Italian manuscript illumination 17th/18th century Amerigo Vespucci tempera on vellum, in sixteen karat yellow gold frame unsigned, titled upper right H9in W5in *Note: Amerigo Vespucci was born to a noble family in Florence, Italy, baptized on March 18, 1454. After Christopher Columbus claimed to have found a western passage to Asia, but failed to find the riches expected there, Vespucci set out to discover in fact which lands Columbus had erroneously thought to be India; his further duty was to settle which of these lands belonged to Spain and which to Portugal. He sailed once for Spain, 1499-1500, and again for Portugal, 1501-1502. During his voyages Vespucci sailed along the coast of South America, realizing that this new land could not be part of Asia because it extended too far south in latitude. Vespucci is credited with discovering that two oceans and a new continent separated Europe from Asia. The South American continent was named America in his honor, a controversy that enraged those who considered Columbus to be the first to find the new land. However, it was generally accepted that Vespucci was the first to provide proof for his discovery. Vespucci, who had created his own system of celestial navigation, later served as astronomer to the King of Spain and was responsible for revising maps of the Atlantic and western lands. Vespucci died in Seville, Spain, on February 22, 1512,.