Christopher Columbus and His Enterprise to the Indies: Scholarship of the Last Quarter Century from William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. XLIX, No. 2, April, 1992. Delno West Christopher Columbus did not discover a new world, nor did he ever set foot on the North American continent. Rather, he established continuous contact between two continents, each with major populations.(1) But he became a national hero for the United States, and, as such, he has frequently been placed on the same level with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln by Americans who prefer mythology to facts. Early in our history, he became a unifying symbol to the struggling English colonies when Puritan preachers began to use his life as an exemplum of the developing American spirit. On the eve of the American Revolution, poems, songs, sermons, and polemic essays in which Columbus was idealized as the discoverer of a new land for a new people flowed from New England. Such veneration culminated in a movement to name the nation "Columbia." In 1792, in a concerted effort to focus attention on the new nation's glorious past and future, the first Columbian celebrations were held in Baltimore, Boston. and New York.(2) In 1892, Columbus served as the symbol of American pride and progress for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In Columbus studies, we are dealing with both history and romance. For 500 years, Christopher Columbus's life and activities have attracted students, intellectuals, and history buffs. Books and articles about the events of 1492, ranging from the scholarly to the inane, continue to pour from the presses - over a thousand during the past twenty-five years alone. Without claiming to be exhaustive, this article will survey that literature. The intention is to produce a synthesis of studies that places Columbus within the context of European and world history in the late fifteenth century, with attention also to editions of source materials. THE MAN AND HIS ENTERPRISE Recent scholarship has expanded our knowledge of Columbus and the regional and global forces at work during the fifteenth century. He was a talented mariner and a fearless explorer who had to become a politician and a salesman. He was a careful student of ancient, medieval, and contemporary science who also gave himself to myth and legend. He was a religious visionary, closely in touch with the fifteenth-century Observantine Franciscan reform movement, who wished to spread the gospel to newfound lands and to recapture Jerusalem. He was a man of sincere piety who wished to increase the wealth and position of himself and his family. Scores of biographies, written for the general reader, have portrayed Columbus's life in simplistic terms in order to offer a classic hero and illustrate moral lessons. The admiral left very little information about his life, and what he did say about himself was frequently exaggerated. Fernando, his son, and Fray Bartolome de Las Casas wrote biographies that promulgated distortions. In the United States, serious biographical scholarship began in the early nineteenth century, when Washington Irving gained access to the recently reorganized Columbian archives at Seville, and culminated in 1942 with the two-volume work by Samuel Eliot Morison, great in its time but now outdated.(3) Three recent scholarly studies that present a balanced interpretation merit attention. Paolo Taviani, professor at the University of Genoa and vice president of the Italian senate, has written the most important biography during the past quarter century: Cristoforo Colombo: la genesi della grande scoperta and I viaggi di Colombo: la grande scoperta. The first volume appeared in English in 1985 as Christopher Columbus: The Grand Design.(4) Unusually arranged, these companion volumes offer a historical narrative in the style of faits evenementiels (momentary surface events) with erudite end chapters that explore historiographical problems, primary source difficulties, and controversial issues. Two other excellent biographies are by Jacques Heers and Marianne Mahn-Lot - readable single-volume works that present Columbus within the context of European history. Both are far- ranging in scope and analysis.(5) Heers concentrates on the project of Columbus, the development and execution of his idee fixe; Mahn-Lot examines his psychology and personality. Massive efforts to research the archives in Genoa and the nearby areas of Liguria, Piacenza, and Monferrato have produced convincing evidence that Columbus was born of Christian parents in the Genoese Republic in 1451.(6) That 500-year-old question can now be laid to rest. His father was a middle-class businessman whose wealth and position varied with the fortunes of Genoese commercial enterprise. Wishing to become a merchant seaman, Columbus shipped out to learn this vocation in his midteens. During the next few years he made commercial voyages in the Mediterranean as a deckhand. In 1476, he signed on with a large Genoese mercantile fleet bound for England and Flanders. The fleet was attacked by the French, and Columbus was cast ashore on the southern coast of Portugal. He made his way to Lisbon, where the Genoese community provided for him. Soon, he and his brother, Bartholomew, established a business making maps and charts and possibly selling books. Managing a business did not satisfy the adventurous and ambitious young man. He continued to sail on Italian and Portuguese commercial voyages as far as Iceland and out into the near Ocean Sea, that is, the Atlantic as far as the Azores. (David B. Quinn explores the importance of Columbus's northern voyages in this issue with special attention to what he might have learned form ocean-going sailors in England, Iceland, and Ireland.) Eventually, he became captain of his own ship and a merchant and agent for Italian importers, in particular the Centurione family, transporting commodities from the near ocean islands (such as the Madeiras) to Italy. Probably due to the Centurione connection and his position as a sea captain, in 1479 he was able to marry Dona Felipa Perestrello, a descendant of a Piacenza noble who had been governor of the island of Porto Santo. Columbus spent the next few years in the Madeira Islands as an agent for the Italian investors. From this base he sailed the archipelago off the Euro-African coast and made at least one trip to the new Portuguese African colony of Sao Jorge da Mina in 1482 or 1483. On these voyages he began testing scientific theories about the ocean "space" and noted wind and ocean currents. Later, form these experiences, he would write navigational treatises now lost.(7) The trip to Sao Jorge da Mina was a turning point in his life. He devoted his time on the African coast to confirming his beliefs about the size of the earth and the distance to Asia by making crude measurements with the instruments available to him. Although his calculations were grossly wrong, they convinced him to give himself entirely to the "enterprise of the Indies." He also settled in his own mind basic questions about the so-called torrid zone. One topic of debate among classical and medieval scholars had been whether the equator could be crossed. On this trip Columbus found not only that it could be crossed without consequence but also that whole races of people lived on its latitude. In 1484, Dona Felipa died, and Columbus returned to Lisbon with his small son, Diego. By then, he had over fifteen years of experience at sea as a sailor, merchant, and captain. Very little in known about Columbus's activities before the first voyage to the New World. Trying to fill gaps, scholars have focused on his early years, his schooling, and his young adulthood in Portugal, the Madeira Islands, and Spain.(8) The biographies cited summarize everything known, but they should be supplemented by in-depth studies. The matter of Columbus's education, for example, is confused because Fernando Colon listed his father as having attended the University of Pavia. No record exists of his attendance there, and the university records for the fifteenth century are well maintained. Such attendance would also conflict with known facts of his life during that time. He may have attended either a small school established by the weaver's guild in Genoa located on the Vicolo Pavia or the monastery school in the Genoa district known as "Paverano."(9) Columbus's life in Lisbon is so poorly documented that little is known about how he came into contact with Portuguese exploration activities, may have met important explorers, or learned state-of-the-art technology for ocean-going ships. Of singular importance was Columbus's association with a flourishing Italian colony of bankers, businessmen, and merchant seamen from Genoa, Piacenza, Lombardy, and elsewhere. Members of this community were some of his earliest business, social, and intellectual contacts.(10) The seven years Columbus spent in Spain after leaving Portugal are a morass of confusing dates and associations. Foster Provost had attempted to present a time line of his activities by comparing all the original documents, and Taviani has focused on his activities and associations while following the royal court.