Ciao a tutti,
According to a new book entitled "Amerigo, The Man Who Gave His Name To America," by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto today, April 27th, 2007, is the 500th Anniversary of the naming of "America" after the great Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci.
According to Wikipedia.org, the earliest known use of the name America for this particular landmass indeed dates from April 25, 1507. It appears on a globe and a large map created by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges. An accompanying book, Cosmographiae Introductio, explains that the name was derived from the Latinized version of the explorer Amerigo Vespucci's name, Americus Vespucius, in its feminine form, America, as the other continents all have Latin feminine names
For more information on Amerigo Vespucci, click on his name.
In case you are interested, here is the resolution by the U.S. Congress making it official, per GovTracks.us.
www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=hr110-287
How is that for an interesting bit of trivia?
Buon Aniversario America!
Filippo
P.S. While I was in Monaco a few years back, I had the pleasure of seeing the the Amerigo Vespucci, one of the Italian Navy's Flagship Tall Ship come into port on the day of the Italian Independence. It was a site to see. I missed out on the opportunity to board it since they closed it down early because Prince Rainier was going to be attending a ceremony on the ship that afternoon. I did however get to see Prince Rainier and Prince Albert.
Here is a video I found on Youtube.com from someone who did get a chance to board the Amerigo Vespucci when it was in Casablanca in 1970, and took this video. (Music Background)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment