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VOYAGER PRESS BOOKS 1.888.656.2006
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For questions please e-mail us: info@voyager-press.comPhone toll-free 1-888-656-2006 Author: DAVIES, A. Title: The First Voyage of Amerigo Vespucci In 1497-8. Publisher: London: Royal Geographical Society, 1952. Item is in ORIGINAL Condition, With Blue Wrappers - As Issued, Complete with All the Ads!!! Notes: This is an exceptional report on the supposed first voyage of Amerigo Vespucci in 1497-8, accompanied by a sketch map for illustration. Excerpt from the text: "Two recent works by Robert Levillier have brilliantly vindicated the reputation of Vespucci and the authenticity of 'The four voyages,' which was challenged by Magnaghi twenty-five years ago. Levellier has however reasserted that Vespucci coasted the Gulf of Mexico in 1497-8 and rounded Florida to reach Virginia. This must be challenged. End excerpt. Amerigo Vespucci, 1454-1512, Italian navigator in whose honor America was named, was born in Florence. He entered the commercial service of the Medici and in 1492 moved to Seville. He accompanied Alonso de Ojeda in 1499, but by agreement the two separated shortly before land was sighted in the West Indies, and Vespucci alone explored the mouths of the Amazon. Subsequently he sailed along the northern shore of South America and among the islands. He returned to Spain in 1500, and in 1501 he entered Portuguese service to explore the southern coast of South America. Vespucci found the mouth of the Río de la Plata and probably went as far as lat. 50°S. He explored c.6,000 miles of coastline, but it is in the scientific application of his discoveries that his achievements are remarkable. He evolved a system for computing nearly exact longitude (previously determined by dead reckoning); he arrived at a figure for the earth's equatorial circumference only 50 miles short of the correct measurement. Vespucci accepted South America as a new continent, not part of Asia. Consequently cosmography was radically altered, and in 1507, with the publication of Martin Waldseemüller's Cosmographiae introductio, the name America first appeared as applied to the continent. His voyage completed in 1502, Vespucci returned to Spain, where in 1508 he was made pilot major, a high and prestigious position. He died of malaria contracted on his voyages. Vespucci's achievements were long belittled by scholars, but the conclusions of Alberto Magnaghi in the 1920s and 30s are now widely accepted, and the pilot major is given his due. Condition: 7 pages, including a sketch map. Original condition with blue wrappers, titles to front, and containing all the ads. This is a complete issue, seldom found in such good and original condition.
 
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