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=== Historians ===
=== Historians ===

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Scholars from all over the world agree that Columbus was Genoese.{{#tag:ref|They include the two greatest Columbians in Spain, Antonio Ballesteros Beretta, professor at the [[Complutense University of Madrid|University of Madrid]], and Juan Manzano Manzano, professor of [[Seville University]]; the leading North American authority, Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison; and the Argentinian Diego Luis Molinari, professor at the [[University of Buenos Aires]]. Obviously there are many more — admirers and detractors alike — who accept Genoa as his birthplace, including Robertson, Navarrete, Milhou, Irving, Boorstin, Demetrio Ramos, Carpentier, D'Avezac, Manuel Alvar, Nunez Jimenez, Munoz, Peschel, Duro, Mollat, Harrisse, Perez de Tudela, Aynashiya, Morales Padron, Magidovic, Roselly de Lorgues, Asensio, Braudel, Winsor, Fiske, Ciroanescu, Ruge, Markham, Serrano y Sanz, Obregon, Laguarda Trias, Thacher, de Gandia, Emiliano Jos, Aurelio Tio, Goldemberg, Vignaud, Ramirez Corria, Alvarez Pedroso, Marta Sanguinetti, Altolaguirre, Breuer, Leithaus, Alegria, Arciniegas, Davey, Nunn, Johnson, Juan Gil, Sumien, Charcot, Ballesteros Gaibrois, Levillier, Dickey, Parry, Young, Streicher, de La Ronciere, Muro Orejon, Pedroso, Brebner, Houben, Rumeu de Armas, de Madariaga, Stefansson, Martinez Hidalgo, Taylor, Mahn Lot, Consuelo Varela, Verlinden, Bradford, Heers, Davidson,<ref name="Miles H. Davidson"/> Bergreen,<ref>Bergreen, Laurence. [https://books.google.com/books?id=3Dyhtkk4VQcC&dq= "''Columbus: The Four Voyages.''"] Penguin Group US, 2011. Retrieved 2012-01-07.</ref> Fernandez-Armesto,<ref>Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe. [https://books.google.com/books?ei=O3wFT8qnHYeA4gSg98yNCA&hl=it&id=4at1AAAAMAAJ&dq= "''Columbus.''"] Oxford University Press, 1991. Retrieved 2012-01-07.</ref> McGovern,<ref>McGovern, James R. [https://books.google.com/books?id=3mOh34X6UY8C&printsec= "''The World of Columbus.''"] Mercer University Press, 1992. Retrieved 2012-01-07.</ref> Kirkpatrick Sale,<ref>Sale, Kirkpatrick. [https://books.google.com/books?id=g9uH9kL0PoIC&pg= "''Christopher Columbus and the Conquest of Paradise.''"] Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2006. Retrieved 2012-01-07.</ref> William and Carla Phillips.<ref>Phillips, William D. ; Phillips, Carla R. [https://books.google.com/books?id=66xjQgAACAAJ&dq= "''The worlds of Christopher Columbus.''"] Cambridge University Press, 1992. Retrieved 2012-01-07. Both the Phillips are professors of history at the [[University of Minnesota]].</ref> Among the leading Italian authorities on Columbus, who also concur, are Spotorno, Sanguineti, Tarducci, Peragallo, Desimoni, De Lollis, Salvagnini, Uzielli, Assereto, Pessagno, Caddeo, Magnaghi, Almagia, Revelli and Bignardelli. Among the famous historians and geographers who have written general works that make reference to Columbus's Genoese birth, we will mention only Humboldt, the great 19th-century German geographer; Burckhardt, author of the prestigious ''Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy''; Fisher, the distinguished English historian; Pirenne, the eminent Belgian historian; Merzbacher, professor of History of Law at the [[University of Innsbruck]]; and Konetzke, professor of Iberian and Latin-American History at [[Cologne University]].<ref name="Paolo Emilio Taviani"/><br> <small>The eminent Italian historian, Paolo Emilio Taviani, devoted his time to the study of Christopher Columbus, becoming "''one of the world's leading authorities on the subject. He retraced the voyages of the Genoese navigator and wrote numerous books about his life and times. Taviani, who was made a life senator in 1991, donated his collection of 2,500 volumes on Columbus to a council-owned library in his native Genoa.''"</small><ref>Willan, Philip. [https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/jun/21/guardianobituaries.philipwillan "Paolo Emilio Taviani."] The Guardian, 2001. Retrieved 2011-11-14.</ref>|group="nb"}}

[[Samuel Eliot Morison]], in his book ''Christopher Columbus: Admiral of the Ocean Sea'', notes that many existing legal documents demonstrate the Genoese origin of Columbus, his father Domenico, and his brothers Bartolomeo and Giacomo (Diego). These documents, written in Latin by notaries, were legally valid in Genoese courts. The documents, uncovered in the 19th century when Italian historians examined the Genoese archives, form part of the ''Raccolta Colombiana''. On page 14, Morison writes:


[[File:Genova-casa di Colombo-DSCF7114.JPG|180px|thumb|right|House of Christopher Columbus in Genoa, Italy.]]
[[File:Genova-casa di Colombo-DSCF7114.JPG|180px|thumb|right|House of Christopher Columbus in Genoa, Italy.]]


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Scholars from all over the world agree that Columbus was Genoese.{{#tag:ref|They include the two greatest Columbians in Spain, Antonio Ballesteros Beretta, professor at the [[Complutense University of Madrid|University of Madrid]], and Juan Manzano Manzano, professor of [[Seville University]]; the leading North American authority, Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison; and the Argentinian Diego Luis Molinari, professor at the [[University of Buenos Aires]]. Obviously there are many more — admirers and detractors alike — who accept Genoa as his birthplace, including Robertson, Navarrete, Milhou, Irving, Boorstin, Demetrio Ramos, Carpentier, D'Avezac, Manuel Alvar, Nunez Jimenez, Munoz, Peschel, Duro, Mollat, Harrisse, Perez de Tudela, Aynashiya, Morales Padron, Magidovic, Roselly de Lorgues, Asensio, Braudel, Winsor, Fiske, Ciroanescu, Ruge, Markham, Serrano y Sanz, Obregon, Laguarda Trias, Thacher, de Gandia, Emiliano Jos, Aurelio Tio, Goldemberg, Vignaud, Ramirez Corria, Alvarez Pedroso, Marta Sanguinetti, Altolaguirre, Breuer, Leithaus, Alegria, Arciniegas, Davey, Nunn, Johnson, Juan Gil, Sumien, Charcot, Ballesteros Gaibrois, Levillier, Dickey, Parry, Young, Streicher, de La Ronciere, Muro Orejon, Pedroso, Brebner, Houben, Rumeu de Armas, de Madariaga, Stefansson, Martinez Hidalgo, Taylor, Mahn Lot, Consuelo Varela, Verlinden, Bradford, Heers, Davidson,<ref name="Miles H. Davidson"/> Bergreen,<ref>Bergreen, Laurence. [https://books.google.com/books?id=3Dyhtkk4VQcC&dq= "''Columbus: The Four Voyages.''"] Penguin Group US, 2011. Retrieved 2012-01-07.</ref> Fernandez-Armesto,<ref>Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe. [https://books.google.com/books?ei=O3wFT8qnHYeA4gSg98yNCA&hl=it&id=4at1AAAAMAAJ&dq= "''Columbus.''"] Oxford University Press, 1991. Retrieved 2012-01-07.</ref> McGovern,<ref>McGovern, James R. [https://books.google.com/books?id=3mOh34X6UY8C&printsec= "''The World of Columbus.''"] Mercer University Press, 1992. Retrieved 2012-01-07.</ref> Kirkpatrick Sale,<ref>Sale, Kirkpatrick. [https://books.google.com/books?id=g9uH9kL0PoIC&pg= "''Christopher Columbus and the Conquest of Paradise.''"] Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2006. Retrieved 2012-01-07.</ref> William and Carla Phillips.<ref>Phillips, William D. ; Phillips, Carla R. [https://books.google.com/books?id=66xjQgAACAAJ&dq= "''The worlds of Christopher Columbus.''"] Cambridge University Press, 1992. Retrieved 2012-01-07. Both the Phillips are professors of history at the [[University of Minnesota]].</ref> Among the leading Italian authorities on Columbus, who also concur, are Spotorno, Sanguineti, Tarducci, Peragallo, Desimoni, De Lollis, Salvagnini, Uzielli, Assereto, Pessagno, Caddeo, Magnaghi, Almagia, Revelli and Bignardelli. Among the famous historians and geographers who have written general works that make reference to Columbus's Genoese birth, we will mention only Humboldt, the great 19th-century German geographer; Burckhardt, author of the prestigious ''Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy''; Fisher, the distinguished English historian; Pirenne, the eminent Belgian historian; Merzbacher, professor of History of Law at the [[University of Innsbruck]]; and Konetzke, professor of Iberian and Latin-American History at [[Cologne University]].<ref name="Paolo Emilio Taviani"/><br> <small>The eminent Italian historian, Paolo Emilio Taviani, devoted his time to the study of Christopher Columbus, becoming "''one of the world's leading authorities on the subject. He retraced the voyages of the Genoese navigator and wrote numerous books about his life and times. Taviani, who was made a life senator in 1991, donated his collection of 2,500 volumes on Columbus to a council-owned library in his native Genoa.''"</small><ref>Willan, Philip. [https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/jun/21/guardianobituaries.philipwillan "Paolo Emilio Taviani."] The Guardian, 2001. Retrieved 2011-11-14.</ref>|group="nb"}}
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{{quote|Besides these documents from which we may glean facts about Christopher's early life, there are others which identify the Discoverer as the son of Domenico the wool weaver, beyond the possibility of doubt. For instance, Domenico had a brother Antonio, like him a respectable member of the lower middle class in Genoa. Antonio had three sons: Matteo, Amigeto and Giovanni, who was generally known as Giannetto (the Genoese equivalent of "Johnny"). Giannetto, like Christopher, gave up a humdrum occupation to follow the sea. In 1496 the three brothers met in a notary's office at Genoa and agreed that Johnny should go to Spain and seek out his first cousin "Don Cristoforo de Colombo, Admiral of the King of Spain," each contributing one third of the traveling expenses. This quest for a job was highly successful. The Admiral gave Johnny command of a caravel on the Third Voyage to America, and entrusted him with confidential matters as well.}}

On the topic of Columbus' being born somewhere besides Genoa, Morison states "Every contemporary Spaniard or Portuguese who wrote about Columbus and his discoveries calls him Genoese. Four contemporary Genoese chroniclers claim him as a compatriot. Every early map on which his nationality is recorded describes him as Genoese or ''Ligur'', a citizen of the Ligurian Republic. Nobody in the Admiral's lifetime, or for three centuries after, had any doubt about his birthplace" and that "There is no more reason to doubt that Christopher Columbus was a Genoese-born Catholic Christian, steadfast in his faith and proud of his native city, than to doubt that [[George Washington]] was a Virginia-born Anglican of English race, proud of being an [[United States|American]]."

The position of Morison, is adopted by the British historian [[Felipe Fernández-Armesto]], who writes in his book:<ref>Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe. [https://books.google.com/books?id=_EEaCAAAQBAJ&pg=PT150&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false ''1492. The Year the World Began.''] Orion Press Inc., 2009. Retrieved 2015-04-16.</ref>

{{quote|The Catalan, French, Galician, [[#Greek hypothesis|Greek]], Ibizan, Jewish, Majorcan, [[#Polish hypothesis|Polish]], Scottish, and other increasingly silly Columbuses concocted by historical fantasists are agenda-driven creations, usually inspired by a desire to arrogate a supposed or confected hero to the cause of a particular nation or historic community - or, more often than not, to some immigrant group striving to establish a special place of esteem in the United States. The evidence of Columbus's origins in Genoa is overwhelming: almost no other figure of his class or designation has left so clear a paper trail in the archives.}}


⚫
[[Samuel Eliot Morison]], in his book ''Christopher Columbus: Admiral of the Ocean Sea'', notes that many existing legal documents demonstrate the Genoese origin of Columbus, his father Domenico, and his brothers Bartolomeo and Giacomo (Diego). These documents, written in Latin by notaries, were legally valid in Genoese courts. The documents, uncovered in the 19th century when Italian historians examined the Genoese archives, form part of the ''Raccolta Colombiana''. On page 14, Morison writes:<blockquote>Besides these documents from which we may glean facts about Christopher's early life, there are others which identify the Discoverer as the son of Domenico the wool weaver, beyond the possibility of doubt. For instance, Domenico had a brother Antonio, like him a respectable member of the lower middle class in Genoa. Antonio had three sons: Matteo, Amigeto and Giovanni, who was generally known as Giannetto (the Genoese equivalent of "Johnny"). Giannetto, like Christopher, gave up a humdrum occupation to follow the sea. In 1496 the three brothers met in a notary's office at Genoa and agreed that Johnny should go to Spain and seek out his first cousin "Don Cristoforo de Colombo, Admiral of the King of Spain," each contributing one third of the traveling expenses. This quest for a job was highly successful. The Admiral gave Johnny command of a caravel on the Third Voyage to America, and entrusted him with confidential matters as well.</blockquote>On the topic of Columbus' being born somewhere besides Genoa, Morison states "Every contemporary Spaniard or Portuguese who wrote about Columbus and his discoveries calls him Genoese. Four contemporary Genoese chroniclers claim him as a compatriot. Every early map on which his nationality is recorded describes him as Genoese or ''Ligur'', a citizen of the Ligurian Republic. Nobody in the Admiral's lifetime, or for three centuries after, had any doubt about his birthplace" and that "There is no more reason to doubt that Christopher Columbus was a Genoese-born Catholic Christian, steadfast in his faith and proud of his native city, than to doubt that [[George Washington]] was a Virginia-born Anglican of English race, proud of being an [[United States|American]]."
[[Paolo Emilio Taviani]], in his book ''Cristoforo Colombo: Genius of the Sea'' discusses "the public and notarial acts - original copies of which are conserved in the archives of Genoa and Savona - regarding Columbus's father, Columbus himself, his grandfather, and his relatives." In ''Columbus the Great Adventure'' he further claims that Columbus named the small island of [[Saona]] "to honor Michele da Cuneo, his friend from Savona."<ref>Taviani, Paolo Emilio. "''Columbus, the great adventure: his life, his times, and his voyages.''" Orion Books, 1991. p. 185. Retrieved 2009-02-11.</ref>


The position of Morison, is adopted by the British historian [[Felipe Fernández-Armesto]], who writes in his book:<ref>Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe. [https://books.google.com/books?id=_EEaCAAAQBAJ&pg=PT150&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false ''1492. The Year the World Began.''] Orion Press Inc., 2009. Retrieved 2015-04-16.</ref><blockquote>The Catalan, French, Galician, [[Origin theories of Christopher Columbus#Greek hypothesis|Greek]], Ibizan, Jewish, Majorcan, [[Origin theories of Christopher Columbus#Polish hypothesis|Polish]], Scottish, and other increasingly silly Columbuses concocted by historical fantasists are agenda-driven creations, usually inspired by a desire to arrogate a supposed or confected hero to the cause of a particular nation or historic community - or, more often than not, to some immigrant group striving to establish a special place of esteem in the United States. The evidence of Columbus's origins in Genoa is overwhelming: almost no other figure of his class or designation has left so clear a paper trail in the archives.</blockquote>[[Paolo Emilio Taviani]], in his book ''Cristoforo Colombo: Genius of the Sea'' discusses "the public and notarial acts - original copies of which are conserved in the archives of Genoa and Savona - regarding Columbus's father, Columbus himself, his grandfather, and his relatives." In ''Columbus the Great Adventure'' he further claims that Columbus named the small island of [[Saona]] "to honor Michele da Cuneo, his friend from Savona."<ref>Taviani, Paolo Emilio. "''Columbus, the great adventure: his life, his times, and his voyages.''" Orion Books, 1991. p. 185. Retrieved 2009-02-11.</ref>
This is fully accepted by [[Consuelo Varela Bueno]], "Spain's leading authority on the texts, documents, and handwriting of Columbus."<ref>Allen, John Logan. [https://books.google.com/books?id=7RGlz9a4wVYC&pg=PA149&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false ''North American Exploration.''] U of Nebraska Press, 1997. pp. 149-150. Retrieved 2015-04-17.</ref> She devotes several pages to the question of Columbus native land, and concludes that "all chroniclers of that period wrote that he was from Liguria in northern Italy."<ref>Varela, Consuelo. [https://books.google.com/books?id=IRMWAQAAIAAJ&q= ''Christopher Columbus and the Mystery of the Bell of the Santa Maria.''] White Star Publishers, 2008. p. 13. Retrieved 2015-04-17.</ref> The evidence supporting the Genoese origin of Columbus is also discussed by [[Miles H. Davidson]]. In his book ''Columbus Then and Now: A Life Reexamined'', he writes:<ref name="Miles H. Davidson"/>


{{quote|Diego Méndez, one of his captains, in testimony given in the ''Pleitos'', he said that Columbus was "Genoese, a native of Savona which is a town near Genoa." Those who reject this and the more than ample other contemporary evidence, given by both Italian and Spanish sources as well as by witnesses at these court hearings, are simply flying in the face of overwhelming evidence. [...] What is the reason behind so much futile speculation? It can be mostly attributed to parochialism. Each of the nations and cities mentioned wants to claim him for its own. Since no effort was made to locate the supporting data until the early nineteenth century, and since at that time not all of the archives had been adequately researched, there was, initially, justification for those early efforts to establish who he was and where he came from. To do so today is to fulfill Montaigne's maxim, "No one is exempt from talking non-sense; the misfortune is to do it solemnly."}}
This is fully accepted by [[Consuelo Varela Bueno]], "Spain's leading authority on the texts, documents, and handwriting of Columbus."<ref>Allen, John Logan. [https://books.google.com/books?id=7RGlz9a4wVYC&pg=PA149&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false ''North American Exploration.''] U of Nebraska Press, 1997. pp. 149-150. Retrieved 2015-04-17.</ref> She devotes several pages to the question of Columbus native land, and concludes that "all chroniclers of that period wrote that he was from Liguria in northern Italy."<ref>Varela, Consuelo. [https://books.google.com/books?id=IRMWAQAAIAAJ&q= ''Christopher Columbus and the Mystery of the Bell of the Santa Maria.''] White Star Publishers, 2008. p. 13. Retrieved 2015-04-17.</ref> The evidence supporting the Genoese origin of Columbus is also discussed by [[Miles H. Davidson]]. In his book ''Columbus Then and Now: A Life Reexamined'', he writes:<ref name="Miles H. Davidson"/><blockquote>Diego Méndez, one of his captains, in testimony given in the <nowiki>''</nowiki>Pleitos<nowiki>''</nowiki>, he said that Columbus was "Genoese, a native of Savona which is a town near Genoa." Those who reject this and the more than ample other contemporary evidence, given by both Italian and Spanish sources as well as by witnesses at these court hearings, are simply flying in the face of overwhelming evidence. [...] What is the reason behind so much futile speculation? It can be mostly attributed to parochialism. Each of the nations and cities mentioned wants to claim him for its own. Since no effort was made to locate the supporting data until the early nineteenth century, and since at that time not all of the archives had been adequately researched, there was, initially, justification for those early efforts to establish who he was and where he came from. To do so today is to fulfill Montaigne's maxim, "No one is exempt from talking non-sense; the misfortune is to do it solemnly."</blockquote>


=== Language ===
=== Language ===
Canoutas did not identify Columbus’s parents or place of birth, nor did he analyze Columbus’s claimed kinship bond with Dishypatos. However, Canoutas observed that the Byzantine imperial house of [[Palaiologos]], to which Dishypatos was related on his mother’s side, was closely connected by blood or marriage to the ruling families of Italy, including those of Genoa and Montferrat, such as the Doria, Spinola, Centurione, and Gattelusio families.<ref>''Cf.'' Entry for "Palaiologos," ''The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium,'' Vol. 3 (Oxford Univ. Press, New York & Oxford 1991), pp. 1557-1560.</ref> For example, the [[Palaiologos]] family were the [[rulers of Montferrat]] for more than 200 years. This connection, he argued, might explain why Columbus’s contemporaries and others considered him to be Genoese or Ligurian.<ref>Canoutas, ''op cit.'' pp. 68, 123.</ref>
Canoutas did not identify Columbus’s parents or place of birth, nor did he analyze Columbus’s claimed kinship bond with Dishypatos. However, Canoutas observed that the Byzantine imperial house of [[Palaiologos]], to which Dishypatos was related on his mother’s side, was closely connected by blood or marriage to the ruling families of Italy, including those of Genoa and Montferrat, such as the Doria, Spinola, Centurione, and Gattelusio families.<ref>''Cf.'' Entry for "Palaiologos," ''The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium,'' Vol. 3 (Oxford Univ. Press, New York & Oxford 1991), pp. 1557-1560.</ref> For example, the [[Palaiologos]] family were the [[rulers of Montferrat]] for more than 200 years. This connection, he argued, might explain why Columbus’s contemporaries and others considered him to be Genoese or Ligurian.<ref>Canoutas, ''op cit.'' pp. 68, 123.</ref>


Another book written on his Greek origins is called "Christopher Columbus Was a Greek Prince and His real Name Was Nikolaos Ypsilantis from the Greek Island of Chios" by Spyros Cateras, New Hampshire, 1937.
Another book written on his Greek origins is called "Christopher Columbus Was a Greek Prince and His real Name Was Nikolaos Ypsilantis from the Greek Island of Chios" by Spyros Cateras, New Hampshire, 1937. There is also a section in "The Secret Destiny of America" by Manly P. Hall, New York, 1944. pp 62–63.
There is also a section in "The Secret Destiny of America" by Manly P. Hall, New York, 1944. pp 62–63.


