[MR] Wikipedia: Naming of America

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

Today marks the birthday of Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512), from whom the
geographical name "America" springs.

But, "Why?" you ask. Well Vespucci made two known voyages to *Mundus
Novus* ("New
World") as the new lands were first called, one beginning in 1499 for Spain
and one for Portugal that began in 1501. His role was mainly a commercial
agent for the two expeditions' backers. His rather garbled letters
describing the discoveries became a sensation in Europe. This led to two
small booklets written in Amerigo's name that became best sellers. There
are two additional voyages attributed to Amerigo, but these were probably
spurious, based on letters and other accounts that may have been forgeries.
In any case, Amerigo Vespucci became a super-star in the Age of Discovery.

In 1507 Ringmann and Waldseemüller published a work titled "Introduction to
Cosmology", with a detailed map of the world as it was known at that time.
It was this map which attached Amerigo's name to the new discoveries, and
it stuck.

As Firesign Theater once parodied, our continents might have just as easily
taken the name Vespucci, and we would be singing 🎶 "God bless Vespucciland
. . . ."

A brief bio of Amerigo Vespucci is at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerigo_Vespucci .

More about the naming controversy, including an image of the map, is at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naming_of_the_Americas .

Yours Aye,

Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆
Continuing a crusade to keep the original Merry Rose relevant and in
business.