Amerigo: The story of a historical error

This didactically structured article was initially published posthumously in 1944 with the subtitle "History of a Historical Error." Stefan Zweig referred to it as a "little study on the Vespucci dilemma." Despite its short size, this examination into how America came to be called after the first name of a man who had nothing to do with the actual discovery belongs to Stefan Zweig's "histoires racontées" series, his vast descriptions of time and history. Amerigo Vespucci's (1451-1512) discovery of another, the New World, just exposed Christopher Columbus' (1451-1506) mistaken belief that he had discovered the fastest maritime path to India. But he is in no way responsible for the nomenclature; it was done in 1507 by the cartographer Martin Waldseemüller in the 'Cosmographiae introductio', the introduction to cosmography, without his knowledge or participation. There it is believed that Americus - an idiosyncratically Latinized version of Amerigo! - acknowledged the fourth continent as such; since all continents are referred to as female, it may be referred to as Americus or, as all continents are female, America. This is consequently "the genuine baptismal certificate of America," and for a long time, Amerigo Vespucci was erroneously recognized as the discoverer of the New World... Biography Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) was born into a Jewish commercial family in Vienna. He penned poetry, novels, plays, and essays that were burned by the Nazis in 1933. From 1919 until 1934, he resided in Salzburg before emigrating to England and, in 1941, to Brazil. His historical miniatures and biographical paintings were just as renowned as his epic masterpiece. On February 23, 1942, he gave up his life freely in Petrópolis, Brazil.