The traditional view is that America takes
its name from the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, who sailed to South
America in 1499. However, a Welshman based in Bristol has at least an equal
claim to the honour.
Amerigo Vespucci and America
Amerigo Vespucci was born in Florence
(Italy) in 1454. He became a merchant and businessman who worked on behalf of
the ruling Medici family. Having been sent by his employer to Spain, he became
involved in the provisioning of ships sailing to the recently discovered West
Indies.
Vespucci was invited by the King of
Portugal to sail as an observer on several voyages to the New World and it was
on the first of these (in 1499) that his ship sailed south to visit the coast
of what is now Brazil.
On returning from his final voyage (in
1502) he wrote about his explorations; his accounts inspired a German
cartographer named Martin Waldseemüller to produce a world map in 1507 on which
the name America was used for the area that Vespucci had explored. He later
wrote that he used the name in honour of “Americus Vesputius” – using a
Latinized version of his name.
In later versions of his map Waldseemüller
removed the name and marked the area “Terra Incognita” (unknown land). However,
there were enough copies of the original edition of the map in circulation for
the name to be generally adopted by other map-makers and publishers.
The claims of Richard ap Meryk
Richard ap Meryk was a late 15th century
Welshman; “ap” is a Welsh name element that is similar to “Mac” in Scotland and
“O” in Ireland. He set up business in the English port of Bristol and
anglicized his name to Amerike. His trade was mainly in fish, with ships being
sent to the cod-rich waters off Newfoundland.
Amerike supported the voyage of John Cabot
in 1497 with a large financial contribution. Cabot, like Vespucci, was Italian,
but he was commissioned to sail to the coast of North America by the English
King Henry VII (who was notably tight-fisted) and therefore set sail from
Bristol. He would doubtless have been extremely grateful to a local wealthy
merchant who made up the shortfall in funding that he had been left with by
King Henry.
When Cabot returned he drew a map, and it
is known that both Columbus and Vespucci possessed copies of this map. It is
entirely possible that Cabot used the name Amerike on his map, in honour of his
Bristol sponsor, but no copy of it has survived.
Which claim is to be believed?
One thing that has always puzzled me is
why, if Vespucci is the person after whom the name America was taken by
Waldseemüller, the name was not given as “Vesputia”. I cannot think of any
other place that is named after a first as opposed to a family name, except in
cases of royalty.
It is an interesting coincidence that two
people who had a direct interest in exploring the Americas at roughly the same
time should have had such similar names. One possibility is that Cabot’s map
had the name Amerike (or possibly Amerika) on it, which struck Amerigo Vespucci
as a neat way of getting his own name, literally, “on the map”. Seeing Amerike
on the land far to the north of his own area of exploration, could Vespucci
have scribbled “Americus” on the southern part of Cabot’s map as a way of
indicating that the two areas belonged to the same landmass, and that he was
responsible for establishing this fact?
Could it be that Waldseemüller was not
being entirely truthful when he claimed to be naming the continent after Vespucci,
given that Vespucci had already used the name?
Of course this is mere speculation, but it
sounds like a distinct possibility to me!
© John Welford
