General Summary

Vespucius’ letters to Soderini (the Chief Magistrate of Florence) were first published at Florence in 1505-6.

Americus Vespucius claimed to have made four voyages to America, the first in May, 1497, and the next three at intervals of two years. In reporting his first expedition he writes that they touched a coast "which we thought to be that of the continent. And he was the first to use the term "The New World." It was in a letter to Lorenzo de Medici, dated 1503, but there is nothing in any of his letters to indicate that he ever presumed to give his name to the land discovered by Columbus. The linking of his name with the newly discovered continent seemed to have been nothing more than an accident which occurred in this way.

In 1507 a German schoolmaster, Waltzee-Muller (Hylaco-Mylus or "Miller of the wood-pond") published a book on the new discoveries. It was a compilation made from the narratives of Vespucius.

The brief reference in which the name America first appeared is given on this page, and was issued at St. Die in Alsace. The name was taken up by successive map-makers until it was finally applied to both continents. The first book in English in which the name appears (it was printed Armenica) was issued in Antwerp in 1511.