letter is said to have been first
published in Lisbon and Augsburg in 1504, and in Strasburg in 1505.

Pick up this book and nail it to the wall, where it may be observed by
all, for it was the very beginning of Vespucci's posthumous troubles.
We have read the letter and known it to have been a plain, unvarnished
account of Vespucci's third voyage, in which he chanced to say that he
thought he had discovered the fourth part of the globe, and proposed
to call it _Mundus Novus_, or the New World. He was quite right, and
within bounds, when he did this, for he was thinking only of that
portion of the _southern hemisphere_ which he had found, and not of
the entire western hemisphere. He did not extend the term to cover the
northern regions, discovered by Columbus, for the latter had no idea
that they pertained to a new world; in fact--as we know--believed to
the last that they belonged to Asia or India.

"At no time during the life of Columbus, nor for some years after his
death," says a learned historian, "did anybody use the phrase 'New
World' with conscious reference to his discoveries. At the time of his
death their true significance had not yet begun to dawn upon the mind
of any voyager or any writer. It was supposed that he had found a new
route to the Indies by sailing west, and that in the course of this
achievement he had discovered some new islands," etc.

We must, then, acquit Vespucci of any intention of depriving Columbus
of his laurels, when he said he believed he had found a new world, for
he referred only to that portion of South America now known as Brazil.
Nor, so far as we know, was he either responsible for, or aware of,
the publication of his letters to Medici and Soderini--for those to
the latter were afterwards translated and printed--as he was, at that
time, on the ocean. In truth, as the letters were merely epistles to
friends, who would naturally be interested in his discoveries, and of
course overlook any defects of diction, he openly stated that he was
only waiting leisure for improving and elaborating them for issue in
pamphlet form. He never acquired this leisure, and the world, tired
of waiting, seized upon his material and brought it out in print,
without so much as saying "by your leave."

The second person to take liberties with Vespucci's name was one
Matthias Ringmann, a student in Paris, who was acquainted with Friar
Giocondo, and of course saw the _Mundus Novus_, which he published