Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 2 (of 8): Spanish Explorations and Settlements in America from the Fifteenth to the Seventeenth Century
History
Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 2 (of 8): Spanish Explorations and Settlements in America from the Fifteenth to the Seventeenth Century
America -- Discovery and exploration; America -- History; United States -- History
origin of the future discoverer; since he finds Columbus’ kith and
kin of the station of weavers,—an occupation determining their social
standing as well in Genoa as in other places at that time. The table
which is given on a previous page (_ante_, p. 87) shows the lines
of supposable connection, as illustrating the long contest for the
possession of the Admiral’s honors. His father’s father, it would seem,
was a Giovanni Colombo (pp. 167-216), and he the son of a certain Luca
Colombo. Giovanni lived in turn at Terrarossa and Quinto. Domenico,
the Admiral’s father, married Susanna Fontanarossa, and removed to
Genoa between 1448 and 1551, living there afterward, except for the
interval 1471-1484, when he is found at Savona. He died in Genoa not
far from 1498. We are told (p. 29) how little the Archives of Savona
yield respecting the family. Using his new notarial evidence mainly,
the critic fixes the birth of Columbus about 1445 (pp. 223-241); and
enforces a view expressed by him before, that Genoa as the place of
Columbus’ birth must be taken in the broader sense of including the
dependencies of the city, in one of which he thinks Columbus was born
(p. 221) in that humble station which Gallo, in his “De navigatione
Columbi,” now known to us as Printed in Muratori (xxiii. 301), was
the first to assert. Giustiniani, in his Psalter-note, and Senarega,
in his “De rebus Genuensibus” (Muratori, xxiv. 354) seem mainly to
have followed Gallo on this point. There is failure (p. 81) to find
confirmation of some of the details of the family as given by Casoni
in his _Annali della republica di Genova_ (1708, and again 1799). In
relation to the lines of his descendants, there are described (pp.
49-60) nineteen different memorials, bearing date between 1590 and
1792—and there may be others—which grew out of the litigations in which
the descent of the Admiral’s titles was involved.
The usual story, told in the _Historie_, of Columbus’ sojourn at the
University of Pavia is discredited, chiefly on the ground that Columbus
himself says that from a tender age he followed the sea (but Columbus’
statements are often inexact), and from the fact that in cosmography
Genoa had more to teach him than Pavia. Columbus is also kept longer
in Italy than the received opinion has allowed, which has sent him
to Portugal about 1470; while we are now told—if his identity is
unassailable—that he was in Savona as late as 1473 (pp. 253-254).
Documentary Portuguese evidence of Columbus’ connection with Portugal
is scant. The Archivo da Torre do Tombo at Lisbon, which Santarem
searched in vain for any reference to Vespucius, seem to be equally
barren of information respecting Columbus, and they only afford a few
items regarding the family of the Perestrellos (p. 44).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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