I think quite a few of us were pondering on where the word "America" could come from. I knew about the Amerigo Vespucci version, but I had no idea that this narrative was set in stone. Here is what we have for the official version:
I find it hard to believe that just like that, HUMONGOUS honors of having two continents named after him, were awarded to some semi-merchant individual. At the times, when other discoverers were paying respect to their Kings and Queens by naming tiny islands in their honor, this Americus Vesputius gets the entire New World named after him. It makes very little sense. A King of Spain, would probably execute a few people for such audacity and impudence.
Then we have Google Books Ngram Viewer telling us that the earliest pub is dated with 1609. Most are from the 18th century. Why not earlier than that. Here is a little cutout from that 1609 book.
KD: Anyways, if you have any thoughts on the etymology of the word "America" and the date of 1464 - please share.
- The name America was coined by Martin Waldseemüller from Americus Vespucius, the Latinized version of the name of Amerigo Vespucci (1454–1512), the Italian explorer who mapped South America's east coast and the Caribbean Sea in the early 16th century. Later, Vespucci's published letters were the basis of Waldseemüller's 1507 map, which is the first usage of America. The adjective American subsequently denoted the New World.
16th-century European usage of American denoted the native inhabitants of the New World. The earliest recorded use of this term in English is in Thomas Hacket's 1568 translation of André Thévet's book France Antarctique; Thévet himself had referred to the natives as Ameriques. In the following century, the term was extended to European settlers and their descendants in the Americas. The earliest recorded use of "English-American" dates to 1648, in Thomas Gage's The English-American his travail by sea and land: or, a new survey of the West India's.
- Amerigo Vespucci was educated by his uncle, Fra Giorgio Antonio Vespucci, a Dominican friar of the monastery of San Marco in Florence. While his elder brothers were sent to the University of Pisa to pursue scholarly careers, Amerigo Vespucci embraced a mercantile life, and was hired as a clerk by the Florentine commercial house of Medici, headed by Lorenzo de' Medici. Vespucci acquired the favor and protection of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, who became the head of the business after the elder Lorenzo's death in 1492. In March 1492, the Medici dispatched the thirty-eight-year-old Vespucci and Donato Niccolini as confidential agents to look into the Medici branch office in Cádiz (Spain), whose managers and dealings were under suspicion.
- In April 1495, by the intrigues of Bishop Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca, the Crown of Castile broke their monopoly deal with Christopher Columbus and began handing out licenses to other navigators for the West Indies. Just around this time (1495–96), Vespucci was engaged as the executor of Giannotto Berardi, an Italian merchant who had recently died in Seville. Vespucci organized the fulfillment of Berardi's outstanding contract with the Castilian crown to provide twelve vessels for the Indies. After these were delivered, Vespucci continued as a provision contractor for Indies expeditions, and is known to have secured beef supplies for at least one (if not two) of Columbus' voyages.
- What's the true meaning of this two words - Americus Vesputius? Is this even a name? My speculative guess would be that the New World was called America long before 1492. Essentially the old name remained, and this Amerigo Vespucci legend was born.
Then we have Google Books Ngram Viewer telling us that the earliest pub is dated with 1609. Most are from the 18th century. Why not earlier than that. Here is a little cutout from that 1609 book.
- Americus Vesputius inuenit terram occidentalem à fé appellatam Americam.
- Google Translated - Americu be found from the western land called America - a better translation, anyone?
- A. 5501m. 1469 eu. - what's that supposed to mean?
- Year 2020 = Anno Mundi 5781
- Year 1492 = Anno Mundi 5253
- Year 1469 = Anno Mundi 5230 - Vespucci
- Year 1464 = Anno Mundi 5225 - Columbus
- A. 5496 m. 1464 eu. - when Columbus traveled to West Indies, per the same book.
- Looks like it's important to figure out what A. # m., and eu. mean.
- As it stands, we have 271 years between A. # m . and AM. Why?
KD: Anyways, if you have any thoughts on the etymology of the word "America" and the date of 1464 - please share.
