Thursday, October 14, 1997
Lancaster County Courthouse

    After two solid days of highly emotional testimony, the trial of the millennium is one day away from being in the jury’s hands. Through the past two days, several startling events have transpired to make this courtroom docu-drama live up to every scandalous expectation. Several motions have been filed by Mr. Vespucci’s lawyer for a mistrial. Repeatedly, the Vespucci team has tried to sway opinion and testimony its way with regards to Amerigo’s letters. Foremost of importance among the Columbus camp are the two letters titled Mundus Novus and Four Voyages, respectively.

    Amerigo’s long friendship and business ties with the powerful and influential de Medici family have been well documented. A letter from Seville 1500, Cape Verde 1501, and Lisbon 1502, all written to Mr. Lorenzo de Medici have been verified by and attributed to Mr. Vespucci as being his own creations (Formisano 3, 19, 29). All three he wrote to his friend, Mr. Lorenzo de Medici, detailing his travails and experiences on his two officially sanctioned journeys. In all these documents, Mr. Vespucci’s recollection and details are very exact, and the descriptions are lucid. The prosecution, however, portrays a very different Vespucci with its insistence on the veracity of the Mundus Novus and Four Voyages.

    According to the prosecution, these two letters, both published in 1504 in Florence, state that Amerigo had four voyages. . .in his own writing (Pohl 148, 151). At one point Columbus’ lawyer noted smartly, “How can we trust our nation’s identity to a man who doesn’t even know how many times he crossed the Atlantic Ocean?” With several noted historians testifying, the defense countered by pointing out that the Mundus Novus contains some mathematical irregularities and flat out inconsistencies, and the Four Voyages goes even further by confusing the date of his initial voyage for the Spanish crown in May of 1499 (Pohl 148, 152). Mr. Vespucci’s lawyer stated glibly, “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, if you first choose to ignore that my client won the admiration and trust of two of the most powerful monarchies of his time, the Spanish crown and the Portugese crown, that is one matter. But is it possible that the same man whose impeccable exactness calculated the longitudinal coordinates of a vessel floating in an almost infinite sea with nothing more than an astrolabe, the stars, the moon, and his own reckoning was this same fanciful, sloppy, and error plagued letter writer? These letters are the work of an imposter bent on defaming a man who had accumulated incredible fame and success.”

    The defense insisted that Amerigo had only two voyages. The first one, launched from Cadiz on May 18, 1499, took him to the coast of Brazil and up and down three thousand miles of the northeastern and northern coast of the continent (Pohl 201-202). He returned from this excursion in April of 1500. The second voyage, sponsored by the Portuguese, sailed from Lisbon May 13, 1501. During this venture, he sighted the coast of Brazil on or before August 15 at about five degrees south and explored the coast to fifty degrees south, returning to Lisbon in June, 1502 (Pohl 201-202).

    The most damaging blow to the prosecution came when Mr. Vespucci’s lawyer detailed the alleged origin of these two forgeries. The fact of Mr. Vespucci’s and Mr. Lorenzo de Medici’s close personal ties was no mystery. Another lesser known fact, however, shifted the tide of testimony dramatically. While Columbus was still on the stand, Mr. Vespucci’s attorney asked him if he knew what Mr. de Medici did with the letters that he received from Amerigo. Dumbfounded and struggling for an answer, Mr. Columbus decided that he did not know. “Well, Mr. Columbus, he did what any proud friend would do when learning of the wonderful and extraordinary events that his dear comrade, Mr. Vespucci, recounted. He shared them with everyone who was willing to look over them (Pohl 147).” The lawyer then excused Mr. Columbus and called several corroborating witnesses in to substantiate and even recount certain portions of the letters that they had found particularly memorable. Visibly shaken, Mr. Columbus’ Hollywood attorney objected, often vehemently, to the ensuing testimonies, but to no avail. Deeming the evidence admissible and desirable, the defense’s plan moved forward.