Marianne Mahn-Lot, "Columbus," Grove press, Inc., NY, 1961 [First chapter of this book has a good review of the early years of Columbus; his education, heritage, experiences, etc.] p. 5 We can no longer question the existence of one Cristoforo Colombo, a native of Genoa, son of Domenico Colombo, a wool- weaver of the Ligurian coast. Hypotheses have been constructed around a Columbus born in Galicia, Catalonia, Corsica, etc.; he has been identified as a Catalan pirate named Colom or a Scan- dinavian mariner named Scolvus. Such hypotheses are mere fabri- cations, and are totally unwarranted. p. [The Jewish hypothesis] On the face of it, it might be tempting to explain Columbus's particular religious bent in terms of a Semitic ancestry...But not the slightest proof of such an ancestry can be brought forward, and in our opinion it is a total error to believe this to be a secret that Columbus carefully concealed, or the key to his personality and the mysteries that sill surround the story of his life. Partisans of this thesis...adduce, among other things, Columbus' profound knowledge of the Bible and of all the Mes- sianic prophecies concerning Jerusalem. But every fervent Christian was acquainted with these texts, especially if, like Columbus, he was a lay-brother of the Third Order of Saint Fran- cis, who read his office every day. As Columbus himself ad- mitted, he was "not a cleric"; but a Biblical Concordance which doubtless aided him in his search for references has been found in his library. His passionate interest in the Bible is an important and persistent facet of his character. p. 14 Beginning in the fourteenth century, more and more of the ocean routes toward the South had fallen into the hands of the kings of Portugal. But the Genoese nonetheless had a hand in the whole movement of discover, for their reputation as navigators and cartographers caused them to be pressed into service by the Court of Lisbon. [The Portuguese had discovered both the Canaries and the Azores by the middle of the 15th century. see pp. 14 & 16.] p. 18 Italian merchants--most of whom were Genoese--had traveled the routes of Asia in droves. building permanent settlements in the large cities. pp. 21-22 Columbus was one of the best navigators of all time. His dead-reckoning navigation was incomparable, but his theoreti- cal knowledge was weak. We cannot, however, reproach him for not using celestial navigation, for at the time this was not one of the tools learned by apprentice-pilots; it was used only after landfall "to determine the latitude of the regions discovered in order to map them." p. 27 We should recall at this point that Greenland was dis- covered in the 10th century by a Northman, Eric the Red, who sailed from Iceland; that a colony and a bishopric were establis- hed there; that Leif, the son of Eric (as has apparently been proven today), explored Newfoundland, Labrador, and a mysterious "Vinland" (currently identified as the region in the United States around Cape Cod.) The Scandinavian settlements in "Green Land" declined in the 12th century, but the memory of them was not dead, for at the end of the 14th century the Zeno brothers, who had settled in the Faroe Islands, sailed there and found traces of Christianity. (Their extraordinary adventures were not known, however, until the 16th century.) And in the year just past--1476--the King of Denmark had sent an expedition to Green- land with a certain John Scolvus as chief pilot. (The historian Luis Ulloa has made the wild surmise that Scolvus was Columbus!) p. 31 The economic aspect of the movement of exploration was also becoming more and more evident. In 1445 the Portuguese had reached the mouth of the Senegal River (which they took to be a tributary of the Nile), and thus a route was opened toward the gold-producing regions of Timbuktu...A small amount of the trade in this coveted metal was now routed through Lisbon, to the great envy of the other Christian nations. The African slave trade had also begun at this time. By the time Columbus settled in Portugal, the movement of exploration had reached the Gulf of Guinea, and was so well along as to raise hopes that soon the Indian Ocean would be reached, thus opening the direct route to spice-producing lands that the Christian countries had so badly needed since the fall of Constantinople. p. 36 With the close collaboration