes the posthumous recognition of Vespucci's role in mapping the world.

The easternmost point of northeastern Brazil, a landmark during the 1501 voyage. Vespucci conducted astronomical observations there that allowed him to estimate longitude with exceptional accuracy for the time.