Americ Vespvce (Amerigo Vespucci)

This small circa 1670 engraving depicts the explorer Amerigo Vespucci, here spelled "Americ Vespvce," shown in a contemplative pose looking down at a navigational chart. The image captures him in the role for which he became renowned"a navigator and cartographer whose voyages to the New World helped shape European understanding of the Americas. Born in Florence in 1454, Vespucci undertook several expeditions to the coasts of South America between 1499 and 1502, during which he recognized that these lands were part of a separate continent rather than the eastern reaches of Asia. His accounts, widely published in Europe, contributed to the decision to name the continents of the Western Hemisphere after him.