(11) Columbus eked out a living, became a voracious reader and student of cosmology, geography, and theology, and sought political and financial support in several quarters. Finally, in 1491, he gained the backing of important Spanish noblemen and investors, as well as members of the Italian merchant community in castile, leading to patronage from the Spanish monarchs for the small fleet that sailed in 1492. Modern scholarship places Columbus at the center of many forces, some global, at work in the late fifteenth century. (12) Giorgio Pistarino has suggested that despite his "medieval background," his spirit was that of a modern merchant seaman inspired by the technical advances of his age. (13) Michael Adas has shown that without technical innovations in medieval agriculture, machines, and nautical instruments Europe would not have had the means to undertake the explorations. (14) Modern historians have developed a new understanding of the world picture before and during the earliest stages of the penetration of the Ocean Sea. Scholars now believe that the events in Spain cannot be grasped unless envisioned on a global scale. The historical problems presented by the international consequences of Columbus's first voyage must be considered in a context broader than their particular social, political, economic, and geographical setting. French Annalistes, led by Fernad Braudel and Pierre Chaunu, have applied concepts and methodologies of demography and economic statistics to guide us to an understanding of more general phenomena. (15) Using sophisticated techniques, Annales scholars have demonstrated, for example, that the Spanish kingdoms were blocked to the east by Turks and that other Europeans would do little to resolve the problem. Conclusions by Annalistes illustrate Venetian reliance on Turkish imports and food supplies at the same time that territorial and political ambition in France caused the French to favor Turkish domination in the east. Spain was thus forced by international politics and economics to turn to the Ocean Sea. Europe experienced a demographic expansion in the late Middle ages that outstripped its production of goods. The end of the eleventh century to the middle of the fourteenth was a prosperous period in which a material civilization was built up. The growth of population and wealth created a demand for commodities without which the consortium of Castilian and Genoese investors who backed Columbus likely would have put their investment capital elsewhere. (16) The material advance of modernizing Europe transformed the psychology of Europeans. In Braudel's words, "the accumulation of practical discoveries showing a conscious will to master the world and a growing interest in every source of power revealed Europe's true features and guaranteed its pre-eminence well before its success." (17) As a merchant seaman, Columbus sensed that the economy of his era was shifting to a new model in which raising capital, acquiring raw materials, deploying technology, and distributing products were becoming more and more integrated. He perceived that the European economic center was moving away from the Mediterranean and toward the Atlantic. International events, such as the fall of Constantinople, taught him that the trading routes to the Orient were closing and that new ones had to be found. One cannot overestimate the importance of Italian and Spanish commercial enterprise and venture capital in the first voyage of Columbus.(18) His primary objective was to establish a new trading route to Asia with posts at key locations to maximize trade with the regions along the way. He developed his ideas within the context of the Portuguese-African adventure but through the eyes of an Italian city-state system of commerce that viewed colonies as gathering points for merchandise to be shipped back to investors. Scholars have begun to investigate Columbus's relationship to other Italian expatriates living in Iberia. He had spent much of his career in the service of Italian merchant houses. The Genoese, who were everywhere in Europe, had thriving commercial colonies in Lisbon and Seville. Italian city-states, including Genoa, had a long history of mercantile monopolies and were intent on expanding them. Genoa, Florence, and Venice had far- flung outposts with resident businessmen-bankers always on the lookout for new ventures.(19) Typical of such ventures, the Iberian-Italian partnership that backed Columbus's first voyage included Gianetto Gerardi, a Florence banker and close friend of Columbus, who held the admiral's power of attorney, and Luis de Santangel, keeper of King Ferdinand's privy purse and treasurer of the Santa Hermandad, a police force with its own endowment. One or both of these funds were invested in the voyage. The other treasurer of the Santa Hermandad was Francesco Pinelli, a Genoese long resident in Seville who was a trusted counselor to King Ferdinand and related through marriage to the Centurione family. Pinelli invested in the first voyage. Other merchants from Genoa, including Giannotto Berardi, Pietro Rondinelli, Simoni Verdi, and Francesco dei Bardi, were friends and financial supporters of Columbus. Although the first voyage was subsidized minimally, the second voyage was well funded, with the Florentine Berardi and the Genoese Pinelli guaranteeing very large loans.(20) The maturing maritime community in western Andalusia, centered at Seville, became a hub of exploration activity in the late fifteenth century. It was to Seville that Columbus came from Portugal in 1485 to try to interest others in his enterprise. And it was Seville that capitalized on his discoveries by persuading the Spanish monarchs to headquarter the entire New World exploitation there for the next two centuries.(21) The Casa de Contratacion (House of Trade) was established in 1503 in Seville to organize the royal commercial enterprise in the Indies. Besides regulating trade, it evolved into an institution that examined and licensed pilots and nautical instruments, supervised the construction of merchant ships, instructed seamen in gunnery, kept all records of cargoes and market data as well as official chronicles of commercial activities. Because knowledge served as a foundation for economic expansion, the intellectual background of Columbus is of key importance to understanding the events of 1492. The origins and exact nature of his theories are still topics that need study by scholars. J. H. Parry has called him and "extremely persuasive geographical theorist."(22) Feline Fernandez-Armesto had demonstrated that Columbus's achievement was the culmination of centuries of intellectual and practical speculation about the Atlantic space. That vast area had to be visualized before it could be mastered. In a practical sense, the communication between Europe, especially Iberia, and the near ocean islands in the fifteenth century transformed the Ocean Sea into a less hostile environment. Fernandez-Armesto contends that Columbus's greatest accomplishment was "the reduction of the image of the Atlantic to navigable proportions...[and] the confirmation of the existence of a huge and exploitable space."(23) There is little doubt that the idea of crossing the Ocean Sea began to influence Columbus's thinking when he was a young adult. In its earliest stages, the idea seems to have been pure speculation based on nonempirical evidence. But knowing that he would have to persuade learned commissions and exaction investors, Columbus absorbed all he could about cosmology, geography, navigational science, theology, and related subjects. He acquired some fluency in Latin, Spanish, and Portuguese, and he was able to comprehend complex ideas and make mathematical calculations beyond that which was normal for his background.(24) Association with Italian expatriated placed Columbus in the international networks of Italian intellectuals who had close ties to Florence, Genoa, and Venice.(25) Although more work needs to be done on this subject, Columbus's experience typifies how Renaissance innovative thought filtered down from intellectual centers such as Florence to practical merchants who put cosmological and geographical theory into practice.(26) Through his contacts, Columbus came to know the most up-to- date ideas in cartography and the theories behind them. Translations and studies of Ptolemy's and Strabo's geographies by Renaissance scientists became available to him. Samuel Y. Edgerton, Jr., has demonstrated how the combination of ancient map-making theory with Renaissance artistic perspective significantly influenced Columbus through the works of the great Florentine medical doctor and cartographer Paolo Toscanelli. New ideas about the Ocean Sea and its relationship to the world's landmass led Columbus to perceive it as a highway to Asia instead of a barrier. The greatest advance was the application of a grid system to cartography that "reduced the traditional heterogeneity of the world's surface to complete geometrical uniformity."(27) Columbus's geographic ideas were a product of fifteenth century science and of myth drawn from books he read and stories he heard. Much has been written about the rediscovery of ancient geographic writers and their contribution to the expansion of Europe.(28) Columbus was well aware of the ideas of Strabo, Ptolemy, Pliny, and others, but he relied primarily on the data in two fifteenth-century works. Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly's Imago mundi, the first geographical treatise since those of the medieval schoolmen some two centuries before, could be described as Columbus's favorite "bedtime reading." His copy comes down to us loaded with marginal notes in his hand. Perhaps the most important feature of d'Ailly's work was his mistaken belief that Asia extended farther in the Ocean Sea than it does.(29) Columbus's other handbook, a historical geography based on Ptolemy, was Historia rerum ubique gestarum by Enea Silvio Piccolomini (Pope Pius II).(30) Piccolomini incorporated information about China from Marco Polo and Odoric of Pordenone and advocated circumnavigation as a means of reaching that great land of wealth and trade. The Historia was the first book that we know Columbus read. His copious marginal notes are a gold mine of details that need careful study and analysis. Nonempirical knowledge also played a role in forming Columbus's geographical vision. A huge corpus of legend and oral tradition promised wealth and glory to the person who boldly sought the mysteries of lost biblical sites, fabled islands, and exotic peoples. Medieval didactic and travel literature abounded with tales that stimulated imagination and lured Europeans to explore the unknown parts of the world.