== Portuguese hypothesis ==
== Portuguese hypothesis ==


== Polish hypothesis ==
== Polish hypothesis ==
⚫
Writing in ''[[The Polish Review]]'', Krystyna Lukasiewicz commented on rumours that King [[Władysław III of Poland]] did not die in 1444 but hid on the island of Madeira:<ref name="Lukasiewicz">{{cite journal|last1=Lukasiewicz|first1=Krystyna|title=Deceptive Practices in Fifteenth Century Europe: The Case of Wladyslaw III Jagiellon (Varnensis)|journal=The Polish Review|date=2012|volume=47|issue=2|pages=3–20|jstor=41558078}}</ref><blockquote>Beginning in all probability around the time of Henrique [Alemão{{#tag:ref|Henrique Alemão was "a [[Order of Saint Catherine of Mount Sinai|knight of St. Catherine]] who died on Madeira in 1472".<ref name="Lukasiewicz"/>|group="nb"}}]'s death, such rumors were for the first time recorded in the early eighteenth century. Further popularized by Leopold Kielanowski in the twentieth century, they became the starting point for a bizarre hypothesis that Christopher Columbus was actually the son of King Wladyslaw III Jagiellon hiding on Madeira under the name of Henrique Alemão.</blockquote>Lukasiewicz cites [[Manuel da Silva Rosa]]'s ''Colón la Historia Nunca Contad'' (2009) as supporting this hypothesis.<ref name="Lukasiewicz"/> Rosa is an information technology analyst and amateur historian.<ref>[http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2009/10/q-manuel-rosa-it-analyst-duke-comprehensive-cancer-center "Q+A with Manuel Rosa, IT analyst at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center."] ''Dukechronicle.com.'' Retrieved 2011-02-11.</ref><ref>[http://sites.duke.edu/dukecancerinstitute/?p=307 "Modern Day Sherlock Holmes Unearths New Evidence; Claims Columbus Was Secret Agent"] ''Duke Cancer Institute.'' Retrieved 2014-07-20.</ref> In his book Rosa claims that Columbus was the son of a Portuguese noblewoman and the king of Poland [[Władysław III of Poland|Władysław III]] who allegedly survived the [[battle of Varna]] in 1444 and later lived in Madeira.<ref>[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1333895/Christopher-Columbus-Polish-Portuguese-claim-historians.html "Christopher Colombowicz: America's discoverer Polish not Portuguese, claim historians."] The Daily Mail, 2010. Retrieved 2011-02-09.</ref>{{#tag:ref|However, according to the official historiography he was killed by the Turks<ref>Prazmowska, Anita J. [https://books.google.com/books?id=tRpdAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA56&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false ''A History of Poland.''] Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. p. 56. Retrieved 2015-05-08.</ref> and his head impaled on a stake to terrify the infidels.|group="nb"}} Rosa believes Columbus would not have been able to marry [[Filipa Moniz Perestrelo]], a Portuguese noblewoman, if he were not of noble birth. Rosa also suggests Columbus was a Portuguese secret agent working covertly in Spain and claims similarities exist between Columbus' coat of arms and that of the Polish king.<ref>Govan, Fiona. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/8166041/Christopher-Columbus-was-son-of-Polish-king.html "Christopher Columbus 'was son of Polish king'."] ''The Daily Telegraph'', November 28, 2010. Retrieved 2010-12-01.</ref><ref>[http://www.lithuaniatribune.com/31724/christopher-columbuss-true-identity-unmasked-a-lithuanian-prince-201331724/ "Christopher Columbus’s True Identity Unmasked: A Lithuanian Prince?"] LithuaniaTribune.com, March 16, 2013. Retrieved 2015-10-12.</ref>
Writing in ''[[The Polish Review]]'', Krystyna Lukasiewicz commented on rumours that King [[Władysław III of Poland]] did not die in 1444 but hid on the island of Madeira:<ref name="Lukasiewicz">{{cite journal|last1=Lukasiewicz|first1=Krystyna|title=Deceptive Practices in Fifteenth Century Europe: The Case of Wladyslaw III Jagiellon (Varnensis)|journal=The Polish Review|date=2012|volume=47|issue=2|pages=3–20|jstor=41558078}}</ref>
:Beginning in all probability around the time of Henrique [Alemão{{#tag:ref|Henrique Alemão was "a [[Order of Saint Catherine of Mount Sinai|knight of St. Catherine]] who died on Madeira in 1472".<ref name="Lukasiewicz"/>|group="nb"}}]'s death, such rumors were for the first time recorded in the early eighteenth century. Further popularized by Leopold Kielanowski in the twentieth century, they became the starting point for a bizarre hypothesis that Christopher Columbus was actually the son of King Wladyslaw III Jagiellon hiding on Madeira under the name of Henrique Alemão.

⚫
Lukasiewicz cites [[Manuel da Silva Rosa]]'s ''Colón la Historia Nunca Contad'' (2009) as supporting this hypothesis.<ref name="Lukasiewicz"/> Rosa is an information technology analyst and amateur historian.<ref>[http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2009/10/q-manuel-rosa-it-analyst-duke-comprehensive-cancer-center "Q+A with Manuel Rosa, IT analyst at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center."] ''Dukechronicle.com.'' Retrieved 2011-02-11.</ref><ref>[http://sites.duke.edu/dukecancerinstitute/?p=307 "Modern Day Sherlock Holmes Unearths New Evidence; Claims Columbus Was Secret Agent"] ''Duke Cancer Institute.'' Retrieved 2014-07-20.</ref> In his book Rosa claims that Columbus was the son of a Portuguese noblewoman and the king of Poland [[Władysław III of Poland|Władysław III]] who allegedly survived the [[battle of Varna]] in 1444 and later lived in Madeira.<ref>[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1333895/Christopher-Columbus-Polish-Portuguese-claim-historians.html "Christopher Colombowicz: America's discoverer Polish not Portuguese, claim historians."] The Daily Mail, 2010. Retrieved 2011-02-09.</ref>{{#tag:ref|However, according to the official historiography he was killed by the Turks<ref>Prazmowska, Anita J. [https://books.google.com/books?id=tRpdAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA56&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false ''A History of Poland.''] Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. p. 56. Retrieved 2015-05-08.</ref> and his head impaled on a stake to terrify the infidels.|group="nb"}} Rosa believes Columbus would not have been able to marry [[Filipa Moniz Perestrelo]], a Portuguese noblewoman, if he were not of noble birth. Rosa also suggests Columbus was a Portuguese secret agent working covertly in Spain and claims similarities exist between Columbus' coat of arms and that of the Polish king.<ref>Govan, Fiona. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/8166041/Christopher-Columbus-was-son-of-Polish-king.html "Christopher Columbus 'was son of Polish king'."] ''The Daily Telegraph'', November 28, 2010. Retrieved 2010-12-01.</ref><ref>[http://www.lithuaniatribune.com/31724/christopher-columbuss-true-identity-unmasked-a-lithuanian-prince-201331724/ "Christopher Columbus’s True Identity Unmasked: A Lithuanian Prince?"] LithuaniaTribune.com, March 16, 2013. Retrieved 2015-10-12.</ref>


