AMERIGO VESPUCCI AND THE DISCOVERY OF THE SOUTHERN SKY

During the voyages that led him to discover the new continent bearing his name, Amerigo Vespucci made interesting astronomical observations of the Southern sky. In the past, his data have been interpreted with criteria that do not follow Vespucci’s indications, resulting in identifications that are not credible or even leading to the assertion that the data themselves are incomprehensible. However, it is possible to construct a coherent picture of all the information, arriving at an identification that is in some cases very probable, in other cases almost certain, of the stars described by Vespucci. Analysis of documents shows that he made good-quality measurements, but his incomplete knowledge of ancient texts prevented him from distinguishing the new stars from the already known ones, giving rise to a period of confusion in sixteenth century celestial cartography.