(31) To this Columbus added his own theories about terrae incognitae. For example, he studied the geography of the Terrestrial Paradise at length and concluded that the Garden of Eden had to be located in precise and perfect antipodal balance to Jerusalem. Eden was the exact center of one hemisphere, Jerusalem the exact center of the other. The two holy mountains, Mt. Zion and the Mount of Purgatory, on top of which the Terrestrial Paradise sat, were thus base to base.(32) Varied experience, a self education that made him a voracious reader and student of science and theology, and a tenacious personality enabled Columbus to develop the plan of sailing to Asia across the Ocean Sea.(33) He had accumulated an array of theory, data, and mythology that convinced him that such a voyage was possible. He set out to persuade a major sovereign to invest in the enterprise, but the monarchs of Portugal, Spain, England, and France turned him down, usually due to suspicion of his calculations of the extent of the Ocean Sea. Columbus based his measurements on information found in ancient and medieval sources, as summarized by d'Ailly, where a degree equaled 56 2/3 land miles. Developing scientific thought among mathematicians in the universities of Columbus's time figured a degree at approximately sixty land miles. Thus modern minds knew that the distance from Iberia to Asia was too great for the technology of the fifteenth century. The key assumptions of Columbus's enterprise of the Indies were an underestimate of the size of the globe and an overestimate of the extension of the Asiatic continent eastward into the Ocean Sea. Selecting his sources carefully - that is, believing what he wished to believe - Columbus accepted the theory of a small planet and an extended landmass in the east. His imagination was supported by Toscanelli, who held with the Ptolemaic measurement of the earth's circumference as 18,000 miles. Subtracting landmass - actually, Eurasia - Toscanelli estimated a distance of some 5,000 miles between the Canary Islands and the Chinese city of Quinsay (Hangzhou). Columbus used his time on the coast of Africa, a few degrees north of the equator, to measure the circumference of the globe with navigational instruments. His poor mathematics or his desire to shorted the distance even more led him to conclude that the Canary Islands were only about 3,500 miles from Quinsay. Landing at Cipangu (Japan) made the trip shorter and logistically possible. To learned minds the time and distance involved also appeared too great to make transoceanic navigation economically feasible. The budding capitalistic economy of the fifteenth century depended on fast turnover of investment, and merchants were eager to expand into new territories.(34) The shrinkage of the Ocean Sea would accelerate production, exchange, and consumption.(35) Accordingly, Columbus could appeal to investors who were ready to receive his message and believe his estimates. Techniques of navigation allowed for very little margin of error. Although the Admiral of the Ocean Sea knew the latest technology for navigation, he tended not to use it.(36) He relied on celestial navigation by astrolabe and quadrant from time to time, but on the whole he trusted his abilities as a dead reckoning navigator. He continued the medieval usage of estimation latitude by the pole star but also made a personal copy of Abraham Zacuto's tables (published in 1478), which relied on the position of the sun as seen from the equator.(37) Columbus was so successful a navigator that he fixed the route for Spanish exploration for years to come by calculation the shortest, easiest way, especially on his second voyage, with the best wind and ocean currents in the middle latitudes. His genius in navigation has never been challenged. Even during the years of legal battle in the sixteenth century, in which the crown tried to discredit of limit his role in the discoveries, no one disputed his claim to be the greatest navigator of all times. Crossing the Ocean Sea depended on finding proper tracking - wind and water currents - and having enough food, water, and materials to sustain life at sea. The Atlantic has three basic large wind and sea currents. Perhaps Columbus's greatest scientific contribution was to identify at least two of these. He absorbed every scrap of navigational information, theoretical and practical, from the century-long near-ocean voyages of the Spanish, Portuguese, and Italians and applied it all to the demands of crossing the Sea of Darkness. Columbus knew what the ships of his times could do. Parry has shown how European ships were transformed into transglobal vessels between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries and how the caravel came to dominate ocean travel. This slim, light, low-in- the-water, lateen-rigged craft originated with the Arabs and was slowly converted into a maneuverable and durable ship for exploration by the Portuguese.(38) Columbus's choice of shops was limited by availability and a royal penalty imposed on the port of Palos de la Frontera (Palos had to supply two caravels to the crown for one year) by the monarchs, but as an ocean-going seaman he know what he wanted. Columbus was allowed to collect this fine. Additionally, he and his investors rented the Santa Maria, an ordinary cargo-carrying ship (nao). There is little accurate information about the sized and configurations of Columbus's three ships on the first voyage. Modern pictures of them are based either on estimated tonnage that is highly unreliable, since tonnage appraisals varied in the fifteenth century depending on regional practices, or on suppositions developed from contemporary drawings that show a variety of shapes and sizes. Columbus refitted his vessels in the Canary Islands before beginning the journey into uncharted waters. According to his log, this refitting was important, but he gives no details about it, except that the Nina's lateen sails were replaced by square rigging. (39) Historians continue to study the Admiral's personality and motives. It is true that he wanted wealth, power, and glory and that he saw himself as upwardly mobile in a society just beginning to open its structure. Others could have risen to the challenge of conquering the ocean space, and some did try without success. Yet in the end it was the strong determination and drive of the Genoese mariner that accomplished the feat. That he firmly believed in himself and his own abilities cannot be denied. Some have labeled his belief an idee fixe; John Larner calls it the "certainty of Columbus." (40) His undaunted, at times obsessive, dream was produced from his environment and education and fueled by his commercial and religious nature. Additionally, these merged with his scientific temperament to forge a strong belief that he was a man of destiny. (41) One of the most potent forces in Europe on the eve of the Age of Discovery was an apocalyptic desire to extend the Christian empire to the farthest ends of the earth. (42) In Spain, this missionary thrust was driven by Observantine Franciscan reformers who drew upon a long traditions of Spiritual Franciscanism. It was within the Observantine Franciscan house of Santa Maria de La Rabida that Columbus refined his schemes and came to view his discoveries as a part of divine history. (43) As he described it in the Libro de las profecias, written between the third and fourth voyages, "With a hand that could be felt, the Lord opened my mind to the fact that it would be possible to sail from here to the Indies, and he opened my will to desire to accomplish the project. This was the fire that burned within me when I came to visit Your Highnesses....the Holy Spirit....encouraged me with a radiance of marvelous illumination...uging me to press forward." (44) Linking his discoveries with apocalyptic traditions, Columbus knew that he was playing a role on God's stage of world history. COLLECTIONS AND EDITED SOURCE MATERIALS The life and voyages of Columbus are better substantiated than those of most other exploreres. (45) Documentation includes four basic sources: writings left by the admiral himself, government documents relating to his enterprise, writings by men closely associated with him, and sources derived from the other three. (46) Periodically, new documents appear. (47) Columbus left a mass of writing in his own hand. Over ninety letters, memoranda, supply lists, and miscellaneous documents survive in their entirety or in fragments. Discursive writings include the diary of the first voyage, which survives in a copied and abridged form, lengthy letters describing the third and foruth voyages, the Libro de las profecias, the Codex Diplomaticus (Book of Privilages), and a will. The admiral also wrote nearly 3,000 marginal notes in the extant books he owned; these notes range from one word to several pages of commentary. Most of his writings are in Spanish with occasional Portuguese, Latin, and Italian inclusions. All have been printed, and many have been translated. These documents are scattered around the world; the nucleus of his writings and the books he owned are in the Biblioteca Colombina at Seville. Although Columbus and his brother, Bartholomew, were noted map and chart makers, none of their products has been found that is universally accepted as authentic. One map and one freehand sketch are frequently attributed to the admiral, but even these are disputed. The map--so-called Christopher Columbus Chart, discovered by the French historian Charles de la Ronciere in 1924--was drawn sometime between 1492 and 1500. It has a