== Other hypotheses ==
== Other hypotheses ==

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'Origin theories of Christopher Columbus'
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'{{refimprove|date=February 2013}} [[File:Christopher Columbus Face.jpg|135px|thumb|right|Christopher Columbus depicted in ''[[The Virgin of the Navigators]]'' by [[Alejo Fernández]], 1505-1536.]] The exact ethnic or national origin of '''[[Christopher Columbus]]''' (1451-1506) has been a source of speculation since the 19th century.<ref>{{fr icon}} Heers, Jacques. "''Christophe Colomb.''" Hachette, 1981. p. 21-23. Retrieved 2008-03-10.</ref> It is generally agreed upon by historians that Columbus' family was from the coastal region of [[Liguria]], that he spent his boyhood and early youth in the [[Republic of Genoa]], in [[Genoa]], in Vico Diritto, and that he subsequently lived in [[Savona]], where his father Domenico moved in 1470. Much of this evidence derives from data concerning Columbus' immediate family connections in Genoa and opinions voiced by contemporaries concerning his Genoese origins, which few dispute. == Genoese origin == === Documents === In a 1498 deed of primogeniture, Columbus writes: {{Quote|''Siendo yo nacido en Genova... de ella salí y en ella naci...''<ref>Irving, Washington. [https://books.google.com/books?id=QfbXIiVrzzQC&pg "''The Complete Works of Washington Irving.''"] Elibron.com. p. 877. Retrieved 2010-12-23.</ref><ref group="nb">A copy of this document, which dates back to the early seventeenth century and had been officially sent from [[Crown of Castile]] to the [[Republic of Genoa]], is conserved in the State Archives of Genoa. The supposed original is in the [[Archivo General de Indias]] in Seville.</ref> | <small>As I was born in Genoa... came from it and was born there...</small>|}} Many historians, including a distinguished Spanish scholar, Altolaguirre, affirm the document's authenticity; others believe it apocryphal.{{#tag:ref|De Lollis observes that "''the history of this important document is so clear that there is no doubt about its authenticity.''" Caddeo considers it authentic. Harrisse instead considers it a forgery from a later period. Madariaga states that the majorat "''cannot be considered authentic,''" but adds, however, that it cannot be a complete invention and must have been edited on the basis of the 1502 testament, which has disappeared without a trace. Ballesteros refutes that thesis that it is a forgery; the authenticity of the document is proven by the rediscovery of a certificate, dated 28 September 1501, relative to the royal confirmation of the majorat in the archive of Simancas: "''After this discovery the authenticity of the institution of the Columbus majorat has been clearly demonstrated and the historical clauses of the document have increased in value, as have Columbus's declarations regarding his Geonese birthplace.''"<ref name="Taviani 10">Taviani, Paolo Emilio. "''Cristoforo Colombo: Genius of the Sea''" (Volume II). Italian Academy Foundation, 1991. pp. 5-37. Retrieved 2011-02-05.</ref> This document was declared to be "''worth the same as a blank piece of paper''" by the Spanish tribunal when Baltazar Colombo presented it and the document rejected as not authentic.<ref>Alegacion en Derecho por Doña Francsica Colon de Toledo, sobre la sucession en possession del Estado y Ducado de Veragua. En Madrid, por Luis Sanchez. Año MDCVIII sobre el Almirantazgo de las Indias, Ducado de Veragua, y Marquesado de Jamaica</ref> The certificate dated 28 September 1501 is merely a copy of Columbus 1497 royal confirmation of the authorization to institute a majorat and it has none of the text in it that is in the "1598" majorat. Navarrete states that there is no authentic ''Majorat of 1498'', there is only the document presented by Baltazar Colombo which the tribunal rejected.<ref>Martín Fernández de Navarrete, Colección de los viajes y descubrimientos que hicieron por mar los españoles (Buenos Aires: Editorial Guaranía, 1945-46). (First Edition printed in Madrid, 1825). Vol. II, 235.</ref>|group="nb"}} Some believe that the fact that it was produced in court, during a lawsuit among the heirs of Columbus, in 1578, does not strengthen the case for its being genuine.<ref name="Paolo Emilio Taviani">Taviani, Paolo Emilio. [https://books.google.com/books?id=toILAAAAYAAJ&q ''"Christopher Columbus: the grand design."''] Orbis, 1985. pp. 17-500. Retrieved 2011-02-09.</ref> A letter from Columbus, dated 2 April 1502, to the [[Bank of Saint George]], the oldest and most reputable of Genoa's financial institutions, begins with the words: {{Quote|''Bien que el coerpo ande aca el coracon esta ali de continuo...''<ref>Columbus, Christopher. [https://books.google.com/books?id=TKgKAAAAIAAJ&pg "''The authentic letters of Columbus''" (Volume I).] Field Columbian Museum, 1894. p. 129. Retrieved 2010-02-23.</ref> | <small>Though my body is here, my heart is constantly there...</small>|}} Although a few people consider this letter suspect, the vast majority of scholars believe it genuine. The most scrupulous examination by graphologists testifies in favour of authenticity.<ref>Taviani, Paolo Emilio. [https://books.google.com/books?id=toILAAAAYAAJ&q= ''Christopher Columbus: The Grand Design.''] Orbis, 1985. p. 17. Retrieved 2015-04-16.</ref> The letter is one of a group of documents entrusted by Columbus to a Genoese friend, after the bitter experiences of his third voyage, before setting out on his fourth. In the spring of 1502, Columbus collected notarized copies of all the writings concerned with his rights to the discovery of new lands. He sent these documents to Nicolò Oderico, ambassador of the Republic of Genoa. To this same Oderico he handed over the letter to the Bank of Saint George, in which he announced that he was leaving the bank one-tenth of his income, with a recommendation for his son Diego. Oderico returned to Genoa and delivered the letter to the bank, which replied, on 8 December 1502 lauding the gesture of their "renowned fellow-citizen" towards his "native land". The reply, unfortunately, never reached its destination; Columbus, back in Castile after his fourth voyage, complained about this in another letter to Ambassador Oderico, dated 27 December 1504, and promptly annulled the bequest. The first letter was preserved in the archives of the Bank of Saint George until it was taken over by the municipality of Genoa; the other three remained in the Oderico family archives until 1670, when they were donated to the [[Republic of Genoa]]. After the fall of the Republic, they passed to the library of one of its last senators, Michele Cambiaso, and were finally acquired by the city of Genoa. There are also public and notarial acts (more than a hundred) — copies of which are conserved in the archives of [[Genoa]] and [[Savona]] — regarding Columbus's father, Columbus himself, his grandfather, and his relatives.<ref group="nb">In May 2006, the Dr. Aldo Agosto, a noted Columbus scholar and state archivist at Genoa, has collected — to be officially presented to the conference of studies in [[Valladolid]] — one hundred and ten notarial documents, largely unpublished. Agosto claims these documents reconstruct the family tree of Christopher Columbus, going back as far as seven generations.</ref> Another doubt remains to be settled: can we be sure that all of the documents cited concern the Christopher Columbus who was later to become ''Cristóbal Colón'', admiral of the Ocean Sea in Spanish territory? The list of contemporary [[#The testimony of the ambassadors|ambassadors]] and [[#Confirmation of the Genoese origin from contemporary European writers|historians]] unanimous in the belief that Columbus was Genoese could suffice as proof, but there is something more: a document dated 22 September 1470 in which the criminal judge convicts [[Domenico Colombo]]. The conviction is tied to the debt of Domenico — together with his son Christopher (explicitly stated in the document) — toward a certain Girolamo del Porto. In the will dictated by Admiral Christopher Columbus in Valladolid before he died, the authentic and indisputable document which we have today, the dying navigator remembers this old debt, which had evidently not been paid. There is, in addition, the act drawn in Genoa on 25 August 1479 by a notary, Girolamo Ventimiglia.<ref>File 2, relating to the years 1474-1504, no. 266. Retrieved 2010-12-21.</ref> This act is known as the ''Assereto document'', after the scholar who found it in the State Archives in Genoa in 1904. It involves a lawsuit over a sugar transaction on the Atlantic island of [[Madeira]]. In it, young Christopher swore that he was a 27-year-old Genoese citizen resident in Portugal and had been hired to represent the Genoese merchants in that transaction. Here was proof that he had relocated to Portugal. It is important to bear in mind that at the time when Assereto traced the document, it would have been impossible to make an acceptable facsimile.<ref name="Paolo Emilio Taviani"/> Nowadays, with modern chemical processes, a document can be "manufactured", made to look centuries old if need be, with such skill that it is hard to prove it is a fake. In 1960, this was still impossible.<ref name="Paolo Emilio Taviani"/><ref group="nb">In light of the two acts cited, the tendency to compare, or worse, to confuse or replace the true "Genoese" Columbus family with other similarly named Ligurian, Lombard or foreign families collapses, as does the main argument of the dilettantes who oppose the Genoese documentation and try to maintain that there was indeed a Genoese Christopher Columbus, woolen-weaver, but who was not the discoverer of America.</ref> In addition to the two documents cited, there are others that confirm the identification of the Genoese Christopher Columbus, son of Domenico, with the admiral of Spain. An act dated 11 October 1496 says:<ref>Bedini, Silvio A. [https://books.google.com/books?id=E2x1AAAAMAAJ&q= ''"The Christopher Columbus encyclopedia"'' (Volume I).] Simon & Schuster, 1992. p. 163. Retrieved 2011-02-07.</ref> {{Quote|Giovanni Colombo of Quinto, Matteo Colombo and Amighetto Colombo, brothers of the late Antonio, in full understanding and knowledge that said Giovanni must go to Spain to see ''M. Christopher Columbus, Admiral of the King of Spain'', and that any expenses that said Giovanni must make in order to see said M. Christopher must be paid by all three of the aforementioned brothers, each one to pay a third ... and to this they hereby agree.}} In a fourth notarial act, drawn in [[Savona]] on 8 April 1500, Sebastiano Cuneo, heir by half to his father Corrado, requested that Christopher and Giacomo (called Diego), the sons and heirs of [[Domenico Colombo]], be summoned to court and sentenced to pay the price for two lands located in Legine. This document confirms Christoforo and Diego's absence from the Republic of Genoa with these exact words: "dicti conventi sunt absentes ultra Pisas et Niciam."<ref group="nb">"The summoned parties are absent and beyond Pisa and Nice."</ref> A fifth notarial act, drawn in Savona on 26 January 1501, is more explicit. A group of Genoese citizens, under oath, said and say, together and separately and in every more valid manner and guise, that the Christopher, Bartholomew and Giacomo Columbus, sons and heirs of the aforementioned Domenico, their father, have for a long time been absent from the city and the jurisdiction of Savona, as well as Pisa and Nice in Provence, and that they reside in the area of Spain, as was and is well known. Finally, there is a very important sixth document from the notary of Bartolomeo Oddino, drawn in Savona on 30 March 1515. With this notarial act, [[Leon Pancaldo]], the well-known Savonese who would become one of the pilots for [[Ferdinand Magellan|Magellan]]'s voyage, sends his own father-in-law in his place as procurator for [[Diego Columbus]], son of Admiral Christopher Columbus. The document demonstrates how the ties, in part economic, of the discoverer's family with Savona survived even his death. === The Life of Admiral Christopher Columbus by his son Ferdinand === A biography written by Columbus's son Ferdinand (in [[Spanish language|Spanish]] and translated to [[Italian language|Italian]]), ''Historie del S. D. Fernando Colombo; nelle quali s'ha particolare, et vera relatione della vita, et de' fatti dell'Ammiraglio D. Christoforo Colombo, suo padre; Et dello scoprimento, ch'egli fece delle Indie Occidentali, dette Nuovo Mondo'' ("The life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by his son Ferdinand"), exists.<ref>Colón, Fernando (translated by Benjamin Keen) "''The life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus.''" Greenwood Press, 1978. Retrieved 2006-10-10.</ref><ref>{{It icon}} Colombo, Fernando. [http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ITA1148/__P1.HTM "''Historie del S. D. Fernando Colombo.''"] IntraText Digital Library. Retrieved 2011-11-18.</ref>{{#tag:ref|The first nineteen of this book's fifty chapters were published in 1535, the first full version in 1851. This biography of Columbus was translated into Italian by Alfonso de Ulloa and printed for the first time in Venice in 1571.<br> <small>Alfonso de Ulloa was a Spaniard born in Caceres in 1529. His father, Francisco, fought for the emperor Charles V and in 1552 came to Venice as a secretary of the Spanish ambassador [[Diego Hurtado de Mendoza (poet and diplomat)|Diego Hurtado de Mendoza]]. Ulloa knew Italian so well that he rendered Spanish and Portuguese works into that language. His most famous translation is the ''Vita dell'Ammiraglio'', 1571, "Ferdinand Columbus's life of his father," a book now of priceless value, because the original does not survive. The eminent American historian [[Washington Irving]] described the ''Vita'' as "''an invaluable document, entitled to great faith, and is the corner-stone of the history of the American continent.''"</small><ref>Modern Language Association of America. [https://books.google.com/books?ei=exvKTqj6LoaYhQeJ-vjMDw&ct=result&hl=it&id=0OENAAAAIAAJ&dq= "''Publications of the Modern Language Association of America''" (Volume XIV).] The Association, 1899. p. 488. Retrieved 2011-11-21.</ref>|group="nb"}} In it, Ferdinand claimed that his father was of Italian aristocracy. He describes Columbus to be a descendant of a Count Columbo of the Castle Cuccaro ([[Montferrat]]). Columbo was in turn said to be descended from a legendary Roman General Colonius. It is now widely believed that Christopher Columbus used this persona to ingratiate himself to the good graces of the aristocracy, an elaborate illusion to mask a humble merchant background.<ref>Greene, Robert ; Elffers, Joost. [https://books.google.com/books?id=sD4o3kZJdDMC&pg=PA285#v=onepage&q&f=false "''The 48 Laws of Power.''"] Profile Books, 2000. pp. 284-285. Retrieved 2011-11-08.</ref> Ferdinand dismissed the fanciful story that the Admiral descended from the Colonus mentioned by Tacitus. However, he refers to "those two illustrious Coloni, his relatives."{{#tag:ref|In this regard, the eminent Spanish historian Antonio Ballesteros Beretta has written: "''One person is responsible for the polemics about the birthplace of Christopher Columbus, and that person is his own son Ferdinand, who, in his biography of his father, displayed ignorance and doubts on a subject which, on the contrary, he should have known well. We must unhesitatingly point out that Don Ferdinand's work is rather tendentious and must be used with great caution. The problem of the Admiral's origin would not exist if Ferdinand had told the truth, which, instead, he deliberately concealed.''" "''His dubious attitude''" continues Ballesteros, "''about the Discoverer's origins has given rise to an endless series of hypotheses, some of which are farfetched and fantastic. It is true that Ferdinand, in his father's biography, never ventures away from the Italian thesis, but he creates a great confusion. He tries to condition his readers, speaking of a noble family, from which his progenitor was presumably descended. He seeks it in Italy, and his attempts are aimed at creating a kind of nebula in which the splendour of an uncertain birth shines, and at the same time of a definite noble background. What is behind the father's silence and the confusion originated by the son?''" Ballesteros has no hesitation in explaining: "''We cannot blame Christopher or Ferdinand for having wanted to hide their origins. It was natural and human that Columbus, having reached great heights, at the side of the most powerful sovereigns of the earth, should conceal, with a claim of noble ancestry, his humble origins. Let us try to understand these human weaknesses and let us have compassion on his memory.''"<ref name="Paolo Emilio Taviani"/>|group="nb"}} According to Note 1, on page 287, these two "were corsairs not related to each other or to Christopher Columbus, one being Guillame de Casenove, nicknamed Colombo, Admiral of France in the reign of Louis XI". At the top of page 4, Ferdinand listed [[Nervi]], [[Cogoleto]], [[Bogliasco]], [[Savona]], [[Genoa]] and [[Piacenza]] (all inside the former [[Republic of Genoa]])<ref group="nb">The city of Piacenza was part of the [[Duchy of Milan]]; the [[Republic of Genoa]] was the latter's satellite.</ref> as possible places of origin. He also stated: {{quote|''Colombo'' ... was really the name of his ancestors. But he changed it in order to make it conform to the language of the country in which he came to reside and raise a new estate ...}} In chapter ii, Ferdinand accuses [[Agostino Giustiniani]] of telling lies about the discoverer: {{quote|Thus this Giustiniani proves himself to be an inaccurate historian and exposes himself as an inconsiderate or prejudiced and malicious ''compatriot'', because in writing about an exceptional person who brought so much honor to the country ...}} In chapter v, he writes: {{quote|And because it was not far from Lisbon, where he knew there were many Genoese ''his countrymen'', he went away thither as fast as he could ...}} Ferdinand also says (chapter xi) that before he was declared admiral, his father used to sign himself "Columbus de Terra rubra," that is to say, Columbus of [[Terrarossa]], a village or hamlet near [[Genoa]]. In another passage, Ferdinand says that his father went to Lisbon and taught his brother [[Bartholomew Columbus|Bartholomew]] to construct sea charts, globes and nautical instruments; and sent this brother to England to make proposals to Henry VII of his desired voyage. Finally, Ferdinand says incidentally (chapter lxxii) that Christopher's brother, Bartholomew Columbus named the new settlement [[Santo Domingo]] in memory of their father, [[Domenico Colombo|Domenico]]. The publication of ''Historie'' has been used by historians as providing indirect evidence about the Genoese origin of Columbus. === The testimony of the ambassadors === It is significant that no one protested at the court of Spain when in April 1501, in the feverish atmosphere of the great discovery, Nicolò Oderico, ambassador of the Genoese Republic, after praising the Catholic Sovereigns, went on to say that they "discovered with great expenditure hidden and inaccessible places under the command of Columbus, our fellow-citizen, and having tamed wild barbarians and unknown peoples, they educated them in religion, manners and laws". Furthermore, two diplomats from Venice — no great friend of Genoa, indeed, a jealous rival — added the appellation "Genoese" to Columbus's name: the first, Angelo Trevisan, in 1501,{{#tag:ref|Angelo Trevisan, chancellor and secretary to Domenico Pisano, the Venetian Republic's envoy to Spain, writing to Domenico Malipiero, member of Venice's Council of Predagi, notes that "I have succeeded in becoming a great friend of Columbus," and goes on to say: "Christoforo Colombo, Genoese, a tall, well-built man, ruddy, or great creative talent and with a long face."<ref name="Paolo Emilio Taviani"/>|group="nb"}} the second, [[Gasparo Contarini]], in 1525.{{#tag:ref|Gasparo Contarini, Venice's ambassador to the courts of Spain and Portugal, reporting to the Senate of the [[Venetian Republic]] on 16 November 1525 on the whereabouts of the island of Hispaniola ([[Haiti]]), spoke of the Admiral who was living there. The Admiral was Diego, Christopher's eldest son. Ambassador Contarini describes him thus: "This Admiral is son of the Genoese Columbus and has very great powers, granted to his father."<ref name="Paolo Emilio Taviani"/>|group="nb"}} In 1498, [[Pedro de Ayala]], Spanish ambassador to the English court, mentioned [[John Cabot]], "the discoverer, another Genoese, like Columbus".<ref>[http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/History/Maritime/Sources/1498ayala.htm "Pedro de Ayala, the Spanish envoy in London, to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in Spain, 25 July 1498."] University of Bristol, 2007. Retrieved 2010-02-23.</ref> All these references were published, along with reproductions of some of the original documents, in the City of Genoa volume of 1931. === Support for the Genoese origin from contemporary European writers === The historian [[Bartolomé de las Casas]], whose father traveled with Columbus on his second journey and who personally knew Columbus' sons,{{#tag:ref|Though he never appears to have had much to do with Columbus personally, Las Casas knew his son [[Diego Columbus|Diego]], who provided some information on the early life of Columbus, and also was well acquainted with his natural son, [[Ferdinand Columbus|Ferdinand]]. Las Casas knew both brothers of Columbus, Diego and [[Bartholomew Columbus|Bartholomew]], "rather well" and gave a succinct description of Bartholomew's person, temperament, and abilities, which demonstrated that he could both observe and describe with economy and distinction. Pedro de Arana, captain of one of the ships Columbus had on his third voyage and brother of Ferdinand Columbus' mother, was another member of the Columbus family group whom Las Casas knew well. He also "held frequent conversations" with Juan Antonio Colombo, a Genoese relative of Columbus, master of a ship on the third voyage.<ref>{{es icon}} De las Casas, Bartolomé. [https://books.google.com/books?id=pQG6Dhwvs_cC&pg=PA522&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false "''Historia de las Indias''" (Volume I).] Fundacion Biblioteca Ayacuch, 1986. p. 522. Retrieved 2011-11-11.</ref> Thus Las Casas enjoyed such an intimate and, at the same time, so extensive a knowledge of the Columbus family circle and of both printed and manuscript material on the subject, that he was able to write of the Admiral of the Ocean Sea with unequaled familiarity and authority.|group="nb"}} writes in chapter 2 of his ''Historia de las Indias'':<ref>{{es icon}} De las Casas, Bartolomé ; Saint-Lu, André. [https://books.google.com/books?id=pQG6Dhwvs_cC&pg=PA26&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false ''"Historia de las Indias"'' (Volume I).] Fundacion Biblioteca Ayacuch, 1986. p. 26. Retrieved 2011-02-06.</ref> {{quote|This distinguished man was from the Genoese nation, from some place in the province of Genoa; who he was, where he was born or what name he had in that place we do not know in truth, except that before he reached the Nation in which he arrived, he used to call himself ''Cristóbal Colombo'' de Terrarubia.}} The historian [[Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés]], writes that [[Domenico Colombo]] was the Admiral's father;<ref>{{es icon}} De Oviedo y Valdés, Gonzalo Fernández. [https://books.google.com/books?id=YQ4NAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA12&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false ''"Historia general y natural de las Indias, islas y tierra-firme del mar océano"'' (Volume I).] Real Acad. de la Historia, 1851. p. 12. Retrieved 2011-11-10.</ref> and in chapter 2, book 3 of his ''Historia general y natural de las Indias'':<ref>{{es icon}} De Oviedo y Valdés, Gonzalo Fernández. [https://books.google.com/books?id=O20UQAAACAAJ&dq ''"Historia general y natural de las Indias, islas y tierra-firme del mar océano"'' (Volume III).] Real Acad. de la Historia, 1855. Retrieved 2011-02-06.</ref> {{quote|Christopher Columbus, according to what I have learned from men of his nation, was originally from the province of Liguria, which is in Italy, where the city and the Seignory of Genoa stands: some say that he was from Savona, others that he was from a small place or village called Nervi, which is on the eastern seashore two leagues from the self same city of Genoa; but it is held to be more certain that he may have been originally from Cugurreo (Cogoleto) near the city of Genoa.