of his brother, Christopher... spent his time in serious study and apparently abandoned all commercial activity; thus would explain the debts he contracted in Portugal. He acquired the two books which for the rest of his life were to be his favorite reading" the "Historia rerum" of the humanist Aeneas Silvius, later Pope Pius II (1458-1464), printed in 1477; and the "Imago mundi" of the French cardinal Pierre d'Ailly (fourteenth century), printed around 1480. p. 37 Since he had been a mere merchant, a humble layman, Marco Polo was not an "authority" who could be invoked at the Court of Portugal--to which for several decades Prince Henry the Navigator had attracted a circle of eminent cosmographers and learned theoreticians. Like all me of his era, Columbus had to base his arguments on "authority": classic antiquity, the Bible, the Church Fathers. The "Imago mundi", Pierre d'Ailly's lengthy treatise, provided him with this authority. This French car- dinal's description of the world agreed with Aristotle's concep- tions of the small size of the globe, thus heightening Columbus' instinctive impulse to sail west...Aristotle...wrote in the "Treatise on Heaven and Earth" [that] "the region of the columns of Hercules and that of India are bathed by the same ocean." pp. 45-46 [Yet Columbus's plan was rejected by the King of Portugal. Why had he not won the confidence of John II?] It is probable that the court cosmographers who questioned Columbus were not at all convinced by his assertions that the ocean was small, and his calculations of the size of a terrestrial degree no doubt seemed erroneous to them. The truth is that John II preferred to concentrate all his navigators' efforts on another objective: finding a sea route around Africa and thus opening a new route to the Indies. The Portuguese were very close to realizing their aim: in 1482 Diogo Co had sailed far beyond the equator and discovered the mouth of the Congo. Recent Portuguese historians...even believe that there were people in Lisbon who already suspected--or were certain of--the existence of the continent of South America. The testimony of Columbus himself on this point still puzzles us: during his third voyage to the New World in 1498 he sailed vary far south, to the latitude of Sierra Leone, before setting a course westward, "in order to verify," he writes, "what Dom Joo maintains: namely, that there lies toward the west a very large mainland." (Columbus did indeed find such a mainland, along the delta of the Orinoco.) p. 52 [While Columbus was out of the country for a few years, he was summoned back in 1488 by the king who had received no news from] Bartholomeu Dias, who had set sail around Africa, and Dulmo's voyage westward had been a miserable failure. This explains the King's renewed interest in Columbus. p. 53 Columbus spent several months in Lisbon, where he rejoined his brother. But at this junction Bartholomeu Dias suddenly returned with an unexpected piece of news: "He announced to the King that he had sailed as far as the Cape of Good Hope, and shoed him a chart of the voyage. I was present at court that day," columbus wrote in a note in his "Imago Mundi. "Now that a route to the Indies to the south and east was open to him, John II had no further reason to keep Columbus at court. p. 60 [Meanwhile back in Spain] Columbus by 1491 was about to lose patience and leave Spain p. 61 Several more months passed, then Granada, the last strong- hold of the Moors, finally capitulated. Columbus took part in the royal procession which entered the reconquered city on January 2, 1492. pp 61-62 As far as finances were concerned, Columbus' demands were moderate...As for the prerogatives that Columbus demanded in the event that his voyage was successful, then seemed exorbitant: the title of Admiral of the Ocean Sea, and all admiralty juris- diction pertaining thereunto--making him the equal of the King's uncle, the Admiral of Castile; the offices of Viceroy and Gover- nor of all islands and mainlands discovered; and the power to appoint and remove all officials, this power to be transmissible to his descendants...he was summarily dismissed by the sover- eigns. But as he rode away, a Captain of the Guards dispatched by the Queen overtook him two leagues from Granada and ordered him to turn back. p. 63 The Capitulations, as the agreement between the