mappamundi and a cosmotlogical diagram attached to a portolan sea chart. (48) The case of this being a Columbus-drawn map is weak. In a marginal not to d'Ailly's Imago mundi Columbus informs us that he had drawn four charts with a sphere, but this map is dated much later than that notation. Also, if the map was drawn by Columbus, it seems odd that it does not include any of his discoveries. Perhaps the most conclusive indication that the map is not by Columbus is that the notations on it are not in his hand. (49) The freehand sketch is of the northern coast of Hispaniola and contains very little detail that can be used to authenticate it. Official documents for Columbus and the early exploration of the New World suffered greatly before final organization. No archive was established for discovery-related materials until Charles V ordered their collection in 1543 at Simancas. By then, many documents had been lost. The Simancas archive was poorly administered; more documents disappeared. Philip II made an effort to preserve materials in 1567 but with little success. At last, in 1788, Charles III had all records relating to the discovery moved from every repository to Seville, where the massive Archive of the Indies was organized. (50) That facility is still not completely catalogued. Other repositories in Spain include the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid, family archives, city archives, and monasteries. Italy, too, has extensive collections of Columbus material, especially in Genoa. (51) New searches for Columbus material need to be made in the repositories of Portugal and the Vatican. (52) Many relevant documents have scattered to other countries. (53) Efforts to identify authentic sources, to present them in modern editions, and to study them linguistically have been going on since the sixteenth century. Until recently, such efforts have been conducted mainly by the Spanish and the Italians whithout much collaboration. The Coleccion de Documentos Ineditos para la Historia de Espana, under the direction of Martin Fernandez de Navarrete, and the Raccolta di documenti e studi pubblicati dell'America, edited by Cesare de Lollis, represent the culmination of such endeavors in the nineteenth- century. (54) One of the most important scholarly contributions to the quincentenary is an international effort led by Taviani in Italy and Consuelo Varela in Spain to produce the Nuova Raccolta Colombiana. (55) This ambitious project has already generated three volumes: Giornale di bordo, La scoperta del Nuovo Mundo negli scritti di Pietro Matire d'Anghiera, and La Liguria e Genova al temp di Colombo. A re-editing and amplification of the 1892 Raccolta, the Nuova Raccolta will comprise texts, documents, essays, and monographs. This collaborative work intends to present complete documentation of European activity directly related to Columbus and his voyages. Selected volumes of the Nuova Raccolta are to appear in English translation, coordinated by Ohio State University, but the same press, Instituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato of Rome, will publish the translations with facing-page English rather than Italian. To date, only one English volume is avialable. Selected Columbus documents are being reproduced in facsimile, complete with wormholes, water stains, and tears in a serious titled Colleccion Tabula Americae. (56) Under the editorial direction of Francisco Morales Padron, these documents, although expensive, will enable libraries everywhere to own exact copies of originals. Accompanying each replica is a modern textual edition with Spanish translation and scholarly commentary by leading Columbus scholars. In the companion volume to Marco Polo's travels, for example, Juan Gil summarizes and presents the most recent scholarship on Polo and his influence upon Columbus. (57) Two similar projects on a slightly smaller scale are the Columbian Quicentenary Series from the University Presses of Florida and the Repertorium Columbianum coordinated by scholars at the University of California at Los Angeles. More broadly conveived in time and space, the University of Florida project focuses on discovery literature and the consequences of European and native American contact. The series includes translations of Euoropean and native American accounts of early contact as well as archaeological artifacts of pre-Columbian and Amerindian cultures. Three volumes have been published to date, with several more in press. The Repertorium Columbianum was designed by the late Fredi Chiappelli to include translations of all the European Documentary materials bearing on Columbus's career and four New World voyages. Original manuscripts and early printed sources are being re-edited for this project, using the most advanced linguistic technique, and the philological and historical commentary will take into account the latest research and interpretation. A data-base package will link the whole documentary corpus and facilitate future inquiry in fields as diverse as history, botany, geography, folklore, and linguistic. To date, two volumes are in press. (58) These massive undetakings would be neither possible nor valuable without modern scholarship relating to the sources. What distinguishes them from past collections is international collaboration among philologists, historians, linguists, and translators who have gone back to the archives to apply the tools of modern research, especially sophisticated computer software programs. (59) The most important revision and new edition of the writings of Columbus himself has been done by Varela, today's leading Columbian archival historain. In Cristobal Colon: Textos y doumentos completos; Relaciones de viajes, cartas y memoriales. Varela presents new editions of ninety-three documents plus a prologue, notes, glossary, indexes, and maps. (60) Her introduction is an excellent source of information on the provenance of texts, on determinations of probable content where more than one edition or manuscript exists, on the integrity of texts that lack Columbus's signature, and on techniques for establishing the most reliable readings. This single-volume collection has become the handbook for Columbus scholars; it supersedes all others in accuracy. To present a context for Columbus's letters and experience, Varela and her husband- collaborator, Juan Gil, have edited another publication, Cartas de particulares a Colon y relaciones coetaneas, which includes thirty-six additional documents. (61) The Columbus documents that has received the most attention from modern scholars is the day-to-day diary, or log, of the first voyage. Sent to the queen, the diary was copied, and the original vanished. What we have today is Las Casas's abridgment of a copy of the copy of the original. Accordingly, this document presents many problems. Did Las Casas change Columbus's observations? Did any of the copyists misrecord Columbus's calculations? Without the original, such questions cannot be answered. (62) Linguistic studies abound, with the most complete summary of the diary and studies about it in J. Arce Fernandez and G. Esteve, eds., Diario de a bordo de Cristobal Colon. The essays in this volume develop arguments about the linguistic- cultural background of Columbus and the diary's diction and style. (63) No studies, to my knowledge, analyze the diary within the genre of late medieval or Renaissance travel literature. The most readable of several recent editions of the diary is Robert H. Fuson's The Log of Christopher Columbus; Oliver Dun and James E. Kelly's The Diario of Christopher Columbus' first Voyage to American, 1492-1493 is the most scholarly. Each edition has extensive notes and introductory commentary. The best textual edition is by Taviani and Varela in the Nuova Raccota Colombiana. (64) The seven extand books Columbus owned and annotated reveal much about his knowledge of the world, his intellectual development, and the planning of his voyages. Columbus made numerous marginal notes, or postilles, in his books. The postilles were reproduced in part by Lollis in the 1892 Raccolta, but in a form and arrangement that scholars have found very unsatisfactory. Analyzing the postilles, Stefano Pittalugo concluded that Columbus saw his sources through "humanistic eyes." The notes show his wide-ranging interest in a variety of topics--scientific, economic, and religious--typical of the humanism of his times. (65) Giuseppe Caraci, recoginizing that the notes are direct documentary sources of Columbus's conceptual genesis, suggested twenty years ago that a multidisciplinary ginalia of Columbus be initiated. (66) But little has been done in this regard. Most of the postilles remain untranslated and unstudied. (67) One extant notebook in Columbus's personal library remained unstudied and untranslated for nearly 500 years-- the Libro de las profecias. That manuscript has finally received the attention it deserves. The Libro is a collection of biblical and nonbiblical prophecies gathered in 1501-1502 while the admiral was living a Nuestra Senora Santa Maria de las Cuevas monastery near Seville. He was busy at that time assembling his legal privileges and titles and preparing for the fourth voyage. Hence, most of the Libro is in the hands of his son Fernado and his friend and fellow Italian Father Gaspar Gorricio. The admiral added marginal notes here and there and made additions to the texts. He intended to use these writings as foundations for a lengthy apocalyptic poem to Ferdinand and Isabella. Prophetic poetry to a monarch had become a traditional genere in Spain. Formely declared the ramblins of a sick and depressed man, the Libro has proved to be instead the culmination of Columbus's lifetime of Buble study and the major statement of his eschatological beliefs. (68) The Libro de las profecias was written mostly in Latin