}} Many contemporary writers agree that the discoverer was Genoese:<ref name="Taviani 10"/><ref name="Paolo Emilio Taviani"/> *The [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] [[Rui de Pina]] wrote two works, ''Chronica d'El Rey, dom Affonso'' and ''Chronica d'El Rey, dom João II''. It has been ascertained that the manuscripts had been completed before 1504, although they were published in the Eighteenth century. Chapter 66 in the second manuscript, "Descubrimiento das Ilhas de Castella per Collombo," explicitly states, "Christovan Colombo italiano." *In the 1513 edition of the ''Map of the New World'' from ''Ptolemy'',<ref>K. Kretschmer's atlas, ''Die Entdeckung Amerikas'', Berlin 1892, plate XII.</ref> it says: "This land with the adjacent islands was discovered by the Genoese Columbus, sent by the King of Castile." *The [[Turkish people|Turkish]] geographer Piri Ibn Haji Mehmed, known as [[Piri Reis]], in his map of 1513, writes: "These coasts are called the coasts of the Antilles. They were discovered in the year 896 of the Arabic calendar. It is said that a Genoese infidel, Columbus by name, discovered the place."{{#tag:ref|This [[Piri Reis map|map]] was drawn by Piri Reis, a Turkish cartographer and geographer, known as the nephew of [[Kemal Reis]], in [[Gelibolu]], in the month of muharrem of the year 919 (that is, between the 9th of March and the 7th of April of the year 1513). A large fragment of the map was found in 1929 during work to transform the [[Topkapı Palace]]. In 1501 the Turkish seamen engaged in a violent naval battle in the western Mediterranean. They captured a few Spanish cargo ships, in one of which they found various objects and products from America. Piri Reis writes thus in his ''Bahriye'': "On the enemy ships which was captured in the Mediterranean, we found a stone similar to jasper." It was on this occasion that the Turks came into possession of the map that Piri Reis used to trace the coastlines of America. According to the notes made on it, the map was constructed using several other maps as source material. There is no doubt as to its authenticity. In note 5 of the map, here is what Piri Reis tells us, in [[Ottoman Turkish language]]: « ... Amma şöyle rivayet ederler kim '''Cinevizden''' [from Genoa] bir '''kâfir''' [an infidel] adına '''Qolōnbō''' [named Columbus] derler imiş, bu yerleri ol bulmuştur ... »<ref>If the name had been "Colón", the author of the map would have translated this as '''Qolōn''' and would not have written '''Qolōnbō''' ("Colombo"). This spelling also indicates an Italian origin: when Columbus asked the permission for his voyages, at first his name was written as "Colomo" in the official documents, that, more or less relates to the [[apocope]] in Castilian for the Italian "Colombo". Only later his name was recorded as "Colón".</ref> The note goes on to tell how Columbus proposed the enterprise "to the great men of Genoa" and how, on being rejected by them, he turned "to the king of Spain." It continues: "The deceased Gazi Kemal had a Spanish slave who told Kemal Reis he had been three times to that Land along with Columbus." The importance of the testimony on this Turkish map from a time close to that of the discovery lies in the source of the news it carries: a Spanish ship captured by the Turks in 1501. The document is wholly unconnected with contemporary Christian culture and completely autonomous from the above-mentioned references.|group="nb"}} *Hernando Alonso de Herrera, in his anti-Aristotelian dissertation, completed in Salamanca in 1516, and published in [[Latin]] and [[Spanish language|Spanish]], wrote: "Xristoval Colon ginoves." *In a Portuguese map of 1520,<ref group="nb">Also in K. Kretschmer's ''Die Entdeckung Amerikas'', plate XII.</ref> it is said: "Land of the Antipodes of the King of Castile, discovered by Christopher Columbus Genoese." *The [[Germans|German]] Peter von Bennewitz writes, in 1520, in the ''Typus Orbis Universalis'':<ref>AE Nordenskiold, ''Facsimile Atlas'', Stockholm 1889, plate XXXVIII.</ref> "In the year 1497 (''sic'') this land (America) with the adjacent islands was discovered by Columbus, a Genoese by mandate of the King of Castile." *The German [[Johannes Schöner]] states in the ''Globus'' of 1520:<ref>K. Kretschmer, ''Die Entdeckung Amerikas'', plate XIII.</ref> "This (island) produces gold, mastic, aloes, porcelain, etc. and ginger — Latitude of the island 440 miles — Longitude 880 — discovered by Christopher Columbus Genoese, captain of the King of Castile in the year of Our Lord 1492." *The [[Spanish people|Spaniard]] [[Francisco López de Gómara]] writes:<ref>''Historia general de las Indias'' of 1533, under the fourteenth title in part I.</ref> "Christopher Columbus was originally from Cogurreo or Nervi, a village of Genoa, a very famous Italian city." *The Portuguese [[Garcia de Resende]], poet and editor, writes:<ref>''Crónica de D. João II,'' published in 1544, p. 110.</ref> "Christouao Colombo, italiano." *The [[Swiss people|Swiss]] [[Heinrich Glarean]] (Loriti) writes:<ref>''De Geographia, liber unus'', published Venice 1534, p. 45.</ref> "To the west there is a land they call America. Two islands, Hispaniola and Isabella: which regions were travelled, along the coast, by the Spaniards, by the Genoese Columbus and by Amerigo Vespuzio." *The Spaniard Hieronymo Girava, who lived in the first half of the 16th century, writes:<ref>''Dos Libros de Cosmographia'', published Milan 1556, p. 186.</ref> "Christoval Colon Genoese, great seaman and mediocre cosmographer." *The Portuguese [[João de Barros]] writes: "As all men declare, ''Christovão Colom'' was of Genoese nation, a man expert, eloquent and good Latinist, and very boastful in his affairs";{{#tag:ref|''Décadas da Ásia'', begun in 1539 and first published in 1552.<ref name="Samuel Eliot Morison">Morison, Samuel Eliot. [https://books.google.com/books?ei=BqezTordNobqOZu7tOUB&ct=result&hl=it&id=uMV1AAAAMAAJ&dq= "''Admiral of the ocean sea: a life of Christopher Columbus''" (Volume I).] Time Inc., 1962. pp. 6-65. Retrieved 2011-11-04.</ref>|group="nb"}} and: "As in this kingdom came Christopher Columbus Genoese, who had just discovered the western islands that now we call Antilles."<ref>''Da Ásia'', translated by Alfonso Ulloa, Venice 1562, p. 55.</ref> *The German known as Giovanni Boemo Aubano, of the first half of the 16th century, writes:<ref>/ ''costumi, le leggi et l'usanze di tutte le genti'', Venice 1564, p. 193.</ref> "Christoforo Palombo, Genoese, the year 1492." *The [[Flemish people|Flemish]] [[Abraham Ortelius]], writes:<ref>''[[Theatrum Orbis Terrarum]]'', Antwerp 1570, folio 11.</ref> "It seems to surpass the bounds of human wonder that all this hemisphere (that today is called America and, because of its immense extent, the New World) remained unknown to the ancients until the Christian year 1492, in which it was first discovered by Christopher Columbus, Genoese." *The Portuguese [[Damião de Góis]], writes:<ref>''De Rebus Aethiopicis'', in ''De Rebus Oceanicis et Novo Orbe'', Cologne 1574, p. 455.</ref> "The Genoese Columbus, a man expert in nautical arts" ; and, in the index: "Columbi genuen- sis, alias Coloni commendatio."{{#tag:ref|In 1540, Damião de Góis, writes in his ''Fides, religio, moresque Aethiopum'': "In his life [he refers to D. João II] the Genoese Columbus ... offered him his services."<ref name="Graça Moura Vasco">{{pt icon}} Graça Moura, Vasco. [https://books.google.com/books?id=90MaAQAAIAAJ&q "''Cristóvão Colombo e a floresta das asneiras.''"] Quetzal Editores, 1991. pp. 93-95. Retrieved 2010-11-20.</ref>|group="nb"}} *The Spaniard [[Nicolás Monardes]], writes:<ref>''Primera y segunda y tenera partes de la Historia medicinal de las cosas que se traen de nuestras Indias Occidentales que sirven en Medicina'', Seville 1574, p. 1.</ref> "In the year 1492 our Spaniards were led by don Christoval Colon, native of Genoa, to discover the West Indies." *The German [[Laurentius Surius]], writes:<ref>''Commentarius brevis rerum in orbe gestarum, ab anno salutis MD usque in annum MDLXXIIII'', Cologne 1574, p. 6.</ref> "There was at the court of the King of Spain a certain Christopher Columbus whose homeland was Genoa." *In 1579, for the Cristoph Pantin's edition, the yearbooks of the Genoese Senate were published, in [[Antwerp]], edited by Petro Bizaro: ''Senatus Populique Genuensis rerum domi forisque gestarum historiae atque annales''. Among what is written to celebrate many industrious Genoese men, you can read that: "cum Christophoro Columbo navalis scientiae absolutissima peritia apud omnem venturam posteritatem, juro optima aliqua ex parte conferri vel comparari possit." *The Portuguese [[Fernão Vaz Dourado]] in the ''Atlante'' of 1580,<ref>K. Kretschmer, ''Die Entdeckung Amerikas'', plate XVIII.</ref> notes: "Land of the Antipodes of the King of Castile discovered by Christopher Columbus Genoese." *The Spaniard Alvaro Gomez, writes:<ref>''De Rebus Gestis a Francisco Ximenio Cisnerio, Archiepiscopo Toletano'', Frankfurt 1581, Vol. III, p. 38.</ref> "Thanks to the eager industry of Christopher Columbus Genoese, word was brought to our Sovereigns of an unknown world." *The [[French people|Frenchman]] [[Gilbert Génebrard]], writes:<ref>''Chronographiae Libri Quatuor'', Paris 1580, p. 399.</ref> "Ferdinand, at the urging of his wife Isabella, Queen of Castile, Leòn and Aragon, sent Christopher Columbus Genoese to seek new land." *The Swiss [[Theodor Zwinger]], who died in 1588, was the author of the ''Theatrum Humanae Vitae'', Basle 1604. In the index we read: "Cristoforo Colono, or Colombo Genoese." *On an unspecified date, certainly prior to 1591, the Turk Basmagi Ibrahim published a book, written by a Turkish author who has remained anonymous, entitled ''Turich-i-Hind-i garbi iachod hadis-i-nev'' (History of the West Indies, in other words the New Story). The third chapter of this book dedicated to the discoverer of the "New World or New Land," states: "From the village of Nervi, which is among the Genoese possessions, a man who was born who had the name Christopher and the surname Columbus. Since he had completed journeys by land and by sea [...] he stayed on an island by the name of Madeira [...] under the domain of the wretched (''sic'') Portugal." *The Flemish [[Theodor De Bry]], writes:<ref>''Historiae Americanae Secunda Pars conscripta a Jacobo Le Moyne, dicto De Morgues.'', Frankfurt 1591, p. 4.</ref> "From everything it can be stated with certainty that it was first discovered by Christopher Columbus Genoese." *The Portuguese [[Gaspar Frutuoso]], in a sixteenth-century manuscript entitled ''As Saudades da terra'', printed by Alvaro Rodriguez Azevedo in 1873 in Funchal (Madeira), writes in the Anales of Porto Santo: "On this island the great Christovao Colombo, the Genoese, resided for some time." *The German [[David Chytraeus]] writes:<ref>''Saxonia at anno Christi 1550 usque MDXCIV'' published by the printer Henning Gros, in Leipzig, in 1599.</ref> "Primum Novum Orbem in occidente, omnibus antea ignotum et inaccessam... pervestigare et aperire... ''Christophorus Columbus Genesis'', admirand ad omnen posteritatem ausu et industria coeperat." *In the volume published by the City of Genoa the testimony is cited of the historian Andres Bernaldez, who died in 1513. He was the author of a ''Historia de los Reyes Catolicos don Fernando y dona Isabel''. In this work, belatedly published in Seville in 1869, it is written:<ref>''Historia de los Reyes Catolicos don Fernando y dona Isabel'', Vol. I, p. 357.</ref> "In the name of Almighty God, a man of the land of Genoa, a merchant of printed books who was called Christopher Columbus." Actually, in the original text of Bernaldez, it says "land of Milan". However, this is merely lack of precision. In the 15th century, the [[Republic of Genoa]] was alternately fully and legally dependent on the [[Duchy of Milan]] and the latter's satellite. The editor rightly interpreted the Milanese reference in the sense of Genoese origin. Columbus's Genoese birth is also confirmed by the works of the English Hakluyt (1601), of the Spaniard Antonio de Herrera (1612), the great Spanish dramatist Lope de Vega (1614), a paper manuscript dated 1626, conserved in Madrid's National Library, the works of the German Filioop Cluwer (1677), the German Giovanni Enrico Alsted (1649), the French Dionisio Petau (1724), and the Spaniard Luigi de Marmol (1667). This list represents the early writings of non-Italians. There were '''sixty-two Italian testimonies''' between 1502 and 1600. Of these fourteen are from Ligurian writers.{{#tag:ref|The other authors being Lombards, Venetians, Tuscans, Neapolitans, Sicilians and one Maltese.<ref name="Paolo Emilio Taviani"/>|group="nb"}} It may be obvious, but not useless, to underline that the Venetians' (e.g. Trevisan's and Ramusio's) recognition of Columbus's Genoese birth constitutes a testimony as impartial as that of the Spaniards, French, and Portuguese. Conformable to the testament in Seville (3 July 1539) is the evidence of [[Ferdinand Columbus]], who states that his father was ''conterraneo'' (of the same country) with Mons. Agostino Giustiniani, who was, beyond all doubt,<ref name="Antonio Ballesteros Beretta">{{es icon}} Ballesteros Beretta, Antonio. [https://books.google.com/books?ei=wfxiTd2kEoqEOvjGyN4C&ct=result&id=giHVAAAAMAAJ&dq= "''Cristóbal Colón y el descubrimiento de América''" (Volume I).] Salvat editores, s.a., 1945. pp. 139-157. Retrieved 2011-02-22.</ref><ref name="Dario G. Martini">{{it icon}} Martini, Dario G. [https://books.google.com/books?id=8TEaAQAAIAAJ&q= ''"Cristoforo Colombo tra ragione e fantasia."''] ECIG, 1987. pp. 12 and 513. Retrieved 2011-02-22.</ref> born at Genoa: {{Quote|''Hijo de don Cristóbal Colón, genovés, primero almirante que descubrió las Indias ...''<ref>{{es icon}} Díaz-Trechuelo, María Lourdes. [https://books.google.com/books?id=drsM_sZPglQC&pg=PA30&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false ''"Cristóbal Colón"''.] Ediciones Palabra, 2006. p. 30. Retrieved 2010-12-08.</ref> | <small>Son of Christopher Columbus, Genoese, admiral who first discovered the Indies ...</small>|}} === Other information === Other testimony of contemporary or succeeding authors include: *A reference, dated 1492 by a court scribe Galindez, referred to Columbus as "''Cristóbal Colón, genovés.''"<ref>Granzotto, Gianni. [https://books.google.com/books?ei=e1TPTtmeMcGKhQesv8CLAg&ct=result&hl=it&id=qsF1AAAAMAAJ&dq= "''Christopher Columbus.''"] Doubleday, 1985. p. 10. Retrieved 2007-12-15.</ref> *The historian [[Peter Martyr d'Anghiera]], was the earliest of Columbus's chroniclers and was in Barcelona when Columbus returned from his first voyage. In his letter of May 14, 1493, addressed to Giovanni Borromeo, he referred to Columbus as Ligurian,<ref group="nb">"Christophorus Colonus quidam ligur vir" or "a certain Christopher Columbus, man of Liguria"</ref> [[Liguria]] being the Region where Genoa is located.<ref group="nb">Peter Martyr d'Anghiera uses the two words, "Ligurian" and "Genoese", interchangeably. In the first ''Decade'' of his ''De Orbe Novo'', book I: "homo ligur". In the second ''Decade'', book I: "Christophorum Colonum ligurem" and book VII: "Christophoro Colono Genuensi" (NRC, VI, 1988).</ref> *Michele da Cuneo from Savona, a friend of Columbus' (possibly from childhood),<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot. "''Christopher Columbus, Mariner.''" New American Library, 1956. p. 72. Retrieved 2010-08-10.</ref> sailed with Columbus during the second voyage and wrote: "In my opinion, since Genoa was Genoa, there was never born a man so well equipped and expert in the art of navigation as the said lord Admiral."<ref>Fernández-Armesto, Felipe. "''Columbus.''" Oxford University Press, 1991. pp. 103-104. Retrieved 2009-02-11.</ref> *Giambattista Strozzi, a Florentine merchant, reported in a letter sent from Cadiz on March 19, 1494: "On the 7th of this month there arrived here in safety twelve caravels which came from the new islands found by Columbus ''Savonese'', Admiral of the Ocean, for the king of Castile, having come in twenty-five days from the said islands of the Antilles."<ref name="Antonio Ballesteros Beretta"/> *[[Cesáreo Fernández Duro]] in his book ''Colón y la Historia postuma'', mentions the chronicler Alonso Estanquez, who has composed a ''Crónica de los reyes don Fernando y doña Isabel'', before 1506, where he writes: "''Cristobal Colón, genovés.''"<ref name="Antonio Ballesteros Beretta"/> *In 1507 [[Martin Waldseemüller]] published a world map, ''[[Universalis Cosmographia]]'', which was the first to show North and South America as separate from Asia and surrounded by water. Below the island of Hispaniola, near the coast of Paria ([[Central America]]) he inserted the words: "Iste insule per Columbum genuensem almirantem ex ma[n]dato regis Castelle invent[a]e sunt" or "these islands have been discovered by the Genoese admiral Columbus by order of the king of Castile."<ref>Schiavo, Giovanni Ermenegildo. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Dh7jAAAAMAAJ&q "''Four centuries of Italian-American history.''"] Center for Migration Studies, 1992. p. 50. Retrieved 2010-12-06.</ref> *Witnesses in the 1511 and 1532 hearings in the ''Pleitos'' agreed that Columbus was from the [[Liguria|Ligur]]. Another witness at the same hearing placed it more precisely, testifying, "I heard it said that [he] was from the seigneury of Genoa, from the city of Savona."{{#tag:ref|Testimony of Rodrigo Barreda: "''oyo decir que hera de la senioria de Genova de la cibdad de Saona.''"<ref name="Miles H. Davidson">Davidson, Miles H. [https://books.google.com/books?id=BR6Ek48GgzEC&pg=PA6#v=onepage&q&f=false "''Columbus then and now: a life reexamined.''"] University of Oklahoma Press, 1997. pp. 6-7. Retrieved 2010-06-13.</ref>|group="nb"}} *Father Antonio de Aspa, a Hieronymite from the convent of [[Mejorada]], between 1512 and 1524, wrote a report on Columbus's first voyage, drawn largely from the ''Decades'' of Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, in which he claimed that Columbus was Genoese.<ref name="Antonio Ballesteros Beretta"/>{{#tag:ref|Father Antonio de Aspa mentions that three Genoese merchants helped to finance the venture: Jacopo Di Negro, from Seville, Zapatal, from Jerez, and Luis Doria, from Cadiz. To these names we can add the Genoese merchants Rivarolo, Doria, Castagno and Gaspare Spinola, mentioned by Nuncibay in his ''Genealogia de la Casa de Portugal'', and in Columbus's correspondence with his son Diego. Ballesteros remarks that the only certain thing is that the Italian families of Pinello, Berardi, Centurione, Doria, Spinola, Cattaneo, Di Negro and Rivarolo appear continually in the presence of the great Genoese.<ref name="Paolo Emilio Taviani"/>|group="nb"}} *The Portuguese [[Jorge Reinel]], in his map of 1519, writes the following words: "Xpoforum cõlombum genuensem."<ref name="Graça Moura Vasco"/> *The German [[Simon Grynaeus]], writes:<ref>Grynaeus, Simon; Huttichius, Johann. [https://books.google.com/books?hl=it&id=jGDNHKpQtowC&pg=PA90&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false "''Novus orbis regionum ac insularum veteribus incognitarum.''"] apud Io. Hervagium, 1532. p. 90. Retrieved 2011-12-03.</ref> "Christophorus natione Italicus, patria Genuensis, gente Columba." *D. Diego, a grandson of the admiral, was knight of the [[Order of Santiago]], in the genealogy section, of 1535, says: "Paternal Grandparents / Christopher Columbus, a native of Saona near Genoa, / and Filipa Moniz, a native of Libon."<ref name="Antonio Ballesteros Beretta"/> In the same year, Pedro de Arana, a cousin of Columbus's Spanish mistress, testified that he knew Columbus was from Genoa.{{#tag:ref|Pedro was close enough to Columbus to have commanded a vessel on his third voyage across the Atlantic.<ref name="Miles H. Davidson"/>|group="nb"}} *The Spaniard [[Alonzo de Santa Cruz]], ''c.'' 1550, said Columbus was from [[Nervi]].<ref name="Miles H. Davidson"/> *The Spaniard [[Pedro Cieza de León]] writes that Columbus was originally from [[Savona]].<ref>Cieza de León, Pedro (translated into Italian by Agostino di Cravaliz). [https://books.google.com/books?id=RgY6AAAAcAAJ&vq=it&pg=PA2#v=onepage&q&f=false "''Cronica Del Gran Regno Del Peru.''"] 1553 (link to 1576 edition), p. 2. Retrieved 2011-12-09.</ref> *In his ''Commentarius de Ophyra regione apud Divinam Scripturam Commemorata'' of 1561, the Portuguese geographer Gaspar Barreiros, reported that Columbus was "Ligurian."{{#tag:ref|"Duce Christophoro Colono Ligure."<ref name="Graça Moura Vasco"/>|group="nb"}} *The Spaniard [[Jerónimo Zurita y Castro]], writes:<ref>{{es icon}} Zurita y Castro, Jerónimo. [https://books.google.com/books?id=sO1FAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA17&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false "''Anales de la Corona de Aragon.''"] 1562-1580 (link to 1670 edition), p. 17. Retrieved 2010-12-11.</ref> "Christopher Columbus, man, as he said, whose company had always been for the sea and its predecessors, so that was foreign born and raised in poverty and the banks of Genoa." *The Portuguese [[António Galvão]], writes:<ref>Galvão, António ; Hakluyt, Richard ; Bethune, Charles Ramsay Drinkwater. [https://books.google.com/books?id=vAUVAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA81&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false "''The discoveries of the world.''"] 1563 (link to 1862 edition), p. 81. Retrieved 2010-12-17.</ref> "In the yeere 1492, in the time of Don Ferdinando king of Castile, he being at the siege of Granada, dispatched one Christopher Columbus a Genoway with three ships to goe and discouer Noua Spagna." *The Spaniard [[Gonzalo de Illescas]], writes:<ref>{{es icon}} Illescas, Gonzalo de. [https://books.google.com/books?id=yUjFZqMuZOwC&dq=&hl=it&pg=PA259#v=onepage&q&f=false "''Segunda parte de la Historia pontifical y catolica.''"] 1569 (link to 1652 edition), p. 259. Retrieved 2011-12-08.</ref> "Christopher Columbus Genoese, was born at Nervi, a village near to Genoa." *The Spaniard Esteban de Garibay, humanist and historian, writes:<ref>{{es icon}} Garibay y Zamalloa, Esteban de. [https://books.google.com/books?id=dcncZAFjRrQC&pg=PA650&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false "''Compendio historial de las chronicas y universal historia de todos los reynos de España.''"] 1571 (link to 1628 edition), p. 650. Retrieved 2011-12-08.</ref> "A man of the Italian nation, named Christopher Columbus, native of Cugurco ([[Cogoleto]]), or Nervi, village of Genoa." *The Portuguese João Matalio Metelo Sequano in 1580, writes that Columbus was born in the city of Genoa.{{#tag:ref|"Christophorus ergo Columbus, prouincia Ligur, vrbe, vt aiunt, genuensis, qui Maderam inhabitabit."<ref name="Graça Moura Vasco"/>|group="nb"}} *The Frenchman [[Lancelot Voisin de La Popelinière]], writes:<ref>{{fr icon}} La Popelinière, Lancelot Voisin. [https://books.google.com/books?id=mZAu2Y0EWY8C&pg=PA77&lpg=#v=onepage&q&f=false "''Les trois mondes de la Popelinière.''"] 1582 (link to 1997 edition), p. 77. Retrieved 2011-12-10.</ref> "La plupart des princes chretiens, le nostre sur tous, l'Anglais, le Portugais, l'Espagnol mémes, n'avaient daigné préster sculement l'ouíe a l'ouverture que ''l'ltalien'' leur faisait." *The Spaniard Julián del Castillo, writes:<ref>{{es icon}} Castillo, Julián del. [https://books.google.com/books?id=sbpgHGRjcqYC&hl=it&pg=RA2-PT222#v=onepage&q&f=false "''Historia de los Reyes Godos que vinieron de la Scitia de Europa, contra el Imperio Romano, y a España.''"] Por Philippe de Iunta, 1582. p. 143. Retrieved 2011-12-08.</ref> "Christopher Columbus, an Italian, was originally from Cogurio (Cogoleto) or Nervi, village near to the famous city of Genoa." *The German [[Michael Neander]], writes:<ref>Neander, Michael. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Azk8AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA422&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false "''Orbis terrae partium succincta explicatio.''"] 1586 (link to 1597 edition), p. 422. Retrieved 2011-12-07.</ref> "Christophoro Colombo Genuensi." *The Spaniard [[Gonzalo Argote de Molina]] clearly identified [[Albissola Marina]] as Columbus's birthplace.<ref>{{es icon}} Argote de Molina, Gonzalo. [https://books.google.com/books?id=btPiv51Fss4C&dq=&hl=it&pg=RA2-PT409#v=onepage&q&f=false "''Nobleza del Andaluzia.''"] Por Fernando Diaz, 1588. pp. 246-247. Retrieved 2011-12-08.</ref> *Friar Juan de la Victoria, author of the 16th century, wrote a ''Catálogo de los Reyes godos de España'' extracted from Fernández Duro in his ''Colón y La Historia Postuma''; says the friar: "In the year 1488, the Italian Christopher Columbus, native of Cugureo (Cogoleto) or Nervi, village of Genoa, sailor."<ref name="Antonio Ballesteros Beretta"/> *The Spaniard [[Juan de Castellanos]], poet and chronicler, writes that Columbus was born in Nervi.<ref>{{es icon}} Castellanos, Juan de. [https://books.google.com/books?id=LSoeTCrFm04C&dq=&hl=it&pg=PA44#v=onepage&q= "''Elegías de varones ilustres de Indias.''"] 1589 (link to 1847 edition), p. 44. Retrieved 2011-12-08.