Knowledge Hegemonies in the Early Modern World Sources and Interpretations

Collana | Knowledge Hegemonies in the Early Modern World
Volume 1 | Monografia | Amerigo Vespucci: The Historical Context of His Explorations and Scientific Contribution

Amerigo Vespucci: The Historical Context of His Explorations and Scientific Contribution

open access | peer reviewed
    a cura di
  • Pietro Daniel Omodeo - Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia - email orcid profile

Abstract

This book offers a new reconstruction of Amerigo Vespucci’s navigational and scientific endeavours in their historical context. The author argues that all of the manuscripts or texts that Vespucci left to posterity are reliable and true, except for several amendments imposed upon him for reasons linked to the political and economic interests of those who authorised him to undertake his journeys or which were the result of relationships with his companions. The earliest genuine documentation, which dates from the late fifteenth century or early sixteenth century, confirms this position. Fortunately, careful philological studies of Vespucci’s principal written works are available, while some of his original drawings, which confirm, clarify and enrich what he narrated in his letters, can be identified in Waldseemüller’s large map known as Universalis cosmographia (1507).

Keywords Textual criticism of Vespucci’s lettersAmerigo VespucciOrigin of the New World’s namePolitical background of early Renaissance navigatiColumbus versus Vespucci: their different achievemVespucci’s scientific legacy

Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-402-8 | e-ISBN 978-88-6969-402-8 | ISBN (PRINT) 978-88-6969-403-5 | Numero pagine 224 | Dimensioni 16x23cm | Pubblicato 03 Giugno 2020 | Accettato 15 Gennaio 2020 | Presentato 02 Dicembre 2019 | Lingua en