Nova Reperta, Vespucci Discovering the Southern Cross
PLATE 18. Amerigo Vespucci Discovering the Southern Cross with an Astrolabium. Eighteenth plate from a print series entitled Nova Reperta (New Inventions of Modern Times) engraved by Jan Collaert I, after Jan van der Straet. Illustration of Amerigo Vespucci discovering the southern cross in the sky with an astrolabium. Below him is a table with his tools and candle providing light so he can see his work. To the left of the illustration is a text panel with a portrait-medallion of Dante. Amerigo Vespucci (March 9, 1454 - February 22, 1512) was an Italian explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer. At the invitation of king Manuel I of Portugal, Vespucci participated as observer in several voyages that explored the east coast of South America between 1499 and 1502. On the first of these voyages he was aboard the ship that discovered that South America extended much further south than previously thought. The expeditions became widely known in Europe after two accounts attributed to Vespucci were published between 1502 and 1504. He died in 1512, at the age of 57, of an unknown cause
