Agostino Vespucci

Agostino Vespucci (born Nettucci) studied law in Pisa in the 1480s, subsequently moving to Florence and entering the service of Guidantonio Vespucci. In the early 1490s, he attended Angelo Poliziano’s courses at the University of Florence. From 1494 to 1517, Vespucci worked at the Florentine chancery as a clerk and as secretary to the ambassadors, which allowed him to establish a close friendship with Niccolò Machiavelli and to mix with statesmen, popes, humanists, and artists. His last diplomatic mission, as secretary to the ambassador Giovanni Corsi at the court of Ferdinand II of Aragon from 1513 to 1516, sparked the writing of this work.