with occasional Spanish additions. There is one Italian (Florentine) addendum in Columbus's hand. Appended to the Libro is a long letter from Columbus to Ferdinand and Isabella outlining his purpose for the collection and the prophetic meaning for his discoveries. D. Alvarez Seisdedos made a Spanish translation of the Libro to accompany the Coleccion Tabula Americae. (69) The first translation into English, accompanied by a lengthy study of Columbus's piety and the apocalyptic genre of the Libro de las profecias, has been completed recently by this writer. (70) Columbian scholars have long been attracted to the admiral's copy of Marco Polo's travels, De consuetudanibus et conditionibus orienta lium regionum. (71) The most important questions here are: what did Columbus learn from this work? when did he read it? when did he annotate it? Gil has drawn together studies that tend to show that Columbus did not read or annotate Marco Polo until after the first voyage. He concludes that Columbus received the book from John Day in 1497 and that his heavy notation was a reaction to the pressures created by his discovery and his claims about it. (72) Another early document to receive extensive study is the "Capitulations of Santa Fe" authorizing Columbus's first voyage. This document is important to Columbian studies and to the general subject of Spanish colonial activities. The most imposing analysis is by B. Garcia Martinez, who compared the "Capitulations" to seventy-three other agreements between the crown and early explorers and detailed 105 clauses defining the activities of these agents of the crown. (73) Many original sources written shortly after the admiral's death are included in the collections noted above. Some work has been done on these. Antonio Rumeu de Armas's Hernando Colon, historiador del descubrimiento de America is a major study about the admiral's son Fernando and Fernando's Historia del Almirante Don Cristobal Colon that presents Fernando as humanist, book collector, scholar, and historian. (74) Rumeu de Armas also gives a detailed account and analysis of the Historia. Fernando was close to his father, helped him collect the materials for the Libro de las profecias, accompanied him on the fourth voyage, and spent his life as a bibliophile, accumulating one of the largest private collections of printed books and manuscripts in the sixteenth century. Columbus shared privileged information, and Fernando had his father's papers and notes available. Although this first biography contains many details from sources now lost, the Historia was written to aggrandize the father and must therefore be read with some care. A new edition of Peter Martyr's De Orbe Novo has been published in the Nuova Raccolta Colombiana. Martyr, a noted humanist who served as secretary to eminent churchmen in Rome, traveled to Sapin around 1487 and found a position at court with Queen Isabella. Charles V appointed him to the Council of the Indies in 1518 and made him royal chronicler in 1520. Martyr was the first important historian of the Spanish discoveries. He knew many of the early explorers, including Columbus, personally. A team effort by several scholars, the Nuova Raccolta edition presents Martyr's Latin text with facing pages of Italian translation followed by five learned essays by the editors, a strong bibliography, indexes, and notes. (75) Miscellaneous studies dealing with supplemental sources have added to our knowledge and opened new avenues of research. Alicia Gould, for example, spent much of her life searching the archives to document the first voyage and produced an exhaustive study of the planning of the "enterprise of the Indies." (76) Both Quinn and Varela have suggested that the Englishman John Day and Columbus coresponded in 1497, sharing ideas that affected Columbus's view of discovery during the third voyages. (77) Gil has served scholarship by examining the account books in the Casa de Contratacion, the treasury of Hispaniola, the Libro de Armadas, royal schedules and letters, and Columbus's own memoranda on his economic affairs; Gil concludes that the admiral died very rich. (78) The third voyage has received increasing attention from scholars. This was the so-called high voyage dedicated to the Holy Trinity. Columbus sailed further south hoping to find a fourth continent that theoretically lay in balance with the three known continents of the single landmass, the location of Eden, and gold, which he believed accumulated nearer to the equator. (79) Columbus thought he had found the first two when he sailed around Trinidad and into the Gulf of Paria. Gil has made a complete survey and careful analysis of documents concerning the third voyage. (80) The strong current of the Orinoco River, the near invisibility of the pole star, and unusual compass readings caused Columbus to reconsider his cosmology and geography. J. Lopez de Coca Castaner has examined the results through a letter written by Juan Claver to Ludovico Sforza, duke of Milan, concerning the third voyage. This letter elaborates on the descriptions of a pear-shaped earth that Columbus envisioned due to natural phenomena he encountered off Trinidad. (81) Lopez de Coca does not pursue how this description might have fit into or affected geographical thinking in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. CONCLUSION Suggestions for further research on Columbus and the events of 1492 have been made throughtout this essay. It still is not clear, for example, when and how Columbus conceived of the voyage across the Ocean Sea, nor have we fully grasped his intellectual preparation. (82) The key to this gap in our knowledge may well be found in the marginal notes that survive in the books Columbus owned. Through the explorer's interaction with his texts, one can see his mind at work and how he formed his goals. We can examine his education, learning, and mode of thinking through his ability to assimilate information. (83) Scholars also need to investigate Columbus's use of libraries, (84) the map traditions he followed, and how information was transferred from a handful of scholars in Renaissance cneters of learning to merchant seamen. (85) Important questions remain about Columbus's psychology, his integration of religion and sience, and his amalgamation of myth, legend, and science to produce his own distinctive views in cosmology and geography. At the other end of his voyages, the admiral needs to be considered as anthropologist and naturalist. (86) A multidisciplinary approach is recommended. (87) Other ares of investigation include Columbus's relationship to the Observantine Franciscan reform movement, his social and business world, his familiarity with technical innovations (both those he accepted and those he rejected). In view of recent criticism of his attitudes toward native peoples and the New World environment, Columbus's administrative abilities should be studied definitively. Intensified efforts by scholars during the past quarter century have broadened our knowledge of Columbus and his times. Modern technology has enabled researchers to handle more data in producing studies that place Columbus within his global environment. Especially important have been efforts to study the life and times of the admiral and his accomplisments in the context of fifteenth-century intellectual, economic, political, and social history. These efforts have not diminished his historic role; rather, they yield a clearer understanding of how he surmounted the ocean space and brought together the two halves of the world previously known to each other. Since each generation asks its own questions about the past, it should not be surprising that Columbus studies continue to flourish. Today we are concerned with race and gender, environmental history, and comparative cultural studies. Columbus and the events of 1492 lend themselves to these inquiries. Much remains to be done to understand Columbus and his enterprise fully. (88) Delno West is professor of history at Northern Arizona University. He is grateful for continued support from the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, New Jersey. (1) Standard bibliographies for Columbus are Simonetta Conti, Unsecolo di bibliografia colombiana (1880-1985) (Genoa, 1986) Foster Provost, Christopher Columbus: An Annotated Guide to the Scholarship on his Life and Writings, 1750-1988 (Providence and Detroit, 1991), and Joseph P. Sanchez, Jerry L. Gurule, and William H. Broughton, Bi8liografia Colombiana, 1492- 1990: Books, Articles, and Other Publicationson the Life and Times of Christopher Columbus (Albuquerque, N. M., 1990). This last is cumbersome to use and incomplete. The best and most comprehensive is Provost's; it gives easy access to nearly every aspect of Columbus and his enterprise in a usable format with every entry annotated. Bibliographic essays include Conti, "orientamenti bibliografici colombiani," Columbeis I, ed. Stefano Pittaluga (Genoa, 1986), 77-92, John Larner, "The Certainty of Columbus: Some Recent Studies," History, LXXIII (1988), 3-23, and Gabriella de Paoli, Maria Lucia, and Graziella Galliano, Contributi alla bibliografia colombiana (Genoa, 1980). Each issue of the journal of the Society for the History of Discoveries Terrae Incognitae, includes a section on "Recent Literature of Discovery History." Much more than a bibliography is The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia, ed. Silvio Bedini, 2 vols. (New York, 1991), containing over 350 articles written by 150 contributors from around the world, with cross references,bibliographies for each article, blind entries, and a comprehensive indes. The volumes are illustrated with hundreds of maps, drawings, and photgraphs. (2) See, for example, Timothy Dwight, The Conquest of Canaan (Hartford, Conn., 1785), Philip Freneau, "The Pictures of Columbus, The