</ref> *The Spaniard [[Juan de Mariana]], writes:<ref>{{es icon}} Mariana, Juan de. [https://books.google.com/books?id=7V5BAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA132&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false "''Historia general de España''" (Volume XIII).] 1592 (link to 1819 edition), p. 132. Retrieved 2011-12-09.</ref> "Christopher Columbus, Genoese of nation." *The Portuguese Pedro de Mariz, historian and librarian, says that Columbus was Genoese.<ref>{{pt icon}} De Mariz, Pedro. [https://books.google.com/books?id=HgkGWX5ulV4C&pg=PA351&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false "''Diálogos de varia historia.''"] 1594 (link to 1749 edition), p. 351. Retrieved 2011-12-07.</ref> === Historians === Scholars from all over the world agree that Columbus was Genoese.{{#tag:ref|They include the two greatest Columbians in Spain, Antonio Ballesteros Beretta, professor at the [[Complutense University of Madrid|University of Madrid]], and Juan Manzano Manzano, professor of [[Seville University]]; the leading North American authority, Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison; and the Argentinian Diego Luis Molinari, professor at the [[University of Buenos Aires]]. Obviously there are many more — admirers and detractors alike — who accept Genoa as his birthplace, including Robertson, Navarrete, Milhou, Irving, Boorstin, Demetrio Ramos, Carpentier, D'Avezac, Manuel Alvar, Nunez Jimenez, Munoz, Peschel, Duro, Mollat, Harrisse, Perez de Tudela, Aynashiya, Morales Padron, Magidovic, Roselly de Lorgues, Asensio, Braudel, Winsor, Fiske, Ciroanescu, Ruge, Markham, Serrano y Sanz, Obregon, Laguarda Trias, Thacher, de Gandia, Emiliano Jos, Aurelio Tio, Goldemberg, Vignaud, Ramirez Corria, Alvarez Pedroso, Marta Sanguinetti, Altolaguirre, Breuer, Leithaus, Alegria, Arciniegas, Davey, Nunn, Johnson, Juan Gil, Sumien, Charcot, Ballesteros Gaibrois, Levillier, Dickey, Parry, Young, Streicher, de La Ronciere, Muro Orejon, Pedroso, Brebner, Houben, Rumeu de Armas, de Madariaga, Stefansson, Martinez Hidalgo, Taylor, Mahn Lot, Consuelo Varela, Verlinden, Bradford, Heers, Davidson,<ref name="Miles H. Davidson"/> Bergreen,<ref>Bergreen, Laurence. [https://books.google.com/books?id=3Dyhtkk4VQcC&dq= "''Columbus: The Four Voyages.''"] Penguin Group US, 2011. Retrieved 2012-01-07.</ref> Fernandez-Armesto,<ref>Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe. [https://books.google.com/books?ei=O3wFT8qnHYeA4gSg98yNCA&hl=it&id=4at1AAAAMAAJ&dq= "''Columbus.''"] Oxford University Press, 1991. Retrieved 2012-01-07.</ref> McGovern,<ref>McGovern, James R. [https://books.google.com/books?id=3mOh34X6UY8C&printsec= "''The World of Columbus.''"] Mercer University Press, 1992. Retrieved 2012-01-07.</ref> Kirkpatrick Sale,<ref>Sale, Kirkpatrick. [https://books.google.com/books?id=g9uH9kL0PoIC&pg= "''Christopher Columbus and the Conquest of Paradise.''"] Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2006. Retrieved 2012-01-07.</ref> William and Carla Phillips.<ref>Phillips, William D. ; Phillips, Carla R. [https://books.google.com/books?id=66xjQgAACAAJ&dq= "''The worlds of Christopher Columbus.''"] Cambridge University Press, 1992. Retrieved 2012-01-07. Both the Phillips are professors of history at the [[University of Minnesota]].</ref> Among the leading Italian authorities on Columbus, who also concur, are Spotorno, Sanguineti, Tarducci, Peragallo, Desimoni, De Lollis, Salvagnini, Uzielli, Assereto, Pessagno, Caddeo, Magnaghi, Almagia, Revelli and Bignardelli. Among the famous historians and geographers who have written general works that make reference to Columbus's Genoese birth, we will mention only Humboldt, the great 19th-century German geographer; Burckhardt, author of the prestigious ''Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy''; Fisher, the distinguished English historian; Pirenne, the eminent Belgian historian; Merzbacher, professor of History of Law at the [[University of Innsbruck]]; and Konetzke, professor of Iberian and Latin-American History at [[Cologne University]].<ref name="Paolo Emilio Taviani"/><br> <small>The eminent Italian historian, Paolo Emilio Taviani, devoted his time to the study of Christopher Columbus, becoming "''one of the world's leading authorities on the subject. He retraced the voyages of the Genoese navigator and wrote numerous books about his life and times. Taviani, who was made a life senator in 1991, donated his collection of 2,500 volumes on Columbus to a council-owned library in his native Genoa.''"</small><ref>Willan, Philip. [https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/jun/21/guardianobituaries.philipwillan "Paolo Emilio Taviani."] The Guardian, 2001. Retrieved 2011-11-14.</ref>|group="nb"}} [[Samuel Eliot Morison]], in his book ''Christopher Columbus: Admiral of the Ocean Sea'', notes that many existing legal documents demonstrate the Genoese origin of Columbus, his father Domenico, and his brothers Bartolomeo and Giacomo (Diego). These documents, written in Latin by notaries, were legally valid in Genoese courts. The documents, uncovered in the 19th century when Italian historians examined the Genoese archives, form part of the ''Raccolta Colombiana''. On page 14, Morison writes: [[File:Genova-casa di Colombo-DSCF7114.JPG|180px|thumb|right|House of Christopher Columbus in Genoa, Italy.]] {{quote|Besides these documents from which we may glean facts about Christopher's early life, there are others which identify the Discoverer as the son of Domenico the wool weaver, beyond the possibility of doubt. For instance, Domenico had a brother Antonio, like him a respectable member of the lower middle class in Genoa. Antonio had three sons: Matteo, Amigeto and Giovanni, who was generally known as Giannetto (the Genoese equivalent of "Johnny"). Giannetto, like Christopher, gave up a humdrum occupation to follow the sea. In 1496 the three brothers met in a notary's office at Genoa and agreed that Johnny should go to Spain and seek out his first cousin "Don Cristoforo de Colombo, Admiral of the King of Spain," each contributing one third of the traveling expenses. This quest for a job was highly successful. The Admiral gave Johnny command of a caravel on the Third Voyage to America, and entrusted him with confidential matters as well.}} On the topic of Columbus' being born somewhere besides Genoa, Morison states "Every contemporary Spaniard or Portuguese who wrote about Columbus and his discoveries calls him Genoese. Four contemporary Genoese chroniclers claim him as a compatriot. Every early map on which his nationality is recorded describes him as Genoese or ''Ligur'', a citizen of the Ligurian Republic. Nobody in the Admiral's lifetime, or for three centuries after, had any doubt about his birthplace" and that "There is no more reason to doubt that Christopher Columbus was a Genoese-born Catholic Christian, steadfast in his faith and proud of his native city, than to doubt that [[George Washington]] was a Virginia-born Anglican of English race, proud of being an [[United States|American]]." The position of Morison, is adopted by the British historian [[Felipe Fernández-Armesto]], who writes in his book:<ref>Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe. [https://books.google.com/books?id=_EEaCAAAQBAJ&pg=PT150&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false ''1492. The Year the World Began.''] Orion Press Inc., 2009. Retrieved 2015-04-16.</ref> {{quote|The Catalan, French, Galician, [[#Greek hypothesis|Greek]], Ibizan, Jewish, Majorcan, [[#Polish hypothesis|Polish]], Scottish, and other increasingly silly Columbuses concocted by historical fantasists are agenda-driven creations, usually inspired by a desire to arrogate a supposed or confected hero to the cause of a particular nation or historic community - or, more often than not, to some immigrant group striving to establish a special place of esteem in the United States. The evidence of Columbus's origins in Genoa is overwhelming: almost no other figure of his class or designation has left so clear a paper trail in the archives.}} [[Paolo Emilio Taviani]], in his book ''Cristoforo Colombo: Genius of the Sea'' discusses "the public and notarial acts - original copies of which are conserved in the archives of Genoa and Savona - regarding Columbus's father, Columbus himself, his grandfather, and his relatives." In ''Columbus the Great Adventure'' he further claims that Columbus named the small island of [[Saona]] "to honor Michele da Cuneo, his friend from Savona."<ref>Taviani, Paolo Emilio. "''Columbus, the great adventure: his life, his times, and his voyages.''" Orion Books, 1991. p. 185. Retrieved 2009-02-11.</ref> This is fully accepted by [[Consuelo Varela Bueno]], "Spain's leading authority on the texts, documents, and handwriting of Columbus."<ref>Allen, John Logan. [https://books.google.com/books?id=7RGlz9a4wVYC&pg=PA149&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false ''North American Exploration.''] U of Nebraska Press, 1997. pp. 149-150. Retrieved 2015-04-17.</ref> She devotes several pages to the question of Columbus native land, and concludes that "all chroniclers of that period wrote that he was from Liguria in northern Italy."<ref>Varela, Consuelo. [https://books.google.com/books?id=IRMWAQAAIAAJ&q= ''Christopher Columbus and the Mystery of the Bell of the Santa Maria.''] White Star Publishers, 2008. p. 13. Retrieved 2015-04-17.</ref> The evidence supporting the Genoese origin of Columbus is also discussed by [[Miles H. Davidson]]. In his book ''Columbus Then and Now: A Life Reexamined'', he writes:<ref name="Miles H. Davidson"/> {{quote|Diego Méndez, one of his captains, in testimony given in the ''Pleitos'', he said that Columbus was "Genoese, a native of Savona which is a town near Genoa." Those who reject this and the more than ample other contemporary evidence, given by both Italian and Spanish sources as well as by witnesses at these court hearings, are simply flying in the face of overwhelming evidence. [...] What is the reason behind so much futile speculation? It can be mostly attributed to parochialism. Each of the nations and cities mentioned wants to claim him for its own. Since no effort was made to locate the supporting data until the early nineteenth century, and since at that time not all of the archives had been adequately researched, there was, initially, justification for those early efforts to establish who he was and where he came from. To do so today is to fulfill Montaigne's maxim, "No one is exempt from talking non-sense; the misfortune is to do it solemnly."}} === Language === The spoken language of Genova and the Ligurian coast would primarily have been the [[Ligurian language (ancient)|Ligurian language]].<ref>http://www.ethnologue.com/language/lij</ref> The [[Italian language]] was originally based on the fourteenth century vernacular of [[Florence]] in the adjacent region of [[Tuscany]], and would not have been the main spoken language of Genova in the fifteenth century. Although Columbus wrote almost exclusively in Spanish,{{#tag:ref|The oldest fragment of writing certainly attributable to Columbus is a marginal note in one of his books. De Lollis dates it around 1481. It is written in bad Spanish, mixed with Portuguese. All Columbus's letters, even those addressed to Genoese friends and to the Bank of Saint George, are written in Castilian.<ref name="Paolo Emilio Taviani"/>|group="nb"}} there is a small handwritten Genoese gloss in a 1498 Italian (from Venice) edition of ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Pliny's Natural History]]'' that he read after his second voyage to America: this shows Columbus was able to write in Italian and understand it.<ref>Milani, Virgil I. "''The written language of Christopher Columbus.''" State University of New York at Buffalo, 1973. Retrieved 2009-11-08.</ref> There is also a note in Italian in his own ''[[Book of Prophecies]]'' exhibiting, according to historian August Kling, "characteristics of northern Italian humanism in its calligraphy, syntax, and spelling".{{#tag:ref|De Lollis claims that Columbus wrote these notes in Italian because of his deep bitterness, at that time, against the Spanish court. Ballesteros advances a more logical theory, suggesting that this is the psychological reaction of an elderly man, nostalgic for his homeland. Surely Columbus would never have written in Italian if he had not been in such close touch with many compatriots, first in Portugal, then in Spain and finally during his voyages of discovery. It is generally accepted that he was on friendly terms with Genoese, Tuscans, Corsicans, Venetians and Neapolitans, and the point has been especially underlined by historians.<ref name="Paolo Emilio Taviani"/>|group="nb"}} Phillips and Phillips point out that 500 years ago, the [[Latinate languages]] had not distanced themselves to the degree they have today. [[Bartolomé de las Casas]] in his ''Historia de las Indias'' claimed that Columbus did not know Spanish well and that he was not born in Castile.<ref>{{es icon}} De las Casas, Bartolomé. "''Historia General de las Indias.''" (''Colección de Documentos Inéditos'') Madrid, 1875. Retrieved 2011-11-14.</ref> Valiant scholars have dedicated themselves to the subject of Christopher Columbus's language.{{#tag:ref|Chief among them are Menéndez Pidal, Arce, Caraci, Chiareno, Juan Gil, Milano, Consuelo Varela.<ref name="Taviani 10"/>|group="nb"}} They have conducted in-depth research both on the ship's log and on other of his writings that have come down to us. They have analyzed the words, the terms, and the vocabulary, as well as rather frequent variations often bizarre in style, handwriting, grammar, and syntax. Christopher Columbus's language is Castilian punctuated by noteworthy and frequent Lusitanian, Italian, and Genoese influences and elements.<ref name="Taviani 10"/> == Catalan hypothesis == Since the early 20th century, researchers have attempted to connect Columbus to the [[Catalan language|Catalan]]-speaking areas of [[Spain]], usually based on linguistic evidence. The first of them who proposed a [[Crown of Aragon|Catalan]] birthplace was Luis Ulloa, a historian from [[Peru]] who wrote a book in 1927, originally in French, defending the Catalan origin of Columbus.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/u/ulloa_luis.htm|title=Luis Ulloa|language=Spanish|publisher=''Biografias y Vidas.com''|date= |accessdate=2010-02-23}}</ref>{{#tag:ref|The greatest of all Spanish historians Antonio Ballesteros Beretta,<ref name="Dario G. Martini"/><ref>Taviani, Paolo Emilio. "Christopher Columbus: His Birthplace and His Parents." Five Hundred Magazine, 1989. Retrieved 2010-06-12.</ref> Professor of the [[Complutense University of Madrid|University of Madrid]] and director of the monumental series of publications on the ''Historia de America y de los pueblos americanos'', engaged in a deeper scrutiny of the [[Origin theories of Christopher Columbus#Catalan hypothesis|Catalan thesis]]. He writes: "[Ulloa] ''penetrates the great labyrinth of Columbus court documents to gather arguments in favor of his preconceived theory. It is not possible to follow him in all of his lucubrations. His fiery imagination pushes him into a continuous hermeneutics.''" "''But what document, what proof,''" Ballesteros continues, "''can be exhibited which affirms that Columbus was Catalonian? Absolutely none''" and concludes that "''with the Catalonian thesis we are faced by a system of clues based essentially on a negative approach, which declares that anything which can prove that the discoverer was Genoese is false.''"<ref name="Taviani 10"/>|group="nb"}} Some more recent studies also state Columbus had Catalan origins,<ref>Govan, Fiona. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/6326698/Christopher-Columbus-writings-prove-he-was-Spanish-claims-study.html "Christopher Columbus writings prove he was Spanish, claims study."] The Telegraph, 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-04.</ref> based on his handwriting, though these have been disputed.<ref>[http://medievalnews.blogspot.com/2009/10/scholar-casts-doubt-on-claims-that.html "Scholar casts doubt on claims that Columbus was a Catalan."] Medieval News, 2009. Retrieved 2009-10-26.</ref> Throughout Columbus's life, he referred to himself as ''Christobal Colom''; his contemporaries and family also referred to him as such. It is possible that Colom is the shortened form of Columbus used for the Italian surname Colombo (which means "dove"). Colom can also be a Portuguese, French, or Catalan name, and in the latter means "dove". There was a wealthy mercenary and merchant noble named Joan Colom i Bertran living in [[Barcelona]] in the 15th century, who has been proposed as the real Christopher Columbus. According to Charles J. Merrill, a Doctor in medieval literature and associate professor of foreign languages, the analysis of Columbus's handwriting indicates that it is typical of someone who would be a native Catalan, and Columbus's phonetic mistakes in Castilian are "most likely" those of a Catalan, with examples such as "a todo arreo" (a tot arreu), "todo de un golpe" (tot d'un cop), "setcentas" (set-centes), "nombre" (instead of número), "al sol puesto" (el sol post).<ref name="merrill">{{es icon}} [http://hemeroteca-paginas.lavanguardia.com/LVE05/PUB/2009/12/01/LVG200912010641LB.pdf "Colón era un barcelonés que camufló su origen."] La Hemeroteca de La Vanguardia, 2009. Retrieved 2010-03-15.</ref> Merrill states that the Genoese Cristoforo Colombo was a modest wool carder and cheese merchant with no maritime training and whose age does not match the one of Columbus.<ref name="merrill" /> Merrill's book ''Colom of Catalonia'' was published in 2008.<ref>Merrill, Charles J. [https://books.google.com/books?id=TggNAQAAMAAJ&dq= "''Colom of Catalonia: Origins of Christopher Columbus Revealed.''"] Demers Books LLC, 2008. Retrieved 2010-08-07.</ref> However, [[Samuel Eliot Morison]] has cast no doubts regarding Columbus's marriage to the Portuguese noblewoman Filipa Perestrello.<ref name="Samuel Eliot Morison"/> == Catalan-Jewish hypothesis == Some researchers have postulated that Columbus was of [[Iberian Jews|Iberian Jewish]] origins. The linguist Estelle Irizarry, in addition to arguing that Columbus was Catalan, also claims that Columbus tried to conceal a Jewish heritage.<ref>http://medievalnews.blogspot.cz/2009/10/christopher-columbus-was-catalan-and.html</ref> In "Three Sources of Textual Evidence of Columbus, Crypto Jew,"<ref>[http://www.tbspr.org/_kd/Items/actions.cfm?action=Show&item_id=2026& "Three Sources of Textual Evidence of Columbus, Crypto Jew."] ''Tbspr.org.'' Retrieved 2009-11-09.</ref> Irizarry notes that Columbus always wrote in [[Spanish language|Spanish]], occasionally included Hebrew in his writing, and referenced the Jewish High Holidays in his journal during the first voyage. In a 1973 book, [[Simon Wiesenthal]] (1908–2005) postulated that Columbus was a [[Sephardi]] (Spanish Jew), careful to conceal his Judaism yet also eager to locate a place of refuge for his persecuted fellow countrymen. Wiesenthal argued that Columbus' concept of sailing west to reach the Indies was less the result of geographical theories than of his faith in certain Biblical texts—specifically the Book of Isaiah. He repeatedly cited two verses from that book: "Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them," (60:9); and "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth" (65:17). Wiesenthal claimed that Columbus felt that his voyages had confirmed these prophecies.<ref>Wiesenthal, Simon. [https://books.google.com/books?id=wMVtAAAAMAAJ&q= "''Sails of Hope: The Secret Mission of Christopher Columbus.''"] Macmillan, 1973. Retrieved 2010-09-07.</ref> Jane Francis Amler argued that Columbus was a ''[[converso]]'' (a Sephardi Jew who publicly converted to Christianity). In Spain, even some converted Jews were forced to leave Spain after much persecution; it is known that many ''conversos'' were still practicing [[Judaism]] in secret. In a footnote to his translation of [[George Sand]]'s ''Un hiver à Majorque'', [[Robert Graves]] remarks: "There is strong historical evidence for supposing that Cristobal Colom (Christopher Columbus) was a Majorcan Jew; his surname is still common in the island." <ref>Sand, George, ''Winter in Majorca'', translated by Robert Graves, Valldemosa Edition, Mallorca, 1956, footnote to page 87</ref> == Greek hypothesis == The theory that Columbus was a [[Byzantine Greek]] nobleman was first proposed in scholarly fashion in 1943 by Seraphim G. Canoutas, a Greek-American lawyer and independent scholar.<ref>Canoutas, Seraphim G., ''Christopher Columbus: A Greek Nobleman,'' privately published (St. Marks Press, New York 1943). See also "Christopher Columbus Was a Greek Prince and His real Name Was Nikolaos Ypsilantis from the Greek Island of Chios" by Spyros Cateras, Manchester, New Hampshire, 1937. ''See also'' Durlacher-Wolper, Ruth G., ''The Identity of Christopher Columbus,'' privately published (New World Museum, San Salvador 1982), which relied on Canoutas’s work.</ref> The hypothesis rested mainly on statements attributed to Columbus by his son Ferdinand that Columbus had sailed for many years with Colombo the Younger, a famous seaman "of his name and family."<ref>"The first cause of the Admiral's coming to Spain and devoting himself to the sea was a renowned man of his name and family, called Colombo, who won great fame on the sea because he warred so fiercely against infidels and the enemies of his country that his name was used to frighten children in their cradles... He was called Colombo the Younger to distinguish him from another Colombo who in his time also won fame on the sea.... I return to my main theme. While the Admiral was sailing in the company of the said Colombo the Younger (which he did for a long time)...." Keen, Benjamin (trans.), ''The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by his Son Ferdinand'' (Rutgers Univ. Press, New Brunswick 1959), pp. 12-13. Ferdinando's biography is found at: [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k58802t/f2.image Historie del S.D. Fernando Colombo] {{It icon}}</ref> Canoutas pointed out that other scholars (including Harrisse, Salvagnini, Vignaud, and Gonzales de la Rosa<ref>Canoutas cited: Harrisse, Henry, ''Les Colombo de France et d’Italie'' (Paris 1872); Salvagnini, Alberto, "Cristoforo Colombo e i corsari Colombo," ''Commissione Colombiana: Raccolta di documenti e studi pubblicati dalla R. Commissione Colombiana'' (Rome 1892-1896), Pt. II, vol. III; Vignaud, Henry, ''Études critiques sur la vie de Christophe Colomb avant ses découvertes'' (Paris 1905), pp. 129-189; and Gonzales de la Rosa, Manuel, ''La solution de tous les problèmes relatifs à l’origine et la vie de C. Colomb'' (Paris 1902), p. 19 (also in ''Proceedings of the International Congress of Americanists,'' Sess. 12 (1900), pp. 43-62).</ref>) had convincingly identified Colombo the Younger as Georges Paléologue de Bissipat (also known as Georges le Grec), an exiled Byzantine nobleman who was living in France by 1460 and rendering valuable service to the French king. However, these scholars rejected Columbus’s claim of kinship with de Bissipat. Accepting the kinship claim as true, Canoutas established (through references to works by Du Cange<ref>Du Cange, Charles du Fresne, ''Historia Byzantina duplici commentario illustrata'' (Paris 1680), Vol. 1 Familiae Byzantinae, Ch. XLII Familia Palaeologorum Bissipatorum, pp. 256-257. Found at: [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k26826q/f266.image.r=Du+Cange+historia+byzantina.langEN Historia Byzantina]</ref> and Renet<ref>Renet, Pierre-Rieul-César, "Les Bissipat du Beauvaisis," ''Mémoires de la Société Académique d’Archéologie, Sciences & Arts du Département de L’Oise,'' Tome XIV, Première Partie (Beauvais 1889), pp. 31-98. Found at: [https://archive.org/stream/memoires14soci#page/n9/mode/2up Les Bissipat du Beauvaisis] {{Fr icon}}</ref>) that Georges de Bissipat was in fact Georgios Palaiologos Dishypatos, scion of an ancient Byzantine noble family,<ref>''Cf.'' Entries for "Dishypatos," ''The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium,'' Vol. 1 (Oxford Univ. Press, New York & Oxford 1991), pp. 638-639.</ref> who fled to France sometime after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and, until his death in 1496, rendered important service to French kings Louis XI (1423–1483) and Charles VIII (1470–1498), including as vice-admiral. According to Canoutas, accepting that Dishypatos and Columbus were noble kinsmen and longtime sailing companions helped explain many anomalies that had to be ignored, or attributed to error or imposture in order to reconcile the accepted account of Columbus's early life as a wool-worker's son with his later life as a nobleman and Admiral. Canoutas did not identify Columbus’s parents or place of birth, nor did he analyze Columbus’s claimed kinship bond with Dishypatos. However, Canoutas observed that the Byzantine imperial house of [[Palaiologos]], to which Dishypatos was related on his mother’s side, was closely connected by blood or marriage to the ruling families of Italy, including those of Genoa and Montferrat, such as the Doria, Spinola, Centurione, and Gattelusio families.