“Amerigo Vespucci – Departure into an Unknown World” on July 5th at 10:35 p.m. on ORF 2 and on ORF ON
Vienna (OTS) – 1491. The Florentine banker Amerigo Vespucci is sent to Seville in the service of the powerful Medici clan. From there, Spanish sailors set off into the world, financed by the Medici, among others. Here Vespucci met Christopher Columbus, who will go down in history as the “discoverer” of America. While Columbus still believes that he has found the western route to India, Vespucci becomes clear: in the west lies a new, previously unknown continent. In 1502 he published the travel report “Mundus Novus – New World”, which became a bestseller. And the new continent is called “America” – after Amerigo Vespucci. But Vespucci never finds out.
With “Amerigo Vespucci – Departure into an Unknown World,” “Universum History” will show an exciting documentary by Eike Schmitz (ORF editing: Andreas Maurer) about this on Friday, July 5, 2024, at 10:35 p.m. on ORF 2 and on ORF ON “Age of Discovery”, an era characterized by greed and competition, by card smugglers and conquistadors, which refutes that Vespucci was – as was later often claimed – an impostor and explains why America was named after him.
In 1492, the Italian sailor Christopher Columbus landed in the Bahamas in the Castilian service and believed he had reached the unexplored eastern edge of India. Columbus is generally considered the discoverer of the Americas, but the newly discovered world is named after Amerigo Vespucci, who sailed down the east coast of South America. His travel report “Mundus Novus – New World”, published in 1502, became a bestseller and was translated into several languages. In it, Vespucci presents a sensation: In the west there is not India – as previously assumed – but a huge, unknown continent. “Mundus Novus – New World” motivated the Freiburg cartographer Martin Waldseemüller to say in 1507: “It is difficult to see why this new continent should not be called Amerige, Land of Americus, or America – after its discoverer.” And he means the banker and navigator Amerigo Vespucci. The name “America” was born.
Initially there was nothing to suggest that the Florentine Vespucci, born in 1451, would pursue a career as a seafarer. As a merchant in the service of the financially strong Medici, Amerigo’s everyday life is initially characterized more by dry numbers than by exciting adventures. But when Vespucci is supposed to oversee ship operations for the Medici in Seville, Spain, he comes into direct contact with the fascinating world of explorers. He met Christopher Columbus and was allowed to take part in Spanish expeditions to the West, where he worked as an astronomer and cartographer. He records constellations and documents the diverse fauna and flora along the coastal strips. In his travelogues he raves about an “infinite number of birds of different shapes and colors and trees so beautiful and fragrant that we thought we had entered earthly paradise.”