Navigator and Their Catholic Majesties is called, were signed on April 17. Columbus was to receive, if he succeeded, the title of Admiral and the viceroyalty and governorship of all "islands and terra firma" discovered; he was to have the right to one-tenth of the gold, pearls, spices, and any other products of value that might be discovered...It was stipulated that the Genoese, who was to be raised to the nobility, would henceforth be called Don Cristobal "Colon". p. 66 Columbus returned to the port of Palos in the month of May, 1492, armed with ak royal ordinance; the citizens of Palos, who the year before had been the object of a collective punishment for privateering, were required to furnish two caravels and their crews for "our Captain, Cristobal Colon." p. 69 [Columbus set sail on August 3, 1492] It would be fascinating follow this account hour by hour, for it is not the usual ship's log giving only the course and the distance made good, but rather it is full of scientific, geographic, and religious descriptions and conclusions. The original manuscript of this precious document has disappeared, but Ferdinand Columbus and Las Casas had it in their possession. Las Casas published an edition of it, copying some passages of the original in their entirety, and summarizing others; he also used it in several chapters of his "History of the Indies". We shall here confine ourselves to those episodes that are most noteworthy and best reveal the psychology of Columbus. p. 71 Columbus headed directly for the Canaries, a possession of the Crown of Castile, "in order that I might thence set my course," as he writes in the Prologue of his journal. He indeed appears to have had a definite course in mind: the 28th parallel of north latitude, which he was to follwo cinsistently. "What- ever the source of this opinion may have been, he affirmed that by setting a course straight west from Ferro Island [the most westerly of the Canary Islands] and sailing for a distance of 750 leagues, one would find land." [Las Casas:"History of the Indies", I, ch 39.] Columbus apparently had on board a chart on which--as on the globe of Behaim was in the midst of construct- ing--the Canaries lay on the same parallel of latitude as the isle of Cypango (which in turn had a whole string of islands lying round about it). p. 77 We can well imagine the mutual stuperfaction that both Spaniards and Indians must have felt when they first laid eyes on each other: the Indians stark naked, "with haid that hung straight down, tall and erect in stature, with skin the same color as that of the inhabitants of the Canary Islands" [Colum- bus' journal], the Spaniards bearded and heavily clothed. p.100 [After Columbus returned home he was welcomed as a hero.] The Dmiral now enjoyed the highest honors. He rode at the King's side, a rare privilege ordinarily granted only to persons of royal blood. p. 101 He obtained at the same time solemn confirmation of the "Capitulacions". How gratified he must have been to see that views of his which had once been dismissed as idle dreams had now found complete acceptance! "The more we understand the grandeur of your plan, the Sovereigns wrote him, "the more we esteem the wisdom you have displayed, a wisdom we would not have supposed any mortal to possess." Learned scholars were not the last to be widly enthusiastic. Peter Martyr d'Anghierra for instance--a young Italian humanis in the service of the Court of Castile-- wrote his correspondence after meeting the Genoese: "Columbus had just returned from the Western Antipodes." [May 14, 1493] "What an admirable discovery! And so it comes to pass that that which had been unknown since the very creation of the world is now beginning to be revealed ...Columbus has just discovered a new hemisphere of the earth, lying in the Western Antipodes." [September 13] Peter Martyr now began to compose his "Decades", the first of which was entitled" De orbe novo [On the New Word]." The adjective "new" must not be misinterpreted here; for Peter Martyr, as for Columbus, "new world" meant a part of Asia which was still unknown to Europeans but was notetheless to be con- sidered a part of the "Indies." They did not yet suspect that a new continent had been discovered. p. 103 The preparations for the second voyage were concluded in a matter of weeks...The royal instructions, which had been drawn