<ref>''Cf.'' Entry for "Palaiologos," ''The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium,'' Vol. 3 (Oxford Univ. Press, New York & Oxford 1991), pp. 1557-1560.</ref> For example, the [[Palaiologos]] family were the [[rulers of Montferrat]] for more than 200 years. This connection, he argued, might explain why Columbus’s contemporaries and others considered him to be Genoese or Ligurian.<ref>Canoutas, ''op cit.'' pp. 68, 123.</ref> Another book written on his Greek origins is called "Christopher Columbus Was a Greek Prince and His real Name Was Nikolaos Ypsilantis from the Greek Island of Chios" by Spyros Cateras, New Hampshire, 1937. There is also a section in "The Secret Destiny of America" by Manly P. Hall, New York, 1944. pp 62–63. == Portuguese hypothesis == [[File:CristovaoColomboCuba.JPG|thumb|180px|A statue of Columbus in [[Cuba, Portugal|Cuba]], a town in Southern Portugal.]] The first author who claimed Portuguese nationality for Christopher Columbus was Patrocínio Ribeiro in 1916.<ref>{{pt icon}} Ribeiro, Patrocínio. "''O Carácter Misterioso de Colombo e o Problema da sua Nacionalidade.''" Coimbra, 1916. Retrieved 2011-11-22.</ref> The same text with some additions was again published in 1927, after his death, with a complementary study by the medical doctor Barbosa Soeiro relating Columbus' signature with the [[Kabbalah]]. In 1988 José Mascarenhas Barreto published a book<ref>Barreto, Mascarenhas. [https://books.google.com/books?id=jZh1AAAAMAAJ&q= "''The Portuguese Columbus: secret agent of King John II.''"] Macmillan, 1992. Retrieved 2008-11-24.</ref> which claims that Columbus was a Portuguese national and spy who hatched up an elaborate diversion to keep the Spanish from the lucrative trade routes that were opening up around Africa to the Indies. Barreto, through his interpretation of the Kabbalah and other research, suggested Columbus was born in [[Cuba Municipality|Cuba, Portugal]], the son of a nobleman and related to other Portuguese navigators. According to this claim, his real name was concealed, Christopher Columbus being a pseudonym, meaning Bearer of Christ and the Holy Spirit. His real name was supposedly Salvador Fernandes Zarco and he was the son of Dom Fernando, Duke of [[Beja (Portugal)|Beja, Alentejo]] and maternal grandson of [[João Gonçalves Zarco]], discoverer of Madeira. Mascarenhas Barreto, however, has been discredited by Portuguese genealogist Luís Paulo Manuel de Meneses de Melo Vaz de São Paio in his works ''Carta Aberta a um Agente Secreto, Primeira Carta Aberta a Mascarenhas Barreto''<ref>{{pt icon}} "Armas e Troféus." Revista de História, Heráldica, Genealogia e Arte. 1994 - VI serie — Tomo VI — pp. 5-52. Retrieved 2011-11-21.</ref> and ''Carta Aberta a um "Curioso" da Genealogia''.<ref>{{pt icon}} "Armas e Troféus." Revista de História, Heráldica, Genealogia e Arte. 1999 - IX serie — Tomo I — pp. 181-248. Retrieved 2008-05-16.</ref>{{#tag:ref|In this regard, the eminent American historian [[Samuel Eliot Morison]] writes: "''If, however, you suppose that these facts would settle the matter, you fortunately know little of the so-called "literature" on the "Columbus Question." By presenting farfetched hypotheses and sly innuendos as facts, by attacking documents of proven authenticity as false, by fabricating others (such as the famous Pontevedra documents), and drawing unwarranted deductions from things that Columbus said or did, he has been presented as Castilian, Catalan, Corsican, Majorcan, Portuguese, French, German, English, Greek, and Armenian.''"<ref name="Samuel Eliot Morison"/>|group="nb"}} Proponents of the Portuguese hypothesis also point to a court document which stated that Columbus' nationality was "Portuguese"{{#tag:ref|The document describes the person as Portuguese but his name is empty. However, Antonio Rumeo De Armas in his book identifies the person, whose name is omitted, as Christopher Columbus by matching it with the payment receipt in Alonso de Quintanilla's ledgers. It should be noted that Rumeu de Armas thinks Columbus was Genoese but so influenced by his years in Portugal that he could have been mistaken for a Portuguese by Spaniards.<ref>{{es icon}} Rumeu de Armas, Antonio. [https://books.google.com/books?id=_jEaAQAAIAAJ&q= "''El «portugués» Cristóbal Colón en Castilla.''"] Ediciones Cultura Hispánica del Instituto de Cooperación Iberoamericana, 1982. p. 29. Retrieved 2011-11-28.</ref>|group="nb"}} and in another Columbus uses the words "my homeland" in relation to Portugal.<ref>{{es icon}} Real Academia de la Historia (Spain). [https://books.google.com/books?id=rVeysdXFDHIC&pg=PA99&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false "''Congreso de Historia del Descubrimiento (1492–1556).''"] Real Academia de la Historia, 1992. p. 99. Retrieved 2011-11-28.</ref> This theory was popularized among the Portuguese public by the 2005 novel ''Codex 632'', a best-seller written by [[José Rodrigues dos Santos]]. == Polish hypothesis == Writing in ''[[The Polish Review]]'', Krystyna Lukasiewicz commented on rumours that King [[Władysław III of Poland]] did not die in 1444 but hid on the island of Madeira:<ref name="Lukasiewicz">{{cite journal|last1=Lukasiewicz|first1=Krystyna|title=Deceptive Practices in Fifteenth Century Europe: The Case of Wladyslaw III Jagiellon (Varnensis)|journal=The Polish Review|date=2012|volume=47|issue=2|pages=3–20|jstor=41558078}}</ref> :Beginning in all probability around the time of Henrique [Alemão{{#tag:ref|Henrique Alemão was "a [[Order of Saint Catherine of Mount Sinai|knight of St. Catherine]] who died on Madeira in 1472".<ref name="Lukasiewicz"/>|group="nb"}}]'s death, such rumors were for the first time recorded in the early eighteenth century. Further popularized by Leopold Kielanowski in the twentieth century, they became the starting point for a bizarre hypothesis that Christopher Columbus was actually the son of King Wladyslaw III Jagiellon hiding on Madeira under the name of Henrique Alemão. Lukasiewicz cites [[Manuel da Silva Rosa]]'s ''Colón la Historia Nunca Contad'' (2009) as supporting this hypothesis.<ref name="Lukasiewicz"/> Rosa is an information technology analyst and amateur historian.<ref>[http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2009/10/q-manuel-rosa-it-analyst-duke-comprehensive-cancer-center "Q+A with Manuel Rosa, IT analyst at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center."] ''Dukechronicle.com.'' Retrieved 2011-02-11.</ref><ref>[http://sites.duke.edu/dukecancerinstitute/?p=307 "Modern Day Sherlock Holmes Unearths New Evidence; Claims Columbus Was Secret Agent"] ''Duke Cancer Institute.'' Retrieved 2014-07-20.</ref> In his book Rosa claims that Columbus was the son of a Portuguese noblewoman and the king of Poland [[Władysław III of Poland|Władysław III]] who allegedly survived the [[battle of Varna]] in 1444 and later lived in Madeira.<ref>[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1333895/Christopher-Columbus-Polish-Portuguese-claim-historians.html "Christopher Colombowicz: America's discoverer Polish not Portuguese, claim historians."] The Daily Mail, 2010. Retrieved 2011-02-09.</ref>{{#tag:ref|However, according to the official historiography he was killed by the Turks<ref>Prazmowska, Anita J. [https://books.google.com/books?id=tRpdAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA56&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false ''A History of Poland.''] Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. p. 56. Retrieved 2015-05-08.</ref> and his head impaled on a stake to terrify the infidels.|group="nb"}} Rosa believes Columbus would not have been able to marry [[Filipa Moniz Perestrelo]], a Portuguese noblewoman, if he were not of noble birth. Rosa also suggests Columbus was a Portuguese secret agent working covertly in Spain and claims similarities exist between Columbus' coat of arms and that of the Polish king.<ref>Govan, Fiona. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/8166041/Christopher-Columbus-was-son-of-Polish-king.html "Christopher Columbus 'was son of Polish king'."] ''The Daily Telegraph'', November 28, 2010. Retrieved 2010-12-01.</ref><ref>[http://www.lithuaniatribune.com/31724/christopher-columbuss-true-identity-unmasked-a-lithuanian-prince-201331724/ "Christopher Columbus’s True Identity Unmasked: A Lithuanian Prince?"] LithuaniaTribune.com, March 16, 2013. Retrieved 2015-10-12.</ref> == Other hypotheses == ===Sardinia=== The [[Spain|Spanish]] historian Marisa Azuara has hypothesized that Columbus could be a [[Sardinian people|Sardinian]] noble from the town of [[Sanluri]], called ''Christòval Colòn'': she claimed that he was son of Salvatore of Siena and Alagon and Isabella Alagon of Arborea, related to [[Pope Pius II]]. At the time of his birth, the island of [[Sardinia]] was partially under [[Republic of Genoa|Genoese]] economic and political rule, until it was conquered at the end of 15th century by the [[Kingdom of Aragon]]. Christòval Colòn would be born in 1436 and he spent his youth studying nautical science, and he spoke both Italian and Spanish.<ref>Marisa Azuara, Cristoforo Colombo, la Crociata Universale, Barracoa, 2007.</ref> ===Corsica=== In [[Calvi, Haute-Corse|Calvi]], a town on the north coast of [[Corsica]], [[France]], which used to be part of the Genoese Empire, one can see the ruins of a house that locals believe to be Columbus' birthplace.<ref>{{cite news |title=Corsica 'discovers' Columbus birthplace |newspaper=[[Sarasota Herald-Tribune]] |date=October 18, 1934 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1787&dat=19341018&id=2oQcAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Q2QEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6858,1311618 |accessdate=2012-01-17}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Calvi, Corsica: My kind of town |first=Martin |last=Buckley |work=[[The Daily Telegraph#Website|The Telegraph]] |date=September 12, 2008 |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/france/2823767/Calvi-Corsica-My-kind-of-town.html |accessdate=2012-01-17}}</ref> ===Norway=== Norwegians Svein Grodys and writer Tor Borch Sannes have investigated the anecdote that Columbus was born in [[Nordfjord]], [[Norway]]. In his 1991 book ''Christopher Columbus – en europeer fra Norge'',<ref>http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-13488360.html</ref> Borch Sannes highlights [[Ferdinand Columbus]]' claim that the name ''Colonus'' (farmer) was a translation of a foreign name.<ref group="nb">In translations of Columbus' text, this claim does not appear to refer to ''Colonus'' but to ''Colón'', which Ferdinand Columbus connects to the Greek word ''κῶλον'', with the meaning ''member''. See Guzuskyte E., Christopher Columbus's Naming in the 'diarios' of the Four Voyages, p. 205, and Colon F., Keen B., The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus</ref> Sannes points out that if Columbus were of Scandinavian descent, ''Colonus'' would be derived from ''Bonde'', as in the [[Bonde|House of Bonde]]. He points out that the [[coat of arms]] of both Columbus and the royal [[Bonde]] lineage of [[Sweden]] were similar and at the time used a [[bend (heraldry)|bend]]. More specifically, Borch Sannes claims that Iohannes Colon, the grandfather of Christopher Columbus, was one Johannes Bonde, the grandson of [[Tord Bonde]] and thus a first cousin of king [[Charles VIII of Sweden]]/Charles I of Norway (whose name was Karl Knudsson Bonde), and a second cousin of [[Erik Johansson Vasa]]. Borch Sannes further points out that two of Columbus' father's neighbours had the name ''Bondi''. Columbus also had close acquaintances called ''Galli'', almost the name of another important Norwegian noble family at the time, ''Galle'',<ref>https://snl.no/Galle%2Fnorsk_adelsslekt</ref> as well as ''Scotto'', a name Sannes speculates could be Scottish-Norwegian (in the original form ''Schytte'', meaning "Scot"). According to Borch Sannes, the Bonde lineage originally had its seat in [[Hyen]], Nordfjord, but disappeared from Nordfjord with the [[Black Death]]. Based on what he admits is circumstantial evidence, Borch Sannes nevertheless outlines a scenario in which Columbus could have been born in Nordfjord. Sannes' book also claims that Columbus may have visited [[Devon Island]] in 1477, based on Columbus' description of the [[73rd parallel north]].<ref>Borch Sannes, Tor. "''Christopher Columbus: en europeer fra Norge?''" Norsk maritimt forlag, 1991. Retrieved 2006-11-25.</ref> Other writers have highlighted Columbus' links to the Justiniani family of Genova, pointing out that the Genovese Paulus Justiniani was the bishop of Bergen from 1457-60.<ref>http://www.juv.no/files/grodys.html</ref> A monument to Columbus has been raised in Hyen.<ref>http://home.sklbb.no/melheim/bg-trheim.html</ref> ===Scotland=== On 10 March 2009, British newspaper ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' reported that Spanish engineer and amateur historian<ref>{{es icon}} [http://www.abc.es/hemeroteca/historico-08-03-2009/abc/Cultura/jornadas-colombinas-en-marbella-tras-el-rastro-de-la-historia-y-del-adn_913623984950.html "Jornadas colombinas en Marbella tras el rastro de la Historia y del ADN."] ''Hemeroteca - ABC.es'' Retrieved 2010-02-23.</ref> Alfonso Ensenat de Villalonga claimed that Christopher Columbus was "''the son of shopkeepers not weavers and he was baptised Pedro not Christopher''" and "''his family name was Scotto, and was not Italian but of Scottish origin''".<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/4959361/Christopher-Columbus-was-actually-a-Scotsman-called-Pedro-Scotto-historian-says.html "Christopher Columbus was actually a Scotsman called Pedro Scotto, historian says."] The Telegraph, 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-10.</ref> == Footnotes == {{reflist|1|group="nb"}} == References == {{Reflist|30em}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Origin Theories Of Christopher Columbus}} [[Category:Columbus family]] [[Category:Christopher Columbus]] [[Category:Early lives by individual|Columbus, Christopher]]'
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'{{refimprove|date=February 2013}} [[File:Christopher Columbus Face.jpg|135px|thumb|right|Christopher Columbus depicted in ''[[The Virgin of the Navigators]]'' by [[Alejo Fernández]], 1505-1536.]] The exact ethnic or national origin of '''[[Christopher Columbus]]''' (1451-1506) has been a source of speculation since the 19th century.<ref>{{fr icon}} Heers, Jacques. "''Christophe Colomb.''" Hachette, 1981. p. 21-23. Retrieved 2008-03-10.</ref> It is generally agreed upon by historians that Columbus' family was from the coastal region of [[Liguria]], that he spent his boyhood and early youth in the [[Republic of Genoa]], in [[Genoa]], in Vico Diritto, and that he subsequently lived in [[Savona]], where his father Domenico moved in 1470. Much of this evidence derives from data concerning Columbus' immediate family connections in Genoa and opinions voiced by contemporaries concerning his Genoese origins, which few dispute. == Genoese origin == === Documents === In a 1498 deed of primogeniture, Columbus writes: {{Quote|''Siendo yo nacido en Genova... de ella salí y en ella naci...''<ref>Irving, Washington. [https://books.google.com/books?id=QfbXIiVrzzQC&pg "''The Complete Works of Washington Irving.''"] Elibron.com. p. 877. Retrieved 2010-12-23.</ref><ref group="nb">A copy of this document, which dates back to the early seventeenth century and had been officially sent from [[Crown of Castile]] to the [[Republic of Genoa]], is conserved in the State Archives of Genoa. The supposed original is in the [[Archivo General de Indias]] in Seville.</ref> | <small>As I was born in Genoa... came from it and was born there...</small>|}} Many historians, including a distinguished Spanish scholar, Altolaguirre, affirm the document's authenticity; others believe it apocryphal.{{#tag:ref|De Lollis observes that "''the history of this important document is so clear that there is no doubt about its authenticity.''" Caddeo considers it authentic. Harrisse instead considers it a forgery from a later period. Madariaga states that the majorat "''cannot be considered authentic,''" but adds, however, that it cannot be a complete invention and must have been edited on the basis of the 1502 testament, which has disappeared without a trace. Ballesteros refutes that thesis that it is a forgery; the authenticity of the document is proven by the rediscovery of a certificate, dated 28 September 1501, relative to the royal confirmation of the majorat in the archive of Simancas: "''After this discovery the authenticity of the institution of the Columbus majorat has been clearly demonstrated and the historical clauses of the document have increased in value, as have Columbus's declarations regarding his Geonese birthplace.''"<ref name="Taviani 10">Taviani, Paolo Emilio. "''Cristoforo Colombo: Genius of the Sea''" (Volume II). Italian Academy Foundation, 1991. pp. 5-37. Retrieved 2011-02-05.</ref> This document was declared to be "''worth the same as a blank piece of paper''" by the Spanish tribunal when Baltazar Colombo presented it and the document rejected as not authentic.<ref>Alegacion en Derecho por Doña Francsica Colon de Toledo, sobre la sucession en possession del Estado y Ducado de Veragua. En Madrid, por Luis Sanchez. Año MDCVIII sobre el Almirantazgo de las Indias, Ducado de Veragua, y Marquesado de Jamaica</ref> The certificate dated 28 September 1501 is merely a copy of Columbus 1497 royal confirmation of the authorization to institute a majorat and it has none of the text in it that is in the "1598" majorat. Navarrete states that there is no authentic ''Majorat of 1498'', there is only the document presented by Baltazar Colombo which the tribunal rejected.<ref>Martín Fernández de Navarrete, Colección de los viajes y descubrimientos que hicieron por mar los españoles (Buenos Aires: Editorial Guaranía, 1945-46). (First Edition printed in Madrid, 1825). Vol. II, 235.</ref>|group="nb"}} Some believe that the fact that it was produced in court, during a lawsuit among the heirs of Columbus, in 1578, does not strengthen the case for its being genuine.<ref name="Paolo Emilio Taviani">Taviani, Paolo Emilio. [https://books.google.com/books?id=toILAAAAYAAJ&q ''"Christopher Columbus: the grand design."''] Orbis, 1985. pp. 17-500. Retrieved 2011-02-09.</ref> A letter from Columbus, dated 2 April 1502, to the [[Bank of Saint George]], the oldest and most reputable of Genoa's financial institutions, begins with the words: {{Quote|''Bien que el coerpo ande aca el coracon esta ali de continuo...''<ref>Columbus, Christopher. [https://books.google.com/books?id=TKgKAAAAIAAJ&pg "''The authentic letters of Columbus''" (Volume I).] Field Columbian Museum, 1894. p. 129. Retrieved 2010-02-23.</ref> | <small>Though my body is here, my heart is constantly there...</small>|}} Although a few people consider this letter suspect, the vast majority of scholars believe it genuine. The most scrupulous examination by graphologists testifies in favour of authenticity.<ref>Taviani, Paolo Emilio. [https://books.google.com/books?id=toILAAAAYAAJ&q= ''Christopher Columbus: The Grand Design.''] Orbis, 1985. p. 17. Retrieved 2015-04-16.</ref> The letter is one of a group of documents entrusted by Columbus to a Genoese friend, after the bitter experiences of his third voyage, before setting out on his fourth. In the spring of 1502, Columbus collected notarized copies of all the writings concerned with his rights to the discovery of new lands. He sent these documents to Nicolò Oderico, ambassador of the Republic of Genoa. To this same Oderico he handed over the letter to the Bank of Saint George, in which he announced that he was leaving the bank one-tenth of his income, with a recommendation for his son Diego. Oderico returned to Genoa and delivered the letter to the bank, which replied, on 8 December 1502 lauding the gesture of their "renowned fellow-citizen" towards his "native land". The reply, unfortunately, never reached its destination; Columbus, back in Castile after his fourth voyage, complained about this in another letter to Ambassador Oderico, dated 27 December 1504, and promptly annulled the bequest. The first letter was preserved in the archives of the Bank of Saint George until it was taken over by the municipality of Genoa; the other three remained in the Oderico family archives until 1670, when they were donated to the [[Republic of Genoa]]. After the fall of the Republic, they passed to the library of one of its last senators, Michele Cambiaso, and were finally acquired by the city of Genoa. There are also public and notarial acts (more than a hundred) — copies of which are conserved in the archives of [[Genoa]] and [[Savona]] — regarding Columbus's father, Columbus himself, his grandfather, and his relatives.<ref group="nb">In May 2006, the Dr. Aldo Agosto, a noted Columbus scholar and state archivist at Genoa, has collected — to be officially presented to the conference of studies in [[Valladolid]] — one hundred and ten notarial documents, largely unpublished. Agosto claims these documents reconstruct the family tree of Christopher Columbus, going back as far as seven generations.</ref> Another doubt remains to be settled: can we be sure that all of the documents cited concern the Christopher Columbus who was later to become ''Cristóbal Colón'', admiral of the Ocean Sea in Spanish territory? The list of contemporary [[#The testimony of the ambassadors|ambassadors]] and [[#Confirmation of the Genoese origin from contemporary European writers|historians]] unanimous in the belief that Columbus was Genoese could suffice as proof, but there is something more: a document dated 22 September 1470 in which the criminal judge convicts [[Domenico Colombo]]. The conviction is tied to the debt of Domenico — together with his son Christopher (explicitly stated in the document) — toward a certain Girolamo del Porto. In the will dictated by Admiral Christopher Columbus in Valladolid before he died, the authentic and indisputable document which we have today, the dying navigator remembers this old debt, which had evidently not been paid. There is, in addition, the act drawn in Genoa on 25 August 1479 by a notary, Girolamo Ventimiglia.<ref>File 2, relating to the years 1474-1504, no. 266. Retrieved 2010-12-21.</ref> This act is known as the ''Assereto document'', after the scholar who found it in the State Archives in Genoa in 1904. It involves a lawsuit over a sugar transaction on the Atlantic island of [[Madeira]]. In it, young Christopher swore that he was a 27-year-old Genoese citizen resident in Portugal and had been hired to represent the Genoese merchants in that transaction. Here was proof that he had relocated to Portugal. It is important to bear in mind that at the time when Assereto traced the document, it would have been impossible to make an acceptable facsimile.<ref name="Paolo Emilio Taviani"/> Nowadays, with modern chemical processes, a document can be "manufactured", made to look centuries old if need be, with such skill that it is hard to prove it is a fake. In 1960, this was still impossible.<ref name="Paolo Emilio Taviani"/><ref group="nb">In light of the two acts cited, the tendency to compare, or worse, to confuse or replace the true "Genoese" Columbus family with other similarly named Ligurian, Lombard or foreign families collapses, as does the main argument of the dilettantes who oppose the Genoese documentation and try to maintain that there was indeed a Genoese Christopher Columbus, woolen-weaver, but who was not the discoverer of America.</ref> In addition to the two documents cited, there are others that confirm the identification of the Genoese Christopher Columbus, son of Domenico, with the admiral of Spain. An act dated 11 October 1496 says:<ref>Bedini, Silvio A. [https://books.google.com/books?id=E2x1AAAAMAAJ&q= ''"The Christopher Columbus encyclopedia"'' (Volume I).] Simon & Schuster, 1992. p. 163. Retrieved 2011-02-07.</ref> {{Quote|Giovanni Colombo of Quinto, Matteo Colombo and Amighetto Colombo, brothers of the late Antonio, in full understanding and knowledge that said Giovanni must go to Spain to see ''M. Christopher Columbus, Admiral of the King of Spain'', and that any expenses that said Giovanni must make in order to see said M. Christopher must be paid by all three of the aforementioned brothers, each one to pay a third ... and to this they hereby agree.