662 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 



AMERIGE, AMERICUS, AND AMERICA. 



However this may be decided, the Vosgiau Gymnasium published in 

 April, 1507, a Latin translation of the resume of the four voyages of 

 Vespucci, and in the introduction, Cosmographkv Introduction is the 

 christening of the i^ew World under the name of America^ in honor of 

 Americus (Amerige) Vespucius, who discovered it. 



It took many years to prove that Vespucci was not the discoverer of 

 the terra firm a of the New World and consequently had no valid clam 

 to its name, and the numerous and voluminous discussions and contro- 

 versies on this subject have lasted until this century. 



Jean Basin, the translator from the French into Latin of the " Qua- 

 tuor navigationes " of Vespucci, instead of retaining the word Amerige 

 for the Christian name of Vespucci, as it was in the manuscript, turned 

 it into Americus. He knew i)erfectly well that it was a very free trans- 

 lation, not easy to accept without an explanation, and consequently he 

 took the precaution to print in two i)laces of this small book the word 

 Amerige very conspicuously opposite Americus. in order to show that by 

 Americus he means the Christian name of Vespucci. The French trans- 

 lator from the original Italian text did not translate Ameri^/o by Americ, 

 or U^neric, or A'iineric, but by Amerige, it was only in 1515, when a 

 French translation by Mathurin Du Redouer of the third voyage of Ves- 

 pucci appeared in Paris, that Amerigo was translated into Emeric and 

 not Amerige; and strange to say, Redouer translated it from the cele- 

 brated collection of Vicenza of 1507, in which the Christian name of 

 Vespucci is Alberico ; showing what confusion Vespucci and his friends 

 had already created by using indiscriminately the word Amerigo and 

 Alberico, two different names in Florence, where Machiavelli in his 

 Comedia uses both for two entirel}^ different personages called Amerigo 

 and Alberigo. 



TRIPLE ERRORS IN THE CHRISTENING OF ST. DIE. 



The Vosgiau Gymnasium first attributed the discovery of the New 

 World to Vespucci in 1507, l wo years after the death of Colombo, and 

 during the life of Vespucci, who did not die until 1512. Vespucci did not 

 rectify the error, and no document exists which shows any steps taken 

 by him to decline the honor. This absence of protestation on his part 

 has a tendency to sustain the idea that it was he who suggested to 

 KingReue and the Vosgiau Gymnasium that he was the discoverer of the 

 New World, for both Rene and the Gymnasium knew beyond any pos- 

 sible doubt the great discovery of 149U by Cristoforo Colombo, and 

 the only excuse in their favor which can be given is, that Vespucci 

 claimed to have discovered the terra firma, the discoveries of Colombo 

 being confined to the islands, and that he succeeded in impressing on 

 those far away Lorrainers that fallacious idea. 