up along lines suggested by the Admiral, constituted a complete plan for colonization. Hundreds of men appointed by the Crown were to go off to the Indies as settlers: hidalgos, who were to provide their own horses; day laborers,...farmers. (There were no women however.) pp. 103-04 The religious objective was clearly outlined, as were the means to be employed in proselytizing: "The Indians must be treated lovingly, in order that they may be tamed." p. 110 [After Columbus saw what had happened to the colony he left on the island hispanola] The attempt to colonize had thus begun most inauspiciously, and when the aniversary of their first Christmas came round--that Christmas that Columbus had though was a miracle-- it must have required a heroic act of faith still to believe that the shipwreck of the year before, in this very spot, had been expressly willed by Providence! In any event, a colony at Navidad was now out of the question;they would have to find a site closer to the gold mine that had so raised their hopes. p. 110 The Admiral now plunged into the problem of governing the island--in particular the difficult task that fell to him as founder of a colony. When at sea, Columbus was always abel to control events. But he was to be overwhelmed by the problems involved in colonizing the New World. p. 112 [Columbus was appaled with cannibals and] naturally sanctioned the enslavement of inferior being such as these... Columbus' espousal of slavery was forever to stand in the way of his canonization...Worse still, it was not only the savage Caribs who were to be enslaved, but also the docile Indians of Hispan- ola, after despair later drove them to armed revolt. pp. 128-29 Las Casas duly stigmatizes this aberration of the Admiral... "Should he not have placed love for his neighbor above the wish to gain money for the Sovereigns; shoul he not have envisaged the true aim of the Discovery, the salvation of all these souls; instead of using force and violence, bringing ignominy to the very name of Christianity?" p. 135 Las Casas and Ferdinand, in their own accounts, reproduce the substance of Columbus' shipboard journal, which has dis- appeared. p. 138 [Columbus']basic ideas of what the world was like came from charts in Ptolemy' "Geography" (though as we have seen he followed the calculations of Marinus of Tyre and thus thought that Asia stretched even farther eastward). Since the time of Ptolemy, navigation charts had shown no territory farther east than a place referred to as Cattigara...Maps of Asia stopped there, and farther to the south a long arc of a circle was drawn, linking Asia and South Africa, and bearing the legend "Terra Incognita"--Unknown Land. Columbus believed that he had entered these environs: in [a] letter he says very clearly that he has discovered "a new hemisphere, unknown to the ancients." This is an important statement, for it si not too different from the one for which Amerigo Vespucci is renowned: "Ptolemy and other sages who described the world said that it was spherical, like the hemisphere in which they lived...But there is another half of the world of which they had no knowledge." p. 140-41 [Upon discovering the coast of South America on his thrid voyage, he said,] If this be a "terra firma", it is a most amazing thing, and will be considered such by all scholars, since the river that empties herein is so large that there is fresh water as far as 48 leagues out to sea. Though it was not uet fully understood, the intuition that another world had been discovered dates from this voyage of Columbus: not the new world of the West Indies--so named by Peter Martyr--but another world in the tru sense , a world unknown even to the ancients. This does not mean, naturally, that Columbus realized that South America was a continent separated from Asia by a vast ocean; he imagined his "terra firma" to lie quite close to the "Indies".. p. 162 [But the Bank of San Giorgio in Genoa sent the following in a reply to a letter by Columbus]...you have brought forth from the depths of ignorance a vast portion of this earth and globe, which for all centuries past was unknown to men of our region. p. 165 [While on the coast of Central America, when told of the existence of a great ocean to the west, Columbus] naturally thought that this was the Indian Ocean. p. 183 He never knew that he had "discovered America," for he was firmly convinced that his New World touched the Ancient World, was one with it. When he landed in South America, there came to him for an instant the presentiment of the total newness of this other world--"a world unknown to the ancients"--but he thought that it lay in the approximate latitude of Australia in relation to Asia, and thought that it was separated from the "mainland" of Cuba by a strait, which he made a desperate attempt to find in 1503. Calendar of events Columbus Elsewhere 1451Birth of Columbus Birth of Isabella the Catholic. Birth of Amerigo Vespucci. 