}} In a fourth notarial act, drawn in [[Savona]] on 8 April 1500, Sebastiano Cuneo, heir by half to his father Corrado, requested that Christopher and Giacomo (called Diego), the sons and heirs of [[Domenico Colombo]], be summoned to court and sentenced to pay the price for two lands located in Legine. This document confirms Christoforo and Diego's absence from the Republic of Genoa with these exact words: "dicti conventi sunt absentes ultra Pisas et Niciam."<ref group="nb">"The summoned parties are absent and beyond Pisa and Nice."</ref> A fifth notarial act, drawn in Savona on 26 January 1501, is more explicit. A group of Genoese citizens, under oath, said and say, together and separately and in every more valid manner and guise, that the Christopher, Bartholomew and Giacomo Columbus, sons and heirs of the aforementioned Domenico, their father, have for a long time been absent from the city and the jurisdiction of Savona, as well as Pisa and Nice in Provence, and that they reside in the area of Spain, as was and is well known. Finally, there is a very important sixth document from the notary of Bartolomeo Oddino, drawn in Savona on 30 March 1515. With this notarial act, [[Leon Pancaldo]], the well-known Savonese who would become one of the pilots for [[Ferdinand Magellan|Magellan]]'s voyage, sends his own father-in-law in his place as procurator for [[Diego Columbus]], son of Admiral Christopher Columbus. The document demonstrates how the ties, in part economic, of the discoverer's family with Savona survived even his death. === The Life of Admiral Christopher Columbus by his son Ferdinand === A biography written by Columbus's son Ferdinand (in [[Spanish language|Spanish]] and translated to [[Italian language|Italian]]), ''Historie del S. D. Fernando Colombo; nelle quali s'ha particolare, et vera relatione della vita, et de' fatti dell'Ammiraglio D. Christoforo Colombo, suo padre; Et dello scoprimento, ch'egli fece delle Indie Occidentali, dette Nuovo Mondo'' ("The life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by his son Ferdinand"), exists.<ref>Colón, Fernando (translated by Benjamin Keen) "''The life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus.''" Greenwood Press, 1978. Retrieved 2006-10-10.</ref><ref>{{It icon}} Colombo, Fernando. [http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ITA1148/__P1.HTM "''Historie del S. D. Fernando Colombo.''"] IntraText Digital Library. Retrieved 2011-11-18.</ref>{{#tag:ref|The first nineteen of this book's fifty chapters were published in 1535, the first full version in 1851. This biography of Columbus was translated into Italian by Alfonso de Ulloa and printed for the first time in Venice in 1571.<br> <small>Alfonso de Ulloa was a Spaniard born in Caceres in 1529. His father, Francisco, fought for the emperor Charles V and in 1552 came to Venice as a secretary of the Spanish ambassador [[Diego Hurtado de Mendoza (poet and diplomat)|Diego Hurtado de Mendoza]]. Ulloa knew Italian so well that he rendered Spanish and Portuguese works into that language. His most famous translation is the ''Vita dell'Ammiraglio'', 1571, "Ferdinand Columbus's life of his father," a book now of priceless value, because the original does not survive. The eminent American historian [[Washington Irving]] described the ''Vita'' as "''an invaluable document, entitled to great faith, and is the corner-stone of the history of the American continent.''"</small><ref>Modern Language Association of America. [https://books.google.com/books?ei=exvKTqj6LoaYhQeJ-vjMDw&ct=result&hl=it&id=0OENAAAAIAAJ&dq= "''Publications of the Modern Language Association of America''" (Volume XIV).] The Association, 1899. p. 488. Retrieved 2011-11-21.</ref>|group="nb"}} In it, Ferdinand claimed that his father was of Italian aristocracy. He describes Columbus to be a descendant of a Count Columbo of the Castle Cuccaro ([[Montferrat]]). Columbo was in turn said to be descended from a legendary Roman General Colonius. It is now widely believed that Christopher Columbus used this persona to ingratiate himself to the good graces of the aristocracy, an elaborate illusion to mask a humble merchant background.<ref>Greene, Robert ; Elffers, Joost. [https://books.google.com/books?id=sD4o3kZJdDMC&pg=PA285#v=onepage&q&f=false "''The 48 Laws of Power.''"] Profile Books, 2000. pp. 284-285. Retrieved 2011-11-08.</ref> Ferdinand dismissed the fanciful story that the Admiral descended from the Colonus mentioned by Tacitus. However, he refers to "those two illustrious Coloni, his relatives."{{#tag:ref|In this regard, the eminent Spanish historian Antonio Ballesteros Beretta has written: "''One person is responsible for the polemics about the birthplace of Christopher Columbus, and that person is his own son Ferdinand, who, in his biography of his father, displayed ignorance and doubts on a subject which, on the contrary, he should have known well. We must unhesitatingly point out that Don Ferdinand's work is rather tendentious and must be used with great caution. The problem of the Admiral's origin would not exist if Ferdinand had told the truth, which, instead, he deliberately concealed.''" "''His dubious attitude''" continues Ballesteros, "''about the Discoverer's origins has given rise to an endless series of hypotheses, some of which are farfetched and fantastic. It is true that Ferdinand, in his father's biography, never ventures away from the Italian thesis, but he creates a great confusion. He tries to condition his readers, speaking of a noble family, from which his progenitor was presumably descended. He seeks it in Italy, and his attempts are aimed at creating a kind of nebula in which the splendour of an uncertain birth shines, and at the same time of a definite noble background. What is behind the father's silence and the confusion originated by the son?''" Ballesteros has no hesitation in explaining: "''We cannot blame Christopher or Ferdinand for having wanted to hide their origins. It was natural and human that Columbus, having reached great heights, at the side of the most powerful sovereigns of the earth, should conceal, with a claim of noble ancestry, his humble origins. Let us try to understand these human weaknesses and let us have compassion on his memory.''"<ref name="Paolo Emilio Taviani"/>|group="nb"}} According to Note 1, on page 287, these two "were corsairs not related to each other or to Christopher Columbus, one being Guillame de Casenove, nicknamed Colombo, Admiral of France in the reign of Louis XI". At the top of page 4, Ferdinand listed [[Nervi]], [[Cogoleto]], [[Bogliasco]], [[Savona]], [[Genoa]] and [[Piacenza]] (all inside the former [[Republic of Genoa]])<ref group="nb">The city of Piacenza was part of the [[Duchy of Milan]]; the [[Republic of Genoa]] was the latter's satellite.</ref> as possible places of origin. He also stated: {{quote|''Colombo'' ... was really the name of his ancestors. But he changed it in order to make it conform to the language of the country in which he came to reside and raise a new estate ...}} In chapter ii, Ferdinand accuses [[Agostino Giustiniani]] of telling lies about the discoverer: {{quote|Thus this Giustiniani proves himself to be an inaccurate historian and exposes himself as an inconsiderate or prejudiced and malicious ''compatriot'', because in writing about an exceptional person who brought so much honor to the country ...}} In chapter v, he writes: {{quote|And because it was not far from Lisbon, where he knew there were many Genoese ''his countrymen'', he went away thither as fast as he could ...}} Ferdinand also says (chapter xi) that before he was declared admiral, his father used to sign himself "Columbus de Terra rubra," that is to say, Columbus of [[Terrarossa]], a village or hamlet near [[Genoa]]. In another passage, Ferdinand says that his father went to Lisbon and taught his brother [[Bartholomew Columbus|Bartholomew]] to construct sea charts, globes and nautical instruments; and sent this brother to England to make proposals to Henry VII of his desired voyage. Finally, Ferdinand says incidentally (chapter lxxii) that Christopher's brother, Bartholomew Columbus named the new settlement [[Santo Domingo]] in memory of their father, [[Domenico Colombo|Domenico]]. The publication of ''Historie'' has been used by historians as providing indirect evidence about the Genoese origin of Columbus. === The testimony of the ambassadors === It is significant that no one protested at the court of Spain when in April 1501, in the feverish atmosphere of the great discovery, Nicolò Oderico, ambassador of the Genoese Republic, after praising the Catholic Sovereigns, went on to say that they "discovered with great expenditure hidden and inaccessible places under the command of Columbus, our fellow-citizen, and having tamed wild barbarians and unknown peoples, they educated them in religion, manners and laws". Furthermore, two diplomats from Venice — no great friend of Genoa, indeed, a jealous rival — added the appellation "Genoese" to Columbus's name: the first, Angelo Trevisan, in 1501,{{#tag:ref|Angelo Trevisan, chancellor and secretary to Domenico Pisano, the Venetian Republic's envoy to Spain, writing to Domenico Malipiero, member of Venice's Council of Predagi, notes that "I have succeeded in becoming a great friend of Columbus," and goes on to say: "Christoforo Colombo, Genoese, a tall, well-built man, ruddy, or great creative talent and with a long face."<ref name="Paolo Emilio Taviani"/>|group="nb"}} the second, [[Gasparo Contarini]], in 1525.{{#tag:ref|Gasparo Contarini, Venice's ambassador to the courts of Spain and Portugal, reporting to the Senate of the [[Venetian Republic]] on 16 November 1525 on the whereabouts of the island of Hispaniola ([[Haiti]]), spoke of the Admiral who was living there. The Admiral was Diego, Christopher's eldest son. Ambassador Contarini describes him thus: "This Admiral is son of the Genoese Columbus and has very great powers, granted to his father."<ref name="Paolo Emilio Taviani"/>|group="nb"}} In 1498, [[Pedro de Ayala]], Spanish ambassador to the English court, mentioned [[John Cabot]], "the discoverer, another Genoese, like Columbus".<ref>[http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/History/Maritime/Sources/1498ayala.htm "Pedro de Ayala, the Spanish envoy in London, to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in Spain, 25 July 1498."] University of Bristol, 2007. Retrieved 2010-02-23.</ref> All these references were published, along with reproductions of some of the original documents, in the City of Genoa volume of 1931. === Support for the Genoese origin from contemporary European writers === The historian [[Bartolomé de las Casas]], whose father traveled with Columbus on his second journey and who personally knew Columbus' sons,{{#tag:ref|Though he never appears to have had much to do with Columbus personally, Las Casas knew his son [[Diego Columbus|Diego]], who provided some information on the early life of Columbus, and also was well acquainted with his natural son, [[Ferdinand Columbus|Ferdinand]]. Las Casas knew both brothers of Columbus, Diego and [[Bartholomew Columbus|Bartholomew]], "rather well" and gave a succinct description of Bartholomew's person, temperament, and abilities, which demonstrated that he could both observe and describe with economy and distinction. Pedro de Arana, captain of one of the ships Columbus had on his third voyage and brother of Ferdinand Columbus' mother, was another member of the Columbus family group whom Las Casas knew well. He also "held frequent conversations" with Juan Antonio Colombo, a Genoese relative of Columbus, master of a ship on the third voyage.<ref>{{es icon}} De las Casas, Bartolomé. [https://books.google.com/books?id=pQG6Dhwvs_cC&pg=PA522&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false "''Historia de las Indias''" (Volume I).] Fundacion Biblioteca Ayacuch, 1986. p. 522. Retrieved 2011-11-11.</ref> Thus Las Casas enjoyed such an intimate and, at the same time, so extensive a knowledge of the Columbus family circle and of both printed and manuscript material on the subject, that he was able to write of the Admiral of the Ocean Sea with unequaled familiarity and authority.|group="nb"}} writes in chapter 2 of his ''Historia de las Indias'':<ref>{{es icon}} De las Casas, Bartolomé ; Saint-Lu, André. [https://books.google.com/books?id=pQG6Dhwvs_cC&pg=PA26&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false ''"Historia de las Indias"'' (Volume I).] Fundacion Biblioteca Ayacuch, 1986. p. 26. Retrieved 2011-02-06.</ref> {{quote|This distinguished man was from the Genoese nation, from some place in the province of Genoa; who he was, where he was born or what name he had in that place we do not know in truth, except that before he reached the Nation in which he arrived, he used to call himself ''Cristóbal Colombo'' de Terrarubia.}} The historian [[Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés]], writes that [[Domenico Colombo]] was the Admiral's father;<ref>{{es icon}} De Oviedo y Valdés, Gonzalo Fernández. [https://books.google.com/books?id=YQ4NAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA12&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false ''"Historia general y natural de las Indias, islas y tierra-firme del mar océano"'' (Volume I).] Real Acad. de la Historia, 1851. p. 12. Retrieved 2011-11-10.</ref> and in chapter 2, book 3 of his ''Historia general y natural de las Indias'':<ref>{{es icon}} De Oviedo y Valdés, Gonzalo Fernández. [https://books.google.com/books?id=O20UQAAACAAJ&dq ''"Historia general y natural de las Indias, islas y tierra-firme del mar océano"'' (Volume III).] Real Acad. de la Historia, 1855. Retrieved 2011-02-06.</ref> {{quote|Christopher Columbus, according to what I have learned from men of his nation, was originally from the province of Liguria, which is in Italy, where the city and the Seignory of Genoa stands: some say that he was from Savona, others that he was from a small place or village called Nervi, which is on the eastern seashore two leagues from the self same city of Genoa; but it is held to be more certain that he may have been originally from Cugurreo (Cogoleto) near the city of Genoa.}} Many contemporary writers agree that the discoverer was Genoese:<ref name="Taviani 10"/><ref name="Paolo Emilio Taviani"/> *The [[Portuguese people|Portuguese]] [[Rui de Pina]] wrote two works, ''Chronica d'El Rey, dom Affonso'' and ''Chronica d'El Rey, dom João II''. It has been ascertained that the manuscripts had been completed before 1504, although they were published in the Eighteenth century. Chapter 66 in the second manuscript, "Descubrimiento das Ilhas de Castella per Collombo," explicitly states, "Christovan Colombo italiano." *In the 1513 edition of the ''Map of the New World'' from ''Ptolemy'',<ref>K. Kretschmer's atlas, ''Die Entdeckung Amerikas'', Berlin 1892, plate XII.</ref> it says: "This land with the adjacent islands was discovered by the Genoese Columbus, sent by the King of Castile." *The [[Turkish people|Turkish]] geographer Piri Ibn Haji Mehmed, known as [[Piri Reis]], in his map of 1513, writes: "These coasts are called the coasts of the Antilles. They were discovered in the year 896 of the Arabic calendar. It is said that a Genoese infidel, Columbus by name, discovered the place."{{#tag:ref|This [[Piri Reis map|map]] was drawn by Piri Reis, a Turkish cartographer and geographer, known as the nephew of [[Kemal Reis]], in [[Gelibolu]], in the month of muharrem of the year 919 (that is, between the 9th of March and the 7th of April of the year 1513). A large fragment of the map was found in 1929 during work to transform the [[Topkapı Palace]]. In 1501 the Turkish seamen engaged in a violent naval battle in the western Mediterranean. They captured a few Spanish cargo ships, in one of which they found various objects and products from America. Piri Reis writes thus in his ''Bahriye'': "On the enemy ships which was captured in the Mediterranean, we found a stone similar to jasper." It was on this occasion that the Turks came into possession of the map that Piri Reis used to trace the coastlines of America. According to the notes made on it, the map was constructed using several other maps as source material. There is no doubt as to its authenticity. In note 5 of the map, here is what Piri Reis tells us, in [[Ottoman Turkish language]]: « ... Amma şöyle rivayet ederler kim '''Cinevizden''' [from Genoa] bir '''kâfir''' [an infidel] adına '''Qolōnbō''' [named Columbus] derler imiş, bu yerleri ol bulmuştur ... »<ref>If the name had been "Colón", the author of the map would have translated this as '''Qolōn''' and would not have written '''Qolōnbō''' ("Colombo"). This spelling also indicates an Italian origin: when Columbus asked the permission for his voyages, at first his name was written as "Colomo" in the official documents, that, more or less relates to the [[apocope]] in Castilian for the Italian "Colombo". Only later his name was recorded as "Colón".</ref> The note goes on to tell how Columbus proposed the enterprise "to the great men of Genoa" and how, on being rejected by them, he turned "to the king of Spain." It continues: "The deceased Gazi Kemal had a Spanish slave who told Kemal Reis he had been three times to that Land along with Columbus." The importance of the testimony on this Turkish map from a time close to that of the discovery lies in the source of the news it carries: a Spanish ship captured by the Turks in 1501. The document is wholly unconnected with contemporary Christian culture and completely autonomous from the above-mentioned references.|group="nb"}} *Hernando Alonso de Herrera, in his anti-Aristotelian dissertation, completed in Salamanca in 1516, and published in [[Latin]] and [[Spanish language|Spanish]], wrote: "Xristoval Colon ginoves." *In a Portuguese map of 1520,<ref group="nb">Also in K. Kretschmer's ''Die Entdeckung Amerikas'', plate XII.</ref> it is said: "Land of the Antipodes of the King of Castile, discovered by Christopher Columbus Genoese." *The [[Germans|German]] Peter von Bennewitz writes, in 1520, in the ''Typus Orbis Universalis'':<ref>AE Nordenskiold, ''Facsimile Atlas'', Stockholm 1889, plate XXXVIII.</ref> "In the year 1497 (''sic'') this land (America) with the adjacent islands was discovered by Columbus, a Genoese by mandate of the King of Castile." *The German [[Johannes Schöner]] states in the ''Globus'' of 1520:<ref>K. Kretschmer, ''Die Entdeckung Amerikas'', plate XIII.</ref> "This (island) produces gold, mastic, aloes, porcelain, etc. and ginger — Latitude of the island 440 miles — Longitude 880 — discovered by Christopher Columbus Genoese, captain of the King of Castile in the year of Our Lord 1492." *The [[Spanish people|Spaniard]] [[Francisco López de Gómara]] writes:<ref>''Historia general de las Indias'' of 1533, under the fourteenth title in part I.</ref> "Christopher Columbus was originally from Cogurreo or Nervi, a village of Genoa, a very famous Italian city." *The Portuguese [[Garcia de Resende]], poet and editor, writes:<ref>''Crónica de D. João II,'' published in 1544, p. 110.</ref> "Christouao Colombo, italiano." *The [[Swiss people|Swiss]] [[Heinrich Glarean]] (Loriti) writes:<ref>''De Geographia, liber unus'', published Venice 1534, p. 45.</ref> "To the west there is a land they call America. Two islands, Hispaniola and Isabella: which regions were travelled, along the coast, by the Spaniards, by the Genoese Columbus and by Amerigo Vespuzio." *The Spaniard Hieronymo Girava, who lived in the first half of the 16th century, writes:<ref>''Dos Libros de Cosmographia'', published Milan 1556, p. 186.</ref> "Christoval Colon Genoese, great seaman and mediocre cosmographer." *The Portuguese [[João de Barros]] writes: "As all men declare, ''Christovão Colom'' was of Genoese nation, a man expert, eloquent and good Latinist, and very boastful in his affairs";{{#tag:ref|''Décadas da Ásia'', begun in 1539 and first published in 1552.<ref name="Samuel Eliot Morison">Morison, Samuel Eliot. [https://books.google.com/books?ei=BqezTordNobqOZu7tOUB&ct=result&hl=it&id=uMV1AAAAMAAJ&dq= "''Admiral of the ocean sea: a life of Christopher Columbus''" (Volume I).] Time Inc., 1962. pp. 6-65. Retrieved 2011-11-04.</ref>|group="nb"}} and: "As in this kingdom came Christopher Columbus Genoese, who had just discovered the western islands that now we call Antilles."<ref>''Da Ásia'', translated by Alfonso Ulloa, Venice 1562, p. 55.</ref> *The German known as Giovanni Boemo Aubano, of the first half of the 16th century, writes:<ref>/ ''costumi, le leggi et l'usanze di tutte le genti'', Venice 1564, p. 193.</ref> "Christoforo Palombo, Genoese, the year 1492." *The [[Flemish people|Flemish]] [[Abraham Ortelius]], writes:<ref>''[[Theatrum Orbis Terrarum]]'', Antwerp 1570, folio 11.</ref> "It seems to surpass the bounds of human wonder that all this hemisphere (that today is called America and, because of its immense extent, the New World) remained unknown to the ancients until the Christian year 1492, in which it was first discovered by Christopher Columbus, Genoese." *The Portuguese [[Damião de Góis]], writes:<ref>''De Rebus Aethiopicis'', in ''De Rebus Oceanicis et Novo Orbe'', Cologne 1574, p. 455.</ref> "The Genoese Columbus, a man expert in nautical arts" ; and, in the index: "Columbi genuen- sis, alias Coloni commendatio."{{#tag:ref|In 1540, Damião de Góis, writes in his ''Fides, religio, moresque Aethiopum'': "In his life [he refers to D. João II] the Genoese Columbus ... offered him his services."<ref name="Graça Moura Vasco">{{pt icon}} Graça Moura, Vasco. [https://books.google.com/books?id=90MaAQAAIAAJ&q "''Cristóvão Colombo e a floresta das asneiras.''"] Quetzal Editores, 1991. pp. 93-95. Retrieved 2010-11-20.</ref>|group="nb"}} *The Spaniard [[Nicolás Monardes]], writes:<ref>''Primera y segunda y tenera partes de la Historia medicinal de las cosas que se traen de nuestras Indias Occidentales que sirven en Medicina'', Seville 1574, p. 1.</ref> "In the year 1492 our Spaniards were led by don Christoval Colon, native of Genoa, to discover the West Indies." *The German [[Laurentius Surius]], writes:<ref>''Commentarius brevis rerum in orbe gestarum, ab anno salutis MD usque in annum MDLXXIIII'', Cologne 1574, p. 6.</ref> "There was at the court of the King of Spain a certain Christopher Columbus whose homeland was Genoa." *In 1579, for the Cristoph Pantin's edition, the yearbooks of the Genoese Senate were published, in [[Antwerp]], edited by Petro Bizaro: ''Senatus Populique Genuensis rerum domi forisque gestarum historiae atque annales''. Among what is written to celebrate many industrious Genoese men, you can read that: "cum Christophoro Columbo navalis scientiae absolutissima peritia apud omnem venturam posteritatem, juro optima aliqua ex parte conferri vel comparari possit." *The Portuguese [[Fernão Vaz Dourado]] in the ''Atlante'' of 1580,<ref>K. Kretschmer, ''Die Entdeckung Amerikas'', plate XVIII.</ref> notes: "Land of the Antipodes of the King of Castile discovered by Christopher Columbus Genoese." *The Spaniard Alvaro Gomez, writes:<ref>''De Rebus Gestis a Francisco Ximenio Cisnerio, Archiepiscopo Toletano'', Frankfurt 1581, Vol. III, p. 38.</ref> "Thanks to the eager industry of Christopher Columbus Genoese, word was brought to our Sovereigns of an unknown world." *The [[French people|Frenchman]] [[Gilbert Génebrard]], writes:<ref>''Chronographiae Libri Quatuor'', Paris 1580, p. 399.</ref> "Ferdinand, at the urging of his wife Isabella, Queen of Castile, Leòn and Aragon, sent Christopher Columbus Genoese to seek new land." *The Swiss [[Theodor Zwinger]], who died in 1588, was the author of the ''Theatrum Humanae Vitae'', Basle 1604. In the index we read: "Cristoforo Colono, or Colombo Genoese." *On an unspecified date, certainly prior to 1591, the Turk Basmagi Ibrahim published a book, written by a Turkish author who has remained anonymous, entitled ''Turich-i-Hind-i garbi iachod hadis-i-nev'' (History of the West Indies, in other words the New Story). The third chapter of this book dedicated to the discoverer of the "New World or New Land," states: "From the village of Nervi, which is among the Genoese possessions, a man who was born who had the name Christopher and the surname Columbus. Since he had completed journeys by land and by sea [...] he stayed on an island by the name of Madeira [...] under the domain of the wretched (''sic'') Portugal." *The Flemish [[Theodor De Bry]], writes:<ref>''Historiae Americanae Secunda Pars conscripta a Jacobo Le Moyne, dicto De Morgues.'', Frankfurt 1591, p. 4.</ref> "From everything it can be stated with certainty that it was first discovered by Christopher Columbus Genoese." *The Portuguese [[Gaspar Frutuoso]], in a sixteenth-century manuscript entitled ''As Saudades da terra'', printed by Alvaro Rodriguez Azevedo in 1873 in Funchal (Madeira), writes in the Anales of Porto Santo: "On this island the great Christovao Colombo, the Genoese, resided for some time." *The German [[David Chytraeus]] writes:<ref>''Saxonia at anno Christi 1550 usque MDXCIV'' published by the printer Henning Gros, in Leipzig, in 1599.