
Amerigo: The Man Who Gave His Name to America book by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto
By Felipe Fernandez-ArmestoAmerigo: The Man Who Gave His Name to America book by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto
In 1507, European cartographers were struggling to redraw their maps of the world and to name the newly found lands of the Western Hemisphere. The name they settled on: America, after Amerigo Vespucci, an obscure Florentine explorer.
In Amerigo, the award-winning scholar Felipe Fernández-Armesto answers the question “What’s in a name?” by delivering a rousing flesh-and-blood narrative of the life and times of Amerigo Vespucci. Here we meet Amerigo as he really was: a sometime slaver and small-time jewel trader; a contemporary, confidant, and rival of Columbus; an amateur sorcerer who attained fame and honor by dint of a series of disastrous failures and equally grand self-reinventions. Filled with well-informed insights and amazing anecdotes, this magisterial and compulsively readable account sweeps readers from Medicean Florence to the Sevillian court of Ferdinand and Isabella, then across the Atlantic of Columbus to the brave New World where fortune favored the bold.
Amerigo Vespucci emerges from these pages as an irresistible avatar for the age of exploration–and as a man of genuine achievement as a voyager and chronicler of discovery. A product of the Florentine Renaissance, Amerigo in many ways was like his native Florence at the turn of the sixteenth century: fast-paced, flashy, competitive, acquisitive, and violent. His ability to sell himself–evident now, 500 years later, as an entire hemisphere that he did not “discover” bears his name–was legendary. But as Fernández-Armesto ably demonstrates, there was indeed some fire to go with all the smoke: In addition to being a relentless salesman and possibly a ruthless appropriator of other people’s efforts, Amerigo was foremost a person of unique abilities, courage, and cunning. And now, in Amerigo, this mercurial and elusive figure finally has a biography to do full justice to both the man and his remarkable era.
“A dazzling new biography . . . an elegant tale.”
–Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“An outstanding historian of Atlantic exploration, Fernández-Armesto delves into the oddities of cultural transmission that attached the name America to the continents discovered in the 1490s. Most know that it honors Amerigo Vespucci, whom the author introduces as an amazing Renaissance character independent of his name’s fame–and does Fernández-Armesto ever deliver.”
–Booklist (starred review)
Book details
- Hardcover
- 256 pages
- English
- 1400062810
- 9781400062812
About Felipe Fernandez-Armesto
felipe fernandez-armesto was Read More about Felipe Fernandez-Armesto
More Books By Felipe Fernandez-Armesto
People who bought this also bought
The Emotional Craft of Fiction: How to Write the Story Beneath the Surface book by Donald Maass
New Book
The Account: Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca's Relacion : Aalvar Nauanez Cabeza De Vaca's Relaciaon / Tr. [from Spanish] by Martin A.Favata.
Used Book
Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most book by Douglas Stone
New Book
The Little Book of Hindu Deities: From the Goddess of Wealth to the Sacred Cow book by Sanjay Patel
Used Book
The Automatic Millionaire : A Powerful One-Step Plan to Live and Finish Rich
New Book
If Only I Knew: Gentle Reminders to Help You Treasure the people in your life
Like New
The Source of My Strength : Relying on the Life-Changing Power of Jesus Christ to Heal Our Wounded Hearts
Used Book
Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance?and Why They Fall book by Amy Chua
New Book
The Psychology of Selling: Increase Your Sales Faster and Easier Than You Ever Thought Possible
New Book
The Vortex: Where the Law of Attraction Assembles All Cooperative Relationships book by Esther Hicks
New Book
Securing Our Children's Future: New Approaches to Juvenile Justice and Youth Violence by Gary S. Katzmann
Used Book
Retire Worry-Free: Money-Smart Ways to Build the Nest Egg You'll Need
Used Book
Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body book by Daniel Goleman
New Book
For Better or For Worse #6: Keep the Home Fries Burning book by Lynn Johnston
Used Book
Destined to Reign: The Secret to Effortless Success, Wholeness and Victorious Living book by Joseph Prince
New Book
Presence: Bringing Your Boldest Self to Your Biggest Challenges book by Amy Cuddy
New Book
My Name Escapes Me: The Diary of a Retiring Actor book by Alec Guinness
Used Book
The Digital Economy: Promise and Peril in the Age of Networked Intelligence
Used Book
Racing Through Paradise: A Pacific Passage by William F. Buckley Jr.
New Book