[Aztlan] America

[John Schwaller]

The documentation is very clear.  There is no mention of any origin 
other than the attribution by Waldsemuller.  None of the indigenous 
documentation from the 16th century uses the term as an indigenous 
word.  It is completely European.  Interestingly the Spanish seldom use 
it, preferring "Las Indias" in nearly all situations in the 16th and 
17th centuries.

Vespucci was not a banker, but rather an author and adventurer.  He 
wrote about several trips to the New World, not all of which can be 
documented.  His family was somewhat linked to the Medici, but in 16th 
century Florence if you wanted to survive, such an alliance was a 
practical necessity.  Also famous was his cousin, Simonetta, who was one 
of the great beauties of the age.  Some scholars believe that she was 
the model for Botticelli when he painted the Birth of Venus, and one of 
the three graces in "Primavera."


lahunik.62 at skynet.be wrote:
> Americans,
>
> Maybe a very stupied question of my, but what is the true origine of the
> name "America"?
>
> Is the name origine from Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian banker, employee of
> the Medici Family of Florence, who invented the other name for the
> Americas:"Mondus Novus"?
>
> Or is it origine of "Amerrique", the Chontal name for "the land of the
> perpetual wind"?
>
>
>
>   


-- 
John F. Schwaller
President
SUNY Potsdam
44 Pierrepont Ave.
Potsdam, NY  13676
schwallr at potsdam.edu

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