[VESPUCCI, Amerigo (1454-1512), subject]. BANDINI, Angelo Maria (1726-1803). Vita e Lettere di Amerigo Vespucci Gentiluomo Fiorentino. Florence: [At the Sign of Apollo], 1745. 4to. Illustrated with a full-page woodcut portrait of Vespucci, and a large folding woodcut genealogical chart.[129], [1, blank] pp. Original publisher's paste paper boards, ink title on spine (boards soiled with a few ink markings, headcap of spine restored, spine toned and creased, hinges starting, small tear to the crease of the folding chart, with a contemporary ink quote from Cicero (in Italian) on the title-page (?Sight is the scourge of the ignorant?"), untrimmed). Very good. THE RARE FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST MONOGRAPH ON AMERIGO VESPUCCI. The first 76 pages give an account of his life and voyages, followed by his own account of his 4 voyages to America, and 3 letters to Lorenzo de Medici describing his voyages. This volume prints for the first time the third letter to de Medici. The letters are considered by many historians to me more important than the actual voyages. Vespucci states for the first time in these letters that the Americas are a new continent, not islands near China. Although the authorship of the letters is disputed ? whether they were written by Vespucci himself, or by one of his companions on the voyages ? the fact remains that these are critically important to the understanding of the New World (of course, the ?Americas" are named in his honor).