What was Amerigo Vespucci's mother's name?

Social Studies · College · Mon Jan 18 2021

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Amerigo Vespucci's mother was named Elisabetta Mini. She married his father, Nastagio Vespucci, and they lived in Florence, Italy, which was a major center of the Renaissance.

Amerigo Vespucci is a well-known historic figure for whom the Americas are named. He was born on March 9, 1454, into a prominent family in Florence. His father was a notary in the city, and his family had some connections to the powerful Medici family, who were major patrons of the arts and sciences during the Renaissance. Vespucci became an explorer and navigator and is particularly noted for his voyages to the New World. Through his letters and accounts, he suggested that the lands discovered by European navigators to the west of Europe were not part of Asia, as initially thought by Christopher Columbus, but a "New World." In 1507, Martin Waldseemüller, a German cartographer, used Vespucci’s accounts to create a map that showed these lands as a separate continent. On this map, he labeled the continent "America" in Vespucci’s honor, mistakenly thinking that Vespucci had been the first to suggest that these lands were a new continent. Vespucci's contributions to navigation were also significant; he was instrumental in developing methods that allowed navigators to more accurately determine longitude.

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