VESSELS
387
VESTIBULE
the general outcry against Amerigo Vespucci was so
great that the famous American statesman Blaine,
upon the occasion of the exposition at Chicago,
published a book under the title of "Columbus and
Columbia," in order that it might not be contamin-
ated by the unholy name of Vespucci.
It may be remarked that, at the time of the dis- covery of America, as is new clearly proven, the nar- ratives of the voj'ages of Vespucci were more widely disseminated, by far, than were those of the voyages of Columbus, and that Florence was the chief centre for the diiTusion of news on the discovery of the New World. To the close relations that existed between Gianfrancesco Pico, Duke della Mirandola, and l-'lorence, and between Gian Francesco and the learned German, Matthew Ringmann, who, in 1504, edited one of the most important editions of tlie ".Mundus novus", under the title of "De ora antar- tica per regem Portugalliae pridem inventa", and to the close relations between Ringmann and the geographer Martin Waldseemliller (Hylacomilus), is tfue the fact that when, in 1507, Waldseemliller published the celebrated work " Cosmographiae in- troductlo", at Saint-Die, in Lorraine, he gave the name of America to the New World, ajguing that, since the three continents then known, Europe, Asia, and Africa, had names of women, it was [iroper to give the newly-discovered continent also the name of a woman, taking it from the baptismal name of the dis- coverer of the new continent, Vespucci. Many at- tempts were made to name the New World Columbia, as justice seemed to demand, but all such efforts failed. The writer has tried to clear up these points and to prove the honesty of Vespucci ; and his efforts ha\'e received the approbation of the Numismatic and Archxological Society of New York; for, the latter, having resolved to strike, each year, a medal com- memorative of some benefactor of America, decided that the first of these medals should be coined in honour of Amerigo Vespucci, and requested the writer to propose the best portrait of the great navigator for reproduction. The Society accepted the ^Titer's sug- gestion and gave the preference to the portrait of the Galleria degli Uffizi of Florence, which is generally considered to be the most genuine, but thought that they should take into account the great map of Wald- seeratiller, of 1507, on which there is a portrait of Amerigo Vespucci; and therefore, the medal was struck with the two portraits, one on either side.
In the following bibliography, we have deemed it useless to cite the general works upon America, and upon its discover>', which. Although not concerning Vespucci specially, refer to him, as are those of AsENsio, Fiske, Gaffarel, Herrera, HnonEs, Hum- boldt, Irving, Payne, Robertson. Robellt de Lorques, TiRABOSCHi, Windsor, etc., for which the reader is referred to the articles America and Coldmbcs; we have, on the contrary, lim- ited our citations to the works that have brought new tacts to light, and are not. therefore, expositions of the opinions of their authors.
For the bibliography of the various editions of the voyages of Vespucci and of the authors who wrote concerning them between the years 1492 and 1551. see Harrisse, Biblioleca amerirann ve- tustissima (New York. 1866) ; Idem, Additions (Paris, 1872) ; and for the same, but, to the present day, see Fumaqalli, Biblio- QTaphin rii Amerigo Vespucci in Bandini, Vita di Amerigo Vespucci illustrataecommmtala da Gustavo Uzielli (Florence, 1898), 104-28.
Some may find it strange that certain authors are not cited, as, for example, Hugues. who has written numerous very learned works on Ve.spucci, totally devoid, however, of criticism; they are all cited in the Bibliografia of Fumagalli. Hugues and Varn- hagen regard as apocryphal some narratives of voyages of Ves- pucci that are regarded by other writers as being the most au- thentic: and they base this view on the fact that the narratives in question were published two or three centuries after the death of Vespucci. By that reasoning, one should declare the com- mentary of Pietro Alighieri on the "Divine Comedy" to be apocryphal, for it was published five centuries after Dante*s death. Hugues and Berchet, however, in accordance with that reasoning, have omitted some of the accounts of the voyages of Vespucci, contained in the " Raccolta Colombiana ", part V. vol. II, and, like all students of Vespucci, except Sarnow and TrQbenbach, they have entirely omitted any critical study of the texts of the narratives, accepting the current publicationa as they stand, without taking heed to compare them with the codices.
Ramusio, t^aiigationi et viaggi. 1 (Venice, 1550-59); Bandini, Vita e leUere di Amerigo Vespucci (Florence, 1745); Bartoijjizi, Rictrche istorico-critiche circa aUe scoperte di Amerigo Vetpucci
(Florence, 1789): Canovai, Viaggi d' Amerigo Vespucci (Florence,
1817); Baldelli-Boni, II mill,;,,. I i Kinrr-iici^. 1S27I. pp. hii-H;
^RRETE. Coleccidn de los t
1825-37); Humboldt, Exam,,, conlinenl. XI (Paris. l.S.3fi-.3>li, 1
Son
'spucci.
ie et see
.'...:.,.:. l;':u,. 11... „, /j!!-, -,.ri,-anave-
Additions iParia, 187:2), p. xxviii; Idem, The Dis- cery of North America (London, 1S92); Toscanelli, Notes et documents concemant les rapports entre V Italic et I'Amirique (Florence, 1893); Markham, Vespucci. The Letters and other Documents illustrative of his Career (London, 1894) ; Harbis8E, Americus Vespuccius (London, 1895) ; Thacher, The Continent of America: its Discovery and its Baptism (New York, 1896); LTzielli, Amerigo Vespucci davanti la critica storica in Atti del Congresso Geografico Italiano (Florence, 1898); Bandini, Vita dl Amerigo Vespucci, illustrata e commentata da Gustavo Uzielli (Florence, 1S9S) ; Masetti Bencini and Howard Smith, La vita di Amerigo Vespucci in Firenze (Florence, 1903); SaRNOW and TrCbenbach, Mundus novus (Strasburg, 1903); Fischer and WiESER, The oldest Map with the name of America of the year 1507 and the Carta Marina of the year 1516 by M. Waldseemuller (Ilacomilus) (Innsbruck, 1903); Proceedings and Papers of the American Numismatic and Archceologicat Society of New York City, 46th annual meeting (1904), 8-15.
Gustavo Uzielli.
Vessels, Sacred. See Chalice; Ciborium; Os- tensorium; Paten; Pyx.
Vestibule, a hall projecting in front of the facade of a church, found from the fifth century both in the East and the West. In western Europe it was gener- ally a narrow open ante-chamber with sloping roof and closed on the smaller sides, which were prob- ably, when con- nected with the main buildings, provided with apses, as in the baptistery of San Giovanni atRonie. In the East, espe- cially in Syria, this "ante-chamber was given a fine facade, and was flanked by two towers. It was also frequent ly closed in front in Oriental countries and entered by one or three doors, and often had two stories, — as in the churches of Turmanin and Suweda. The purpose of the vestibule, at lea.st in western Europe, was not to provide a resting- place for penitents, but to deaden the noise out- side. In medieval times Italy held firmly to the simple open chamber with sloping roof. North of the Alps, however, the vestibule developed into a projecting structure united with the main building, recalling the SjTian churches. The method of construction shown in the palace church of Charle- magne at Aachen, an ante-.structure of several stories between the two western round towers, was adopted in the early Romanesque period, especially by the Cluniac monks. The Romanesque architecture also made use of a covered ante-structure placed before the west front. This style was first used on a large scale in the cathedral at Speyer, where the vestibule has three stories. The churches in which the main entrance was on the side aisle had a vestibule or portico (called the "Paradise") on the same aisle, as in the cathedrals at Miinster and Paderbom. The name "Paradise", originally given to the atrium, waa given later to the ante-chamber. In Gothic
