Montpelier Examiner

GIVEN HONOR NOT DESERVED
Error of Learned Men Responsible for
America Being Named After
Amerigo Vespucci.

The story of how the new world received the name of America is a striking example of what publicity will accomplish. Amerigo Vespucci, a highly educated Florentine, was head of a business house in Seville, Spain, probably as agent for the great trading firm of the Medicis, and helped to fit out one of the expeditions with which Columbus sailed. When the latter's monopoly was revoked, Vespucci undertook several voyages of exploration on his own account, during which he claimed in many letters to have been the first to reach the mainland of the new continent, giving the date as June 16, 1497.

On April 25, 1507, the learned heads of the University of St. Die in Lorraine decided, incorrectly, that he was entitled to the honor of discovery, Columbus having only reached the Islands of the West Indies, and that the western hemisphere should bear his name. The name America was, therefore, first used in the book "Cosmographiae Introductio," by Martin Waldseemuller, professor of cosmography at the university.

It has since been shown that Vespucci was preceded by both Columbus and John Cabot, but it was too late, the new world had been christened America and the fact advertised in print. The house where the meeting was held at which the classical error was made was still standing at St. Die at the outbreak of the war, and was annually visited by many tourists from both North and South America.