1452 Birth of Leonardo da Vinci. Birth of Savonarola. 1453 End of Hundred Years War. Capture of Constantinope by the Turks. 1454 Gutenberg Bible. 1459 Map of Fra Mauro. 1460 Death of Prince Henry the Nav- igator. 1461 Accession of Louis XI to the throne of France. 1469 Marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. 1474Columbus's commercial voyage to the island of Chios Accession of Isabella the Catholic to the throne. 1476Shipwreck off the coast of Portugal 1477Voyage to Iceland 1479Marriage? Treaty of Alcobacas. 1481 Accession of John II to the throne of Portugal.1482 Diego Co arrives at the mouth of the Congo. 1483 Accession of Charles VIII to the throne of France. 1485Arrival in Spain 1486First interview with Ferdinand and Isabella Fall of Malaga. 1487 Cape of Good Hope reached by Bartholomeu Dias. 1488Birth of Ferdinand Columbus at Cordova 1491Bartholomew Columbus in France Birth of Ignatius Loyola. 1492 January 2: Fall of Granada. March 31: Edict expelling the Jews from Spain. April 17: Capitulation of Santa Fe August 3: Embarkation at Palos, first voyage September 9: Departure from the Canaries October 12: Landing at San Salvador in the Antilles Portuguese mission in Abyssinia.October 28: Discovery of Cuba Martin Behaim's terrestrial globe constructed.December 6: Discovery of Haiti December 24: Santa Maria grounded Accession of Alexander VI to Papal Throne. Death of Lorenzo the Magnificient in Florence. 1493March 4: Return to Palos May 2: Papal Bull, "Inter caeterae" promulgated by Alexander VI.September 25: Embarkation, Second voyage November 12-15: Discovery of the Lesser Antilles 1494May-September: Exploration of Cuba June 7: Treaty of Tordesillas. Accession of Manuel to throne of Portugal. Savonarola master of Florence. Arrival of Charles VIII of France in Naples. 1496June 11: Return to Cadiz 1497 April 3: Marriage of the Infante Juan, heir to the throne of Castile.April 23: Authorization granted Columbus to establish an entail 1498February: First will (act of entailment) Accession of Louis XII to throne of France.May 30: Embarkation, third voyage Cape of Good Hope rounded by Vasco da Gama.August 4: Gulf of Paria entered Drer's "Apocalypse."August 31: Return to Haiti 1499Rebellion of Roldan Arrival of Louis XII of France in Milan. Exploration of Venezuela by Hojeda, Juan de la Cosa, and Vespucci. 1500August 23: Arrival of Bobadilla in Santo Domingo Discovery of Brazil by Cabral; claimed for Portugal.November 25: Return of Columbus to Cadiz in irons Invasion of Eurpoe by the Turks; crusade preached by the Pope.December 17: Columbus received in Granada by the Sovereigns Death of Savonarola. Erasmus' "Adages". Luther at Erfurt. World map of Juan de la Cosa. 1501Composition of "Book of Prophecies" begun January 1: Amerigo Vespucci arrives at Rio de Janeiro. 1502February: Letter to Alexander VI February: Departure of Ovando for Haiti to act as governor.April 1: Second will April 2: Letter to Bank of San Giorgio in Genoa Vasco da Gama sets out for the Indies. May 11: Embarkation, last voyage August: Ceremony of possession at Cape Honduras, Central America 1503January 6: Anchorage at Belem (Panama) June 25: Shipwreck in Jamaica Arrival of Albuquerque in the Indies. Establishment of the Casa de Contratacion in Seville. Accession of Julius II to Papal throne.1504March: Return of Columbus to Santo Domingo Spanish victory in Italy.November 7: Return to San Lucar de Barrameda November 26: Death of Isabella.Winter in Seville Vespucci's account of the "Mundus Novus [New World]." 1505May: Segovia Third will Fall of Ceylon and Hormuz into Portuguese hands. 1506May 20: Death of Columbus in Valladolid Michelangelo in Rome. Bramante's cupola for Saint Peter's begun. Death of Martin Behaim. Treaty of Tordesillas ratified by Julius II.