(1789)

Vespucci

Originally from the suburb of Peretola, Florence, the Vespucci was one of middle-ranking notary families involved in legal and mercantile activities. The family became prominent in Florentine politics, providing the city with 25 priors, and three gonfalonieri of justice. It was to achieve international note due to the explorations of Amerigo Vespucci, whose name was given to the New World as 'America' by the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller in 1507. Despite Amerigo's fame and success, the Vespucci family began to decline in the 16th century. It produced no further explorers or prominent figures, and their fortunes began to decline. In 1927, the Colocci family was granted the right by royal decree to assume the additional surname of Vespucci, as descendants of the last surviving member of the family.

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