Genoese," in The Poems of Philip Freneau, Poet of The American Revolution. ed. Fed Louis Pattee (Princeton, N.J., 1902), or Joel Barlow, The Columbiad: A Poem (Philadelphia, 1807). The Columbus myth in America has been investigated by Delno West and August Kling, "Columbus and Columbia: A brief Survey of the Early Creation of the Columbus Symbol in American History," Studies in Popular Culture, XII (1989), 45-60. (3) Washington Irving, A History of the Life and voyages of Christopher Columbus, 4 vols. (New York, 1828). Samuel Eliot Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 2 vols. (New York, 1942). Morison paraphrased this work somewhat and updated his notes in The European Discovery of America: The Southern Voyages. A.D. 1492-1616 (New York, 1974). Also re[prented and updated is Cesare de Lollis, Cristoforo Colombo nella storia (Florence, 1969; orig. pub. 1892), rev. Elio Migliorini. (4) (Novaa, 1974, 1984), trans. William Weaver (London, 1985). An English translation of the second volume is scheduled for 1992. (5) Jacques Heers, Christophe Colomb (Paris, 1981), and Marianne Mahn-Lot, Christophe Colomb (Paris, 1960), with English Translation by Helen R. Lane (London, 1961). (6) J. Caraci, "Genova e Colombo," Scritti Geografici di Interesse Libure (Genoa, 1984), 227-255, on the problem of Columbus's nationality and why his Genoese origins have been doubted. There is little doubt among scholars about his birthplace. Nevertheless, there is no lack of advocates claiming the admiral for Greece, France, Spain, Majorca, and elsewhere. This issue should be put to rest by Taviani, La Genovesita di Colombo (Genoa, 1987), and Gaetano Ferro, La Liguria e Genova al tempo di Colombo (Rome, 1988). Other studies of interest are Piero Sanavio, Adriana Martinelli, and Caterina Sanna, eds., Christoforo Colombo nella Genova del suo tempo (Turin, 1985), and Gianfranco Rovani, Quinto e Cristoforo Colombo (Genoa, 1986). For the Columbus family in Liguria see G. Blais, "Per la storia dei Colombo in Liguria nel secolo XV," Atti del III Convegno Internazionale di Studi Colombiani (Genoa, 1979), 219-234. Perhaps the best studies of the various aspects of his orgins, life, and ideas can be found in recent essay collections produced from international conferences. See, for example, Columbeis I and Columbeis II. ed. Pittaluga (Genoa, 1987), Atti del Convergno Internazionale di Studi Colombiani (Genoa, 1974), Atti del II Convegno Internazionale di Studi Colombiani (Genoa, 1977), Attidel III...Colmbiani. Columbus and His World: Proceedings. First San Salvador Conference. ed. Donald Gerace (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., 1986), and Temi Colombiani. Scritti in Onore di Paolo Emilio Taviani (Genoa, 1986). (7) According to Henri Harrisse, Notes on Columbus (New York, 1866), at least 3 are known: a navigation table (or tables) mentioned by Antonio Rodriquez de Leon Pinelo, a "Treatise on the five Habitable Zones," and "On the Discovery of the Arctic Pole." (8) For a summary and interpretation of facts and conjectures, including an extensive bibliography, see Sanavio, "Giovenezza di Cristoforo Colombo," in Sanavio et al., eds., Cristoforo Colombo. 329-337. (9) Giovanna Petti Balbi, "La scuola a Genova e Cristoforo Colombo," Columbeis II. ed. Pittaluga, 31-36, surmises that he attended the weaver's guild school. Aldo Agosto, "In quale 'Pavia' studio Colombo?" ibid., 131-136, advocates the monastery. Attendance at the monastery school would help explain the admiral's ability to grasp complex mathematical and scientific concepts better than attendance at a guild school. (10) Jaime Cortesao and A. Teixeira da Mota, El viaje de Diogo de Teive. Colon y los Portugueses (Valladolid, Sp., 1975), especially Teixeira da Mota, "Colon y los Portugueses," 30-63. Fernado Morais do Rosario, "A escala de Colombo em Lisboa no viagem de descobrimento do novo mondo," Atti III ... Colombiani, 457-466. (11) Provost, "Columbus's Seven Years in Spain Prior to 1492," in Gerace, ed., Columbus and His World. 57-68; Taviani, "Brevi cenni sulla residenza di Colombo in Andalusia," La presencia italiana in Andalusia nel basso medioevo. Atti del II Colloquio Italiano-Spagnolo (Bologna, 1986), 7-12. The standard study of Columbus's activities during these years in Juan Manzano Manzano, Cristobal Colon: Siete anos decisivos de su vida. 1485- 1492 (Madrid, 1964). Other important works include Bibiano Torres Ramirez, "Las estancias de Cristobal Colon en Tierras de Huelva," Rabida (Huelva, Sp.), I (1985), 31-35; Juan Gil and B. Garcia, "Naturalizaciones de italianos en Andalucia." La Presencia italiana en Andalucia. Siglos XIV-XVII. Actas del I coloquio Hispano-Italiano (Seville, 1985), 175-186, F. Castellano, "Domestici di Cristoforo e Diego Colombo," Atti III ... Colombiani. 515-520, and Demetrio Ramos Perez, Los Colon y sus pretensiones continentales; los planos sobre Norteamerica. Venezuela. Mexico, y Peru (Valladolid, Sp., 1977) On Columbus's relationship with Beatriz Enriquez de Arana see Alberto Boscolo, "Gli Esbarroya amici a Cordova di Cristoforo Colombo," Atti della Societa Ligure di Storia Patira (Genoa, 1983) 123-131. (12) The standard study is Carlo M. Cipolla, European Culture and Overseas Expansion (Harmondsworth, Eng., 1970). (13) Pistarino, "II medioevo in Cristoforo Colombo," Saggi e Documenti. VI (1985), 451-477. See also Heers, "Le projet de Christophe Colomb," Columbeis I. ed. Pittaluga, 7-26. (14) Adas, Machines as the Measure of Men: Science, Technology and Ideologies of Western Dominance (Ithaca, N. Y., 1989). See also J. H. Parry, The Discovery of the Sea (Berkeley, Calif., 1981). (15) Braudel, Capitalism and Material Life. 1400-1800. trans. Miriam Kochan (New York, 1975); Chaunu, European Expansion in the Later Middle Ages. trans. Katherine Bertram (Amsterdam, 1979). (16) Consider also the boom in mining and metallurgy after 1460; see John Nef, The conquest of the Material World (Chicago, 1964). (17) Braudel, Capitalism, 309. (18) Two collections of essays from symposia devoted to this topic cover msot aspects and bibliography: Ramirez and Jose Hernandez Palomo, eds., La presenza italiana in Andalucia...Actas I, and La presencia italiana in Andalusia...Atti II. (19) Stanley Schwartz, The Iberian Mediterranean and Atlantic Traditions in the Formation of Columbus as a Colonizer (Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn., 1986), 18. (20) The literature during the past 26 years on this topic is extensive. For Pinelli see Boscolo, "II Genovese Francisco Pineeli," La presenza italiana in Andalucia...Actas I, 249-266. Other studies by Boscolo, including a general essay on Florentines in Andalusia, are in his Saggi su Cristoforo Colombo (Rome, 1986) see also John Parker, The World for a Marketplace: Episodes in the History of European Expansion (Minneapolis, Minn., 1978), and Ruthe Pike, Enterprise and Adventure: The Genoese in Seville and the Opening of the New World (Ithaca, N. Y., 1966). (21) The standard study is Huguette Chaunu and Pierre Chaunu, Seville et l'Atlantique, 1504-1650, 8 vols. (Paris, 1955- 1956). (22) Parry, The Age of Reconnaissance (New York, 1964), 165. (23) Frenandez-Armesto, Before Columbus: Exploration and Colonization from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, 1229-1492 (Philadelphia, 1987), 252. (24) For a review of the literature concerning Columbus's language abilities see Giorgio Bertoni, "Appunti sugle italianismi linguistici di Columbo," Columbeis II. ed. Pittaluga, 19-29. Recent studies include Virgil I, Milani, The Written Language of Christopher Columbus (Buffalo, N.Y., 1973), and two articles in Atti del II Convegno Internazionale di Studi Americani (Genoa, 1976): Giuseppi Caraci and I. Luzzana Caraci, "Il latino di Columbo," 87-93, and Osvaldo Chiareno, "Recenti studi sulla lingua scritti di Columbo," 107-117. (25) These intellectual associations are documented in Boscolo, "Fiorentini in Andalusia all'epica di Cristoforo Colombo," Saggi su Cristoforo Columbo, and Consuelo Varela, Colon y los florentinos (Madrid, 1988). (26) Gil, Mitos y utopias del descubrimiento, 3 vols. (Madrid, 1988). Vol. 1 concentrates on Columbus's ideas about his enterprise and its results and his responce to criticism and attempts to delineate his scientific theories. (27) Edgerton, The Renaissance Rediscovery of Linear Perspective (New York, 1975), 113. (28) The standard study is J. Brian Harley and David Woodward, The History of Cartography, vol. 1: Cartography in Prehistoric, Ancient, and Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean (Chicago, 1987). (29) See Edmund Buron, Ymago Mundi e Pierre d'Ailly. Teste latin et francais des quatre traites cosmographiques de d'Ailly et des notes marginales de Christophe Colomb. Etudes sur les sources de l'Auteur, 3 Vols. (Paris, 1930). The best study of Columbus's use of d'Ailly is Pauline Moffitt Watts, "Prophecy and Discovery: On the Spiritual Origins of Christopher Columbus's `Enterprise of the Indies.'" American Historical Review, XC (1985), 73-102. (30) For this work see Opera quae extant omnia, ed. M. Hopperus (Basel, 1551). For a condensed version with Columbus's marginal notes see Raccolta di documenti e studi pubblicati della R. Commissione Colombiana per quarto centenario della scoperto dell'America, ed. C. De Lollis, pt. 1, vol. 2: Scritti di Cristoforo Columbo, "Postille alla Historia rerum di Pio II" (Rome, 1894), 29Iff. (31) Examples are found in Christian K. Zacher, Curiosity and Pilgrimage (Baltimore, 1976), and Mary Campbell, Witness and the Other World: Exotic European Travel Writing, 400- 1600 (Ithica, N.Y., 1988). Gil, El libro de Marco Polo anotado por Cristoval Colom. El libro de Marco: version de Rodrigo de Santeilla (Madrid, 1987), contains an excellent introduction on the influence of travel literature. See also interesting essays by Geers, "De Marco