Amerigo Vespucci: The Historical Context of His Explorations and Scientific Contribution

Abstract

other images, such as the mythical El Dorado and the Laguna de los Xaraies (Xarayes Lake), the immense and rich lake believed to lie in the centre of the continent, while also motivating contemporary expectations. After Spain’s violent encounter with the Inca Empire, and its incommensurable wealth, the experiences reported in Spanish accounts also appeared in the Portuguese narratives, produced mainly by the Peruleiros, who managed the silver traffic along with the Spaniards. In this way, Doré’s book traces a different history of cartography from that found in the seminal works of the Mexican philosopher Edmundo O’Gorman (1906–1995). In her eyes America is equally an invention, a cross section and a synthesis of what it is supposed to be. In analysing these processes, Doré makes us think about the act of naming. She reminds us of the twentiethcentury French Jesuit Michel de Certeau’s perspective, according to which European possession of South America was effected by an act of intellectual appropriation. Doré, however, seeks to authenticate the historical implications of this act by focusing on one idea that did not prevail, the promise of America Peruana. Historicity, she shows us, is still open to reinvention.