Mundus Novus. Vespucci: Ancient World and New World 2012 marks the 500th anniversary of the death of the Florentine Amerigo Vespucci, whose name is associated with one of the most significant moments in the history of European expansion: the recognition of the land discovered on the other side of the Atlantic as a mundus novus.
The letters that Vespucci sent to the eminent Florentine figures of the time, describing the voyages that he undertook in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish crowns, were immediately celebrated. Translated into Latin, they became a literary event of such importance that in 1507 the German humanist and cosmographer Martin Waldseemüller gave the name America to the southern part of the discovered lands: Vespucci thus came to be considered the “New Ptolemy”.
Vespucci's biography and the historical contexts in which he moved arouse intense historiographical debate on an international level. With a view to remembering and deepening our knowledge of the iconic figure of Vespucci in the context of the Iberian Peninsula, in association with the main European cultural and commercial centres, and also as a major figure in the process of the decompartmentalization of the world, well beyond “Florentine centered” narratives, an international conference will take place in Lisbon at the end of this year.
Conference Organizers Angelo Cattaneo (CHAM-FCSH-UNL/UAç) Francisco Contente Domingues (CH-FLUL) Conference Assistant Edward Collins (University College Dublin, Universidad Pablo de Olavide) Institutional Context and Sponsors Centro de História de Além-Mar, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa e Universidade dos Açores Centro de História da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa CTT – Correios de Portugal, S.A Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa Fundação Luso-Americana para Desenvolvimento Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Lisbona Universidade Aberta
Themes under discussion include, but are not confined to, the following topics: travel, trade, and exploration; literary, cosmographic, and cartographic sources and the construction of new worlds; East-West connections and the formation of the Atlantic World in the ancient Mediterranean world; the elaboration, circulation, appropriation of ideas, ideologies, and iconography. Papers are presented in Spanish, English, Italian and Portuguese.
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MUNDUS NOVUS VESPUCCI: ANCIENT WORLD AND NEW WORLD UNIVERSITY OF LISBON, FACULTY OF HUMANITIES 13-14 DECEMBER 2012 AMPHITHEATRE 3 (SESSIONS I, II, IV, V) AMPHITHEATRE 4 (SESSION III)