Amerigo Vespucci worked as a clerk and trade representative for the Medici family, one of the wealthiest and most powerful in Italy.
This date in 1454 marks the birth of Amerigo Vespucci, a seaman after whom America was named according to most interpretations. Vespucci was born in Florence at a time when that city was a leading center of the Renaissance. At that time the wealthy Medici family had the leading political role in the city. The Medicis were the patrons of many artists.
Amerigo Vespucci even worked for the Medici family, as a clerk and trade representative. He personally knew Christopher Columbus, who was also Italian. The two of them were almost the same age (Columbus was only around 2.5 years older). Unlike Columbus, who died not knowing he had discovered an entire continent, Vespucci became famous precisely for his theory that a new continent lay across the Atlantic Ocean. In a way, he “stole” Columbus’s fame because the continent was later named after him.