Polo a Cristophe Colomb: comment lire le Divesement du monde?" Journal of Medieval History, X (1984), 125- 143, and Raymond H. Ramsey, No Longer on the Map: Discovering Places That Never Were (New York, 1972). (32) For qan analysis of this and other biblical sites see my forthcoming "Christopher Columbus, Lost Biblical Sites and the Last Crusade," Catholic Historical Review. (33) Two relevant studies are Emiliano Jos, El plan y le genesis del descubrimiento (Valladolid, sp., 1980), and Charles Verlinden, Cristoforo Colombo. Visione e perseveranza (Rome, 1985). (34) D. W. Waters, "Science and the Techniques of Navigation in the Renaissance," in Art, Science, and History in the Renaissance, ed. Charles S. Singleton (Baltimore, 1967), 190- 191. (35) Henri Lefebvre, La production de l'espace (Paris, 1974), investigates this phenomenon. (36) A summary of recent studies is in German Galfrascoli, "Nautica y ciencias geograficas en la epoca de Colon," Atti III...Colombiani, 235-256. See also Waters, "Science and the Techniques of Navigation." (37) C. V. Solver and G. J. Marcus, "Dead Reckoning and the Ocean Voyages of the Past," The Mariner's Mirror, XLIV (1958), 18-34. (38) Parry has summarized the history of the caravel in Age of Reconnaissance and Discovery of the Sea. Other important studies include J. Maria Martinez-Hidalgo, Columbus's Ships, trans. and ed. H. Chapelle (Barre, Mass., 1966), and E. Etayo, Naos y carabelas de los descubrimientos y las naves de Colon (Pamplona, Sp., 1971). Although primarily concerned with naval ships in the 16th century, Carla Rahn Phillips, Six Galleons for the King of Spain: Imperial Defense in the Early Sixteenth Century (Baltimore, 1986), encompasses general ship-building history during the late 15th century. (39) Robert H. Fuson, trans., The Log of Christopher Columbus (Camden, Me., 1987), 58-60. For the recent discovery of a 1498 cargo receipt for the Nina see Eugene Lyons, "Nina, Ship of Discovery," in First Encounters: Spanish Explorations in the Caribbean and the United States, 1492-1570, ed. Jerald T. Milanich and Susan Milrath (Gainesville, Fla, 1989). (40) Larner, "Certainty of Columbus," 3. (41) Chiareno summarizes Columbus's religious enthusiasm and the attempt to canonize him during the late 19th century in "La religiosita de Cristoforo Colombo e le polemiche sui tentativi per la sua canonizzazione," in his La lingua di Colombo e altri scritti di Americanisti (Genoa, 1988), 27-50. (42) John W. O'Malley, "Fulfillment of the Christian Golden Age under Pope Julius II: Text and Discourse of Gilles of Viterbo, 1507," Traditio, XXV (1969), 273. On how Europeans believed New World natives to be by nature monothiestic due to 1st-century apostolic visits see G. Gliozzi, "The Apostles in the New Wirkdm" History and Anthropology, III (1987), 123-148, West, "Medieval Ideas of Apocalyptic Mission and the Early Franciscans in Mexico," The Americas, XLIV (1989), 273-313, and John Phelan, The Millennial Kingdom of the Franciscans in the New World (Berkeley, Calif., 1970). (43) West and Kling, The Libro de las proficias of Christopher Columbus (Gainesville, Fla, 1991), 3Iff. See also Leonard I. Sweet, "Christopher Columbus and the Millennial Vision of the New World," Catholic Historical Review, LXXII (1986), 369- 382, and the seminal study by Alain Milhou, Colon y su mentalidad mesianica en el ambiente franciscanista espanol (Valladolid, Sp., 1983). Three related studies of importance are by Gil: "Los Franciscanos y Colon," Actas del I Congreso Internacional sobre Los Franciscanos en el Nuevo mundo (Madrid, 1987), which presents convincing circumstantial evidence that Columbus was a member of the Third Order of St. Francis, "Colom y la Casa Santa," Historiografia y bibliografia americanistas, XXI (1977), 125-130, and Mitos y utopias, esp. vol. 1. (44) West and Kling, Libro de las profecia. 105. (45) In addition to bibliographies cited in note 1, general introductions to archives and bibliographical lists of primary sources and secondary literature include Alberto Boscolo, "Ricerche su Cristoforo Colombo e sulla sua epoca," Atti III...Colombiani, 51-58. Specialized bibliographies include antonia Heredia Gerrera, "Documentos colombinos en el archivo de la diputacion de Sevilla," Archivo Hispalense, LXIV (1983), 101- 108, Gabriella Boscolo, "Saggio de bibliografia colombiana," in A. Boscolo, ed., Saggi e Documenti, II (Genoa, 1981), 400-459, Anna Salone, Opere colombiane della biblioteca universitaria de Genova (Genoa, 1987), Galliano, "Guida alle opere di interesse colombiane consevate presso le principale biblioteche di Genova (Saggio bibliografico)," Atti III...Colombiani, 713-722, Jose Aboal Amaro, Catalogo sistematico de la Biblioteca Colombina de Montevideo. Republica Oriental del Uraguay (Montevideo, Uru., 1966), T. Maria Martinez, Obras y libros de Hernando Colon (Madrid, 1970), Carlos Sanz, "Consecuencias del descubrimiento de America deducidas de la bibliografia y tomando como eje los descubrimientos geograficos," Boletin de la Real Sociedad Geografica, CI (1965), 105-118, and Richard L. Gardner and Donald C. Henderson, Columbus and Related Family Papers, 1451-1902: An Inventory of the Boal Collection (University Park, Pa., 1974). (46) For the most recent introduction to the backgroun and sources of Columbus's enterprise see Heers, Le Projet de Colomb, somewhat revised in "Le projet de Christophe Colomb," Columbeis I, ed. Pittaluga, 6-26. (47) Dr. Consuelo Varela is editing Columbus letters that recently surfaced in Spain. (48) Bibliotheque Nationale, cartes et palns res. G AA. 562. La Ronciere, La Carte de Christophe Colomb (Paris, 1924). For a beautiful reproduction of this map and the arguments surrounding it see Kenneth Nebenzahl, Atlas of Columbus and the Great Discoveries (Chicago, 1990), 22-25. David B. Quinn gives a complete bibliography of the map and arguments surrounding it in "Columbus and the North: England, Iceland, and Ireland," William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Ser., XLIX (April 1992). (49) Quinn, in "Columbus and the North," makes a much stronger case by redating the map. (50) For an excellent introduction to the archive, its formation, and its organization see Manuel Romero Tallafigo, "La instalacion del Archivo General de Indes en Sevilla: vicisitudes de un proyecto archivistico," Primeras Jornadas de Andalucia y America (Seville), II (1982), 151-162, and "El archivia general de las Indias: Acceso a las fuentes documentales sobre Andalucia y America en el sigle XVI," Andaluca y America en el siglo XVI. Actas de las II Jornadas de Andalucia y America, ed. Ramirez and Polomo (Seville, 1983), I, 455-484. (51) The major family archive is held by the duke of Veragua, De Laurencin, Documentos de Colon en el Archivo de la Casa Ducal de Veragua, 3 vols. (Madrid, 1922-1927). Gabriella boscolo, "Saggio de bibliografia colombiana," lists books and articles on Columbus in libraries in Madrid, Barcelona, and Rome. See also La sala colombiana dell'Archivio di Stato di Genova, ed. Agosto (Rome, 1974), and Laura Balletto, La mostra e il catalogo della Sala Colombiana dell'Archivio di Stato di Genova (Cagliari, It., 1976). (52) There is no separate catalog of Vatican materials relating specifically to Columbus and his enterprise. A partial list of Portuguese Columbus archives is included in the outdated Documentos do archivo nacional da torre do tombo, acera das navegacoes e conquitas portuguezas, publicados por orden do governo de S. M. Fidelissima ao celebras se a commemoracao quadricentenario do descobrimiento de America (Lisbon, 1892). The Portuguese archives have never recovered fully from the devastating 18th-century earthquake. (53) Primary repositories in the United States include the Library of Congress, the John Carter Brown Library, the Newberry Library, the John Ford Bell Library at the University of Minnesota, the University of Wisconsin Library (mostly maps), and the New York Public Library. Other western hemisphere countries also have materials in their collections. Much work remains in cataloguing collections in Caribbean and Latim American countries. An example of the richness o holdings in these countries can be seen in Jose Aboal Amaro, Catalogo sistematico de la Biblioteca Colombina de Montevideo. Republica Oriental del Uruguay (Montevideo, Uru., 1966). (54) Navarrete (Madrid, 1847) and de Lollis (Rome, 1892). (55) Instituto Poligrafico e Zecca delo Stato (Rome, 1988). (56) (Madrid, 1984- ). These are distributed in the United States by Kraus Reprints, Millwood, N. Y. (57) Gil, El libro de Marco Polo: ejemplar anotado por Cristobal Colon y que se conserva en la biblioteca capitular y columbina de Sevilla (Madrid, 1986). (58) Columbian Quincentenary Series. ed. Michael Gannon (Gainesville, Fla., 1989). This series will include documents and studies dealing with all aspects of the discovery, encounter, and exchange between Europe and the Americans; some have never been printed before. The Repertorium Columbianum will be published by the University of California Press. Descriptions of both projects are based on the series's publicity brochures. Two other collections are of interest. Quinn et al.'s 5-volume The American World: A Documentary History of North America to 1612 (New York, 1979) presents documents relating to the discovery and exploration of North America. Vol. 1 contains many Columbian documents in English translation. Although not directly related to Columbus's life or enterprise, records assembled by Antonio Muro Orejon, ed., Pleitos Colombinos. 8 vols. (Seville, 1967- ), detail the litigation by the Spanish crown against the admiral's heirs in order to diminish the role played by Columbus in the discovery of newfound lands. See also Luis Arranz Marquez, "Cuatro documentos colombinos," Revista de Indias. XLIV (1985), 349-371, for 4 documents related to Diego Colon, including his lawsuit against the crown. (59) Theodore Cachey calls attention to traditional textual corruptions, misreadings, and misinterpretations in the basic Columbus documents in "The Earliest Literary Responce of Renaissance Italy to the New World Encounter," Selected Papers of Columbus and His Times (New York, 1989), 24-35. (60) (Madrid, 1982; rev. 1984, 1986). The latest revision contains 29 more documents than the original. (61) (Madrid, 1984). Supplementing these two books are Varela, "Aproximacion a los escritos de Cristobal Colon," Actas de las V Jornadas de Estudios Canarias America (Santa Cruz, Sp., 1985), and Cristobal Colom: los cuatro viajes y el testamento (Madrid, 1986). Varela studies Diego Alvarez Chanca's chronicle of the second voyage as a primary source, comparing Chanca to many other early biographers of the admiral such as Peter Martyr and Andres Bernaldez, in "Dr. Diego Alvarez Chanca, cronista del segundo viaje colombino," Historiografia y Bibliografia Americanistas. XXIX (1985), 1-48). (62) The National Geographic Society addressed these and other problems with the diary while trying to reconstruct the route of Columbus's first voyage. See A Columbus Casebook. ed. Joseph Judge (Washington, D. C., 1986). (63) (Alpignano, Sp., 1971). Another good translation with notes is Gaetano Ferro, Diario de bordo: Libro della prima mavigazione e scoperta delle Indie (Milan, 1985). Other studies include Rumeu de Armas, "El Diario de a Bordo de Cristobal Colon: el problema de la paternidad del estracto," Revista de Indias. XXXVI (1976), 7-17, Francisco Morales Padron, "Presentacion del Diario del Descubrimiento. La Espana ante el Descubrimiento de America," Revista general de Marina, CCVII (1984), 551-556. and "La ultima version del Diario de Colon," in La Presencia Italiana in Andalusia...Atti II. 39-52, George Bertone, "L'occhio, l'ancora, la scrittura, lo sguardo dell'almirante," Columbeis II, ed. Pittaluga, 153-180, and Chiareno, "Postille linguistiche al `Diario de a bordo' de Cristoforo Colombo," Bolletino dell'Istituto di Lingue Estere, IX (1973), 147-156. (64) (Camden, Me., 1987); (Norman, Okla., 1987). Taviani and Varela, Il Giornale de Bordo, Libro della Prima Navigazione e Scoperta delle Indie, 2 vols. (Rome, 1988). The first lexical concordance of the document is Anna Mignone, "Index verborum Columbianus: Il Diario de Bordo," Columbies II, ed. Pittaluga, 41-102. (65) Pittalugo, "Cristoforo Columbo amanuense (e il suo incunabolo del `Catholicion' de Giovanni Balbi)," Columbeis II, ed. Pittaluga, 150. (66) "A proposito delle `postille' colombiane," in Pubblicazione dell'Istituto de Scienze Geografiche (genoa), XVIII (1971), 3015. See also I. L. Caraci, "La postilla B 858 e el suo significato cronologico," Atti II...Colombiani, 197-223, which follows the same suggestion while attempting to date the famous note 858 in d'Ailly, Imago mundi. (67) Piittaluga, "Il `volcabulario' usato da Cristoforo Colombo (una postilla all'Historia rerum di Pio II e la lessicografia medievale)," Columbeis I, ed. Pittalugo, 107-115, finds Columbus's notes similar to margginal notes by Italian humanists. Pietro barozzi, "Le postille colombiane al Milione," Scritti geografici in onore de Aldo Sestino (Florence, 1982), 53- 65, concludes that Columbus never intended any circumnavigation of the globe. marina Conti, "Le postille di Cristoforo Colombo alla `Naturalis Historia' de Plinio il Vecchio," Temi Colombiani, 76-91, attempts to date and to demonstrate the importance of the postilles in Columbus's copy of Pliney's Natural History. (68) Historians' reactions to this document have varied over the centuries. See my "Wallowing in a Theoretical Stupor or a Steadfast and Consuming Faith: Scholarly Encounters with Columbus's Libro de las profecia," in Columbus and His World, ed. Gerace, 45-56. (69) (Madrid, 1984). See also Gabriella Moretti, "Nec sit terris ultima Thule. (La profezia de Seneca sulla scoperta nel Nuovo Mondo)," Columbeis I, ed. Pittalugo, 95-106, for a study of Seneca's prediction copied by Columbus in the Libro de las profecias. (70) See above, note 43. (71) Il Milione, F. Pipino (Antwerp, 1485). (72) Gil, El libro de Marco Polo, 108-109. Another edition of Columbus's copy reprinted with an Italian translation id L. Giovanninni, Marco Polo, Il Milione: con le postille di Cristoforo Colombo (Rome, 1985). (73) Martinez, "Ojeada a las Capitulaciones para la conquista de America," Revista de histora de America, LXIX (1970), 1-40. See also Ernesto Lunardi, "Le `Capitulaciones de Santa Fe': gli interessi dei Re Cattolici e dei genovesi nella creasione del titolo `Almirante del Mar Oceano'" Atti II...Colombiani, 277-305, which suggests that the monarchs were attempting to limit the power of the admiral of Castile by creating this new title. F. Undina Martorell, "Las capitulacione de Colon y problemas que plantes," Saggi e Documenti, VI (1985), 427-433, studies the paleography of the document. A companion study is Rumeu de Armas, Un escrito desconocido de Cristobal Colon el memorial de la mejorada (Madrid, 1972), analyzing the July, 1497 memorandum to the crown in which Columbus interpreted the Alexandrine bulls and the Treaty of Tordesillas. See also Lazzaro Maria de Bernardis, "Le bolle Alessandrine, San Roberto Bellarmino, e la `potestas indirecta in temporalibus,'" Atti III...Colombiani, 547-564. (74) (Madrid,1973). The standard translation and study in English is Fernando Colon, The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus, trans. Benjamin Keen (New Brunswick, N. J., 1959). See also I. L. Caraci, "Nuova luce intorno al problema delle `Historie' Colombiane," Bolletino Societa Geographica Italiana, V (1976), 503-512, arguing for a broader critical study of the Historia. (75) Vol 6 (Rome, 1988). Two other recent studies by Demetrio Ramos Perez should be mentioned: "Sobre la `relacion' de Pane dedicada a los tainos y su utilizacion por Martir de Amgleria en 1497," Archivio Hispalence, LXVIII (1985), 419-429, analyzes the problems with the Pane account and Martyr's use of it, and "El inicio de la historiografia americanista y el lugar donde se llevo a cabo: La datacion del comienzo de las `Decadas' de Pedro Martir de Angleria," Temi Colombiani, 267-285. See also Gil, "Pedro Martir de Amgleria, interprete de la cosmografia colombina," Anuario Estud Colom, XXXIX (1982), 487- 502. (76) Gould, Nueva lista deocumentada de los tripulantes de Colom en 1492 (Madrid, 1984). (77) Quinn, "John Day and Columbus," Geographical Journal,CXXXIII (1967), 205-209, and Varela, "John Day, los Genoveses, y Colon," Temi Colombian, 363-371. (78) "Las cuentas de Cristobal Colon," Anuario de estudios americanos (Seville), XLI (1984), 425-511. (79) Further study of Columbus's scientific information concerning mineral deposit geology is needed. Marginal notes, for example, in Columbus's copies of Imago mundi and Piccolomini, Historia rerum ubique gestarum, suggest that the admiral believed gold would be found in the greatest quantities near the equator, based on what he knew of gold deposists in Africa. When he failed to find gold, Columbus sought help from Queen Isabella's advisor Jaime Ferrer, a well-known lapidary. Ferrer wrote to Columbus expressing his belief that gold would be fornd near the equator, giving him a crude paleocentrifical theory derived fro the "fact" that gold was found most abundantly near the equator where people had dark skins and where the spin of the earth caused it to collect. (80) Gil, "El rol del tercer viaje colombino," Historiografia y Bibliografia Americanistas (Seville) XXX (1985), 83-110. (81) Lopez de Coca, "Publicadad en torno al tercer viaje colombino: fragmento de una carta de Juan Claver a Ludovico el Moro (enero de 1499)." La Presenza Italiana in Andalusia... Atti II, 233-242. Columbus, like Claver, portrayed the world with a hump similar to "a woman's breast" with a "nipple" on top. Columbus's use of such female symbolism needs further study. For a religious interpretation of this phenomenon see West and Kling, Libro de las profecias, 67-68. (82) An introduction to this problem is in Taviani "Ancora sulle vecende de Colombo in Castiglia," La presencia italiana en Andalucia...Actas I, 221-248. A list of over 60 works cited by Columbus is in West and Kling, Libro de las profecias, 23. (83) Juan Perez de Tudela, Mirabilis in Altis :Estudio critico sobre el origen y significado del proyecto descubridor de Cristobal Colon (MAdrid, 1983), touches on the postilles and their importance to understanding Columbus's thinking. (84) Columbus freequently stayed at either Santa Maria de la Rabida or Nuestra Senora Santa Maria de las Cuevas. In the 15th century both had noted libraries with 10,000 to 12,000 items each. The libraries have long since been scattered, and no catalogue remains for either. (85) Background to this problem can be found in Paul Grendler, Schooling in Renaissance Italy: Literacy and Learning, 1300-1600 (Baltimore, 1989). (86) Paolo Navoni, "Colombo e il `Bestiario' dell'oriente meraviglioso," Columbeis I, ed. Pittaluga, 117-123, contains a cursory list of fauna in Columbus's writings. Navoni believes that Columbus's identification of animals came from a medieval bestiary. (87) An example of this fertile field is Kathleen Deagan, Artifacts of the Spanish Colonies of Florida and the Caribbean, 1500-1800, vol. 1: Ceramics, Glassware, and Beads (Washington D. C., 1987), which combines textual criticism, archival studies, and colonial history with archaeological remains in an account of early European-Amerindian contact. (88) Two excellent studies appeared in print too late to be incorporated into this article: William D. Phillips and Carla Rahn Phillips, The Worlds of Christopher Columbus (Cambridge, 1992), and Jeffrey B. Russell, Inventing the Flat Earth: Columbus and Modern Historians (New York, 1991).