</ref> "Primum Novum Orbem in occidente, omnibus antea ignotum et inaccessam... pervestigare et aperire... ''Christophorus Columbus Genesis'', admirand ad omnen posteritatem ausu et industria coeperat." *In the volume published by the City of Genoa the testimony is cited of the historian Andres Bernaldez, who died in 1513. He was the author of a ''Historia de los Reyes Catolicos don Fernando y dona Isabel''. In this work, belatedly published in Seville in 1869, it is written:<ref>''Historia de los Reyes Catolicos don Fernando y dona Isabel'', Vol. I, p. 357.</ref> "In the name of Almighty God, a man of the land of Genoa, a merchant of printed books who was called Christopher Columbus." Actually, in the original text of Bernaldez, it says "land of Milan". However, this is merely lack of precision. In the 15th century, the [[Republic of Genoa]] was alternately fully and legally dependent on the [[Duchy of Milan]] and the latter's satellite. The editor rightly interpreted the Milanese reference in the sense of Genoese origin. Columbus's Genoese birth is also confirmed by the works of the English Hakluyt (1601), of the Spaniard Antonio de Herrera (1612), the great Spanish dramatist Lope de Vega (1614), a paper manuscript dated 1626, conserved in Madrid's National Library, the works of the German Filioop Cluwer (1677), the German Giovanni Enrico Alsted (1649), the French Dionisio Petau (1724), and the Spaniard Luigi de Marmol (1667). This list represents the early writings of non-Italians. There were '''sixty-two Italian testimonies''' between 1502 and 1600. Of these fourteen are from Ligurian writers.{{#tag:ref|The other authors being Lombards, Venetians, Tuscans, Neapolitans, Sicilians and one Maltese.<ref name="Paolo Emilio Taviani"/>|group="nb"}} It may be obvious, but not useless, to underline that the Venetians' (e.g. Trevisan's and Ramusio's) recognition of Columbus's Genoese birth constitutes a testimony as impartial as that of the Spaniards, French, and Portuguese. Conformable to the testament in Seville (3 July 1539) is the evidence of [[Ferdinand Columbus]], who states that his father was ''conterraneo'' (of the same country) with Mons. Agostino Giustiniani, who was, beyond all doubt,<ref name="Antonio Ballesteros Beretta">{{es icon}} Ballesteros Beretta, Antonio. [https://books.google.com/books?ei=wfxiTd2kEoqEOvjGyN4C&ct=result&id=giHVAAAAMAAJ&dq= "''Cristóbal Colón y el descubrimiento de América''" (Volume I).] Salvat editores, s.a., 1945. pp. 139-157. Retrieved 2011-02-22.</ref><ref name="Dario G. Martini">{{it icon}} Martini, Dario G. [https://books.google.com/books?id=8TEaAQAAIAAJ&q= ''"Cristoforo Colombo tra ragione e fantasia."''] ECIG, 1987. pp. 12 and 513. Retrieved 2011-02-22.</ref> born at Genoa: {{Quote|''Hijo de don Cristóbal Colón, genovés, primero almirante que descubrió las Indias ...''<ref>{{es icon}} Díaz-Trechuelo, María Lourdes. [https://books.google.com/books?id=drsM_sZPglQC&pg=PA30&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false ''"Cristóbal Colón"''.] Ediciones Palabra, 2006. p. 30. Retrieved 2010-12-08.</ref> | <small>Son of Christopher Columbus, Genoese, admiral who first discovered the Indies ...</small>|}} === Other information === Other testimony of contemporary or succeeding authors include: *A reference, dated 1492 by a court scribe Galindez, referred to Columbus as "''Cristóbal Colón, genovés.''"<ref>Granzotto, Gianni. [https://books.google.com/books?ei=e1TPTtmeMcGKhQesv8CLAg&ct=result&hl=it&id=qsF1AAAAMAAJ&dq= "''Christopher Columbus.''"] Doubleday, 1985. p. 10. Retrieved 2007-12-15.</ref> *The historian [[Peter Martyr d'Anghiera]], was the earliest of Columbus's chroniclers and was in Barcelona when Columbus returned from his first voyage. In his letter of May 14, 1493, addressed to Giovanni Borromeo, he referred to Columbus as Ligurian,<ref group="nb">"Christophorus Colonus quidam ligur vir" or "a certain Christopher Columbus, man of Liguria"</ref> [[Liguria]] being the Region where Genoa is located.<ref group="nb">Peter Martyr d'Anghiera uses the two words, "Ligurian" and "Genoese", interchangeably. In the first ''Decade'' of his ''De Orbe Novo'', book I: "homo ligur". In the second ''Decade'', book I: "Christophorum Colonum ligurem" and book VII: "Christophoro Colono Genuensi" (NRC, VI, 1988).</ref> *Michele da Cuneo from Savona, a friend of Columbus' (possibly from childhood),<ref>Morison, Samuel Eliot. "''Christopher Columbus, Mariner.''" New American Library, 1956. p. 72. Retrieved 2010-08-10.</ref> sailed with Columbus during the second voyage and wrote: "In my opinion, since Genoa was Genoa, there was never born a man so well equipped and expert in the art of navigation as the said lord Admiral."<ref>Fernández-Armesto, Felipe. "''Columbus.''" Oxford University Press, 1991. pp. 103-104. Retrieved 2009-02-11.</ref> *Giambattista Strozzi, a Florentine merchant, reported in a letter sent from Cadiz on March 19, 1494: "On the 7th of this month there arrived here in safety twelve caravels which came from the new islands found by Columbus ''Savonese'', Admiral of the Ocean, for the king of Castile, having come in twenty-five days from the said islands of the Antilles."<ref name="Antonio Ballesteros Beretta"/> *[[Cesáreo Fernández Duro]] in his book ''Colón y la Historia postuma'', mentions the chronicler Alonso Estanquez, who has composed a ''Crónica de los reyes don Fernando y doña Isabel'', before 1506, where he writes: "''Cristobal Colón, genovés.''"<ref name="Antonio Ballesteros Beretta"/> *In 1507 [[Martin Waldseemüller]] published a world map, ''[[Universalis Cosmographia]]'', which was the first to show North and South America as separate from Asia and surrounded by water. Below the island of Hispaniola, near the coast of Paria ([[Central America]]) he inserted the words: "Iste insule per Columbum genuensem almirantem ex ma[n]dato regis Castelle invent[a]e sunt" or "these islands have been discovered by the Genoese admiral Columbus by order of the king of Castile."<ref>Schiavo, Giovanni Ermenegildo. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Dh7jAAAAMAAJ&q "''Four centuries of Italian-American history.''"] Center for Migration Studies, 1992. p. 50. Retrieved 2010-12-06.</ref> *Witnesses in the 1511 and 1532 hearings in the ''Pleitos'' agreed that Columbus was from the [[Liguria|Ligur]]. Another witness at the same hearing placed it more precisely, testifying, "I heard it said that [he] was from the seigneury of Genoa, from the city of Savona."{{#tag:ref|Testimony of Rodrigo Barreda: "''oyo decir que hera de la senioria de Genova de la cibdad de Saona.''"<ref name="Miles H. Davidson">Davidson, Miles H. [https://books.google.com/books?id=BR6Ek48GgzEC&pg=PA6#v=onepage&q&f=false "''Columbus then and now: a life reexamined.''"] University of Oklahoma Press, 1997. pp. 6-7. Retrieved 2010-06-13.</ref>|group="nb"}} *Father Antonio de Aspa, a Hieronymite from the convent of [[Mejorada]], between 1512 and 1524, wrote a report on Columbus's first voyage, drawn largely from the ''Decades'' of Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, in which he claimed that Columbus was Genoese.<ref name="Antonio Ballesteros Beretta"/>{{#tag:ref|Father Antonio de Aspa mentions that three Genoese merchants helped to finance the venture: Jacopo Di Negro, from Seville, Zapatal, from Jerez, and Luis Doria, from Cadiz. To these names we can add the Genoese merchants Rivarolo, Doria, Castagno and Gaspare Spinola, mentioned by Nuncibay in his ''Genealogia de la Casa de Portugal'', and in Columbus's correspondence with his son Diego. Ballesteros remarks that the only certain thing is that the Italian families of Pinello, Berardi, Centurione, Doria, Spinola, Cattaneo, Di Negro and Rivarolo appear continually in the presence of the great Genoese.<ref name="Paolo Emilio Taviani"/>|group="nb"}} *The Portuguese [[Jorge Reinel]], in his map of 1519, writes the following words: "Xpoforum cõlombum genuensem."<ref name="Graça Moura Vasco"/> *The German [[Simon Grynaeus]], writes:<ref>Grynaeus, Simon; Huttichius, Johann. [https://books.google.com/books?hl=it&id=jGDNHKpQtowC&pg=PA90&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false "''Novus orbis regionum ac insularum veteribus incognitarum.''"] apud Io. Hervagium, 1532. p. 90. Retrieved 2011-12-03.</ref> "Christophorus natione Italicus, patria Genuensis, gente Columba." *D. Diego, a grandson of the admiral, was knight of the [[Order of Santiago]], in the genealogy section, of 1535, says: "Paternal Grandparents / Christopher Columbus, a native of Saona near Genoa, / and Filipa Moniz, a native of Libon."<ref name="Antonio Ballesteros Beretta"/> In the same year, Pedro de Arana, a cousin of Columbus's Spanish mistress, testified that he knew Columbus was from Genoa.{{#tag:ref|Pedro was close enough to Columbus to have commanded a vessel on his third voyage across the Atlantic.<ref name="Miles H. Davidson"/>|group="nb"}} *The Spaniard [[Alonzo de Santa Cruz]], ''c.'' 1550, said Columbus was from [[Nervi]].<ref name="Miles H. Davidson"/> *The Spaniard [[Pedro Cieza de León]] writes that Columbus was originally from [[Savona]].<ref>Cieza de León, Pedro (translated into Italian by Agostino di Cravaliz). [https://books.google.com/books?id=RgY6AAAAcAAJ&vq=it&pg=PA2#v=onepage&q&f=false "''Cronica Del Gran Regno Del Peru.''"] 1553 (link to 1576 edition), p. 2. Retrieved 2011-12-09.</ref> *In his ''Commentarius de Ophyra regione apud Divinam Scripturam Commemorata'' of 1561, the Portuguese geographer Gaspar Barreiros, reported that Columbus was "Ligurian."{{#tag:ref|"Duce Christophoro Colono Ligure."<ref name="Graça Moura Vasco"/>|group="nb"}} *The Spaniard [[Jerónimo Zurita y Castro]], writes:<ref>{{es icon}} Zurita y Castro, Jerónimo. [https://books.google.com/books?id=sO1FAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA17&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false "''Anales de la Corona de Aragon.''"] 1562-1580 (link to 1670 edition), p. 17. Retrieved 2010-12-11.</ref> "Christopher Columbus, man, as he said, whose company had always been for the sea and its predecessors, so that was foreign born and raised in poverty and the banks of Genoa." *The Portuguese [[António Galvão]], writes:<ref>Galvão, António ; Hakluyt, Richard ; Bethune, Charles Ramsay Drinkwater. [https://books.google.com/books?id=vAUVAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA81&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false "''The discoveries of the world.''"] 1563 (link to 1862 edition), p. 81. Retrieved 2010-12-17.</ref> "In the yeere 1492, in the time of Don Ferdinando king of Castile, he being at the siege of Granada, dispatched one Christopher Columbus a Genoway with three ships to goe and discouer Noua Spagna." *The Spaniard [[Gonzalo de Illescas]], writes:<ref>{{es icon}} Illescas, Gonzalo de. [https://books.google.com/books?id=yUjFZqMuZOwC&dq=&hl=it&pg=PA259#v=onepage&q&f=false "''Segunda parte de la Historia pontifical y catolica.''"] 1569 (link to 1652 edition), p. 259. Retrieved 2011-12-08.</ref> "Christopher Columbus Genoese, was born at Nervi, a village near to Genoa." *The Spaniard Esteban de Garibay, humanist and historian, writes:<ref>{{es icon}} Garibay y Zamalloa, Esteban de. [https://books.google.com/books?id=dcncZAFjRrQC&pg=PA650&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false "''Compendio historial de las chronicas y universal historia de todos los reynos de España.''"] 1571 (link to 1628 edition), p. 650. Retrieved 2011-12-08.</ref> "A man of the Italian nation, named Christopher Columbus, native of Cugurco ([[Cogoleto]]), or Nervi, village of Genoa." *The Portuguese João Matalio Metelo Sequano in 1580, writes that Columbus was born in the city of Genoa.{{#tag:ref|"Christophorus ergo Columbus, prouincia Ligur, vrbe, vt aiunt, genuensis, qui Maderam inhabitabit."<ref name="Graça Moura Vasco"/>|group="nb"}} *The Frenchman [[Lancelot Voisin de La Popelinière]], writes:<ref>{{fr icon}} La Popelinière, Lancelot Voisin. [https://books.google.com/books?id=mZAu2Y0EWY8C&pg=PA77&lpg=#v=onepage&q&f=false "''Les trois mondes de la Popelinière.''"] 1582 (link to 1997 edition), p. 77. Retrieved 2011-12-10.</ref> "La plupart des princes chretiens, le nostre sur tous, l'Anglais, le Portugais, l'Espagnol mémes, n'avaient daigné préster sculement l'ouíe a l'ouverture que ''l'ltalien'' leur faisait." *The Spaniard Julián del Castillo, writes:<ref>{{es icon}} Castillo, Julián del. [https://books.google.com/books?id=sbpgHGRjcqYC&hl=it&pg=RA2-PT222#v=onepage&q&f=false "''Historia de los Reyes Godos que vinieron de la Scitia de Europa, contra el Imperio Romano, y a España.''"] Por Philippe de Iunta, 1582. p. 143. Retrieved 2011-12-08.</ref> "Christopher Columbus, an Italian, was originally from Cogurio (Cogoleto) or Nervi, village near to the famous city of Genoa." *The German [[Michael Neander]], writes:<ref>Neander, Michael. [https://books.google.com/books?id=Azk8AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA422&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false "''Orbis terrae partium succincta explicatio.''"] 1586 (link to 1597 edition), p. 422. Retrieved 2011-12-07.</ref> "Christophoro Colombo Genuensi." *The Spaniard [[Gonzalo Argote de Molina]] clearly identified [[Albissola Marina]] as Columbus's birthplace.<ref>{{es icon}} Argote de Molina, Gonzalo. [https://books.google.com/books?id=btPiv51Fss4C&dq=&hl=it&pg=RA2-PT409#v=onepage&q&f=false "''Nobleza del Andaluzia.''"] Por Fernando Diaz, 1588. pp. 246-247. Retrieved 2011-12-08.</ref> *Friar Juan de la Victoria, author of the 16th century, wrote a ''Catálogo de los Reyes godos de España'' extracted from Fernández Duro in his ''Colón y La Historia Postuma''; says the friar: "In the year 1488, the Italian Christopher Columbus, native of Cugureo (Cogoleto) or Nervi, village of Genoa, sailor."<ref name="Antonio Ballesteros Beretta"/> *The Spaniard [[Juan de Castellanos]], poet and chronicler, writes that Columbus was born in Nervi.<ref>{{es icon}} Castellanos, Juan de. [https://books.google.com/books?id=LSoeTCrFm04C&dq=&hl=it&pg=PA44#v=onepage&q= "''Elegías de varones ilustres de Indias.''"] 1589 (link to 1847 edition), p. 44. Retrieved 2011-12-08.</ref> *The Spaniard [[Juan de Mariana]], writes:<ref>{{es icon}} Mariana, Juan de. [https://books.google.com/books?id=7V5BAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA132&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false "''Historia general de España''" (Volume XIII).] 1592 (link to 1819 edition), p. 132. Retrieved 2011-12-09.</ref> "Christopher Columbus, Genoese of nation." *The Portuguese Pedro de Mariz, historian and librarian, says that Columbus was Genoese.<ref>{{pt icon}} De Mariz, Pedro. [https://books.google.com/books?id=HgkGWX5ulV4C&pg=PA351&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false "''Diálogos de varia historia.''"] 1594 (link to 1749 edition), p. 351. Retrieved 2011-12-07.</ref> === Historians === [[File:Genova-casa di Colombo-DSCF7114.JPG|180px|thumb|right|House of Christopher Columbus in Genoa, Italy.]] Scholars from all over the world agree that Columbus was Genoese.{{#tag:ref|They include the two greatest Columbians in Spain, Antonio Ballesteros Beretta, professor at the [[Complutense University of Madrid|University of Madrid]], and Juan Manzano Manzano, professor of [[Seville University]]; the leading North American authority, Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison; and the Argentinian Diego Luis Molinari, professor at the [[University of Buenos Aires]]. Obviously there are many more — admirers and detractors alike — who accept Genoa as his birthplace, including Robertson, Navarrete, Milhou, Irving, Boorstin, Demetrio Ramos, Carpentier, D'Avezac, Manuel Alvar, Nunez Jimenez, Munoz, Peschel, Duro, Mollat, Harrisse, Perez de Tudela, Aynashiya, Morales Padron, Magidovic, Roselly de Lorgues, Asensio, Braudel, Winsor, Fiske, Ciroanescu, Ruge, Markham, Serrano y Sanz, Obregon, Laguarda Trias, Thacher, de Gandia, Emiliano Jos, Aurelio Tio, Goldemberg, Vignaud, Ramirez Corria, Alvarez Pedroso, Marta Sanguinetti, Altolaguirre, Breuer, Leithaus, Alegria, Arciniegas, Davey, Nunn, Johnson, Juan Gil, Sumien, Charcot, Ballesteros Gaibrois, Levillier, Dickey, Parry, Young, Streicher, de La Ronciere, Muro Orejon, Pedroso, Brebner, Houben, Rumeu de Armas, de Madariaga, Stefansson, Martinez Hidalgo, Taylor, Mahn Lot, Consuelo Varela, Verlinden, Bradford, Heers, Davidson,<ref name="Miles H. Davidson"/> Bergreen,<ref>Bergreen, Laurence. [https://books.google.com/books?id=3Dyhtkk4VQcC&dq= "''Columbus: The Four Voyages.''"] Penguin Group US, 2011. Retrieved 2012-01-07.</ref> Fernandez-Armesto,<ref>Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe. [https://books.google.com/books?ei=O3wFT8qnHYeA4gSg98yNCA&hl=it&id=4at1AAAAMAAJ&dq= "''Columbus.''"] Oxford University Press, 1991. Retrieved 2012-01-07.</ref> McGovern,<ref>McGovern, James R. [https://books.google.com/books?id=3mOh34X6UY8C&printsec= "''The World of Columbus.''"] Mercer University Press, 1992. Retrieved 2012-01-07.</ref> Kirkpatrick Sale,<ref>Sale, Kirkpatrick. [https://books.google.com/books?id=g9uH9kL0PoIC&pg= "''Christopher Columbus and the Conquest of Paradise.''"] Tauris Parke Paperbacks, 2006. Retrieved 2012-01-07.</ref> William and Carla Phillips.<ref>Phillips, William D. ; Phillips, Carla R. [https://books.google.com/books?id=66xjQgAACAAJ&dq= "''The worlds of Christopher Columbus.''"] Cambridge University Press, 1992. Retrieved 2012-01-07. Both the Phillips are professors of history at the [[University of Minnesota]].</ref> Among the leading Italian authorities on Columbus, who also concur, are Spotorno, Sanguineti, Tarducci, Peragallo, Desimoni, De Lollis, Salvagnini, Uzielli, Assereto, Pessagno, Caddeo, Magnaghi, Almagia, Revelli and Bignardelli. Among the famous historians and geographers who have written general works that make reference to Columbus's Genoese birth, we will mention only Humboldt, the great 19th-century German geographer; Burckhardt, author of the prestigious ''Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy''; Fisher, the distinguished English historian; Pirenne, the eminent Belgian historian; Merzbacher, professor of History of Law at the [[University of Innsbruck]]; and Konetzke, professor of Iberian and Latin-American History at [[Cologne University]].<ref name="Paolo Emilio Taviani"/><br> <small>The eminent Italian historian, Paolo Emilio Taviani, devoted his time to the study of Christopher Columbus, becoming "''one of the world's leading authorities on the subject. He retraced the voyages of the Genoese navigator and wrote numerous books about his life and times. Taviani, who was made a life senator in 1991, donated his collection of 2,500 volumes on Columbus to a council-owned library in his native Genoa.''"</small><ref>Willan, Philip. [https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/jun/21/guardianobituaries.philipwillan "Paolo Emilio Taviani."] The Guardian, 2001. Retrieved 2011-11-14.</ref>|group="nb"}} [[Samuel Eliot Morison]], in his book ''Christopher Columbus: Admiral of the Ocean Sea'', notes that many existing legal documents demonstrate the Genoese origin of Columbus, his father Domenico, and his brothers Bartolomeo and Giacomo (Diego). These documents, written in Latin by notaries, were legally valid in Genoese courts. The documents, uncovered in the 19th century when Italian historians examined the Genoese archives, form part of the ''Raccolta Colombiana''. On page 14, Morison writes:<blockquote>Besides these documents from which we may glean facts about Christopher's early life, there are others which identify the Discoverer as the son of Domenico the wool weaver, beyond the possibility of doubt. For instance, Domenico had a brother Antonio, like him a respectable member of the lower middle class in Genoa. Antonio had three sons: Matteo, Amigeto and Giovanni, who was generally known as Giannetto (the Genoese equivalent of "Johnny"). Giannetto, like Christopher, gave up a humdrum occupation to follow the sea. In 1496 the three brothers met in a notary's office at Genoa and agreed that Johnny should go to Spain and seek out his first cousin "Don Cristoforo de Colombo, Admiral of the King of Spain," each contributing one third of the traveling expenses. This quest for a job was highly successful. The Admiral gave Johnny command of a caravel on the Third Voyage to America, and entrusted him with confidential matters as well.</blockquote>On the topic of Columbus' being born somewhere besides Genoa, Morison states "Every contemporary Spaniard or Portuguese who wrote about Columbus and his discoveries calls him Genoese. Four contemporary Genoese chroniclers claim him as a compatriot. Every early map on which his nationality is recorded describes him as Genoese or ''Ligur'', a citizen of the Ligurian Republic. Nobody in the Admiral's lifetime, or for three centuries after, had any doubt about his birthplace" and that "There is no more reason to doubt that Christopher Columbus was a Genoese-born Catholic Christian, steadfast in his faith and proud of his native city, than to doubt that [[George Washington]] was a Virginia-born Anglican of English race, proud of being an [[United States|American]]." The position of Morison, is adopted by the British historian [[Felipe Fernández-Armesto]], who writes in his book:<ref>Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe. [https://books.google.com/books?id=_EEaCAAAQBAJ&pg=PT150&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false ''1492. The Year the World Began.''] Orion Press Inc., 2009. Retrieved 2015-04-16.</ref><blockquote>The Catalan, French, Galician, [[Origin theories of Christopher Columbus#Greek hypothesis|Greek]], Ibizan, Jewish, Majorcan, [[Origin theories of Christopher Columbus#Polish hypothesis|Polish]], Scottish, and other increasingly silly Columbuses concocted by historical fantasists are agenda-driven creations, usually inspired by a desire to arrogate a supposed or confected hero to the cause of a particular nation or historic community - or, more often than not, to some immigrant group striving to establish a special place of esteem in the United States. The evidence of Columbus's origins in Genoa is overwhelming: almost no other figure of his class or designation has left so clear a paper trail in the archives.</blockquote>[[Paolo Emilio Taviani]], in his book ''Cristoforo Colombo: Genius of the Sea'' discusses "the public and notarial acts - original copies of which are conserved in the archives of Genoa and Savona - regarding Columbus's father, Columbus himself, his grandfather, and his relatives." In ''Columbus the Great Adventure'' he further claims that Columbus named the small island of [[Saona]] "to honor Michele da Cuneo, his friend from Savona."<ref>Taviani, Paolo Emilio. "''Columbus, the great adventure: his life, his times, and his voyages.''" Orion Books, 1991. p. 185. Retrieved 2009-02-11.</ref> This is fully accepted by [[Consuelo Varela Bueno]], "Spain's leading authority on the texts, documents, and handwriting of Columbus."<ref>Allen, John Logan. [https://books.google.com/books?id=7RGlz9a4wVYC&pg=PA149&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false ''North American Exploration.''] U of Nebraska Press, 1997. pp. 149-150. Retrieved 2015-04-17.</ref> She devotes several pages to the question of Columbus native land, and concludes that "all chroniclers of that period wrote that he was from Liguria in northern Italy."<ref>Varela, Consuelo. [https://books.google.com/books?id=IRMWAQAAIAAJ&q= ''Christopher Columbus and the Mystery of the Bell of the Santa Maria.''] White Star Publishers, 2008. p. 13. Retrieved 2015-04-17.</ref> The evidence supporting the Genoese origin of Columbus is also discussed by [[Miles H. Davidson]]. In his book ''Columbus Then and Now: A Life Reexamined'', he writes:<ref name="Miles H. Davidson"/><blockquote>Diego Méndez, one of his captains, in testimony given in the <nowiki>''</nowiki>Pleitos<nowiki>''</nowiki>, he said that Columbus was "Genoese, a native of Savona which is a town near Genoa." Those who reject this and the more than ample other contemporary evidence, given by both Italian and Spanish sources as well as by witnesses at these court hearings, are simply flying in the face of overwhelming evidence. [...] What is the reason behind so much futile speculation? It can be mostly attributed to parochialism. Each of the nations and cities mentioned wants to claim him for its own. Since no effort was made to locate the supporting data until the early nineteenth century, and since at that time not all of the archives had been adequately researched, there was, initially, justification for those early efforts to establish who he was and where he came from. To do so today is to fulfill Montaigne's maxim, "No one is exempt from talking non-sense; the misfortune is to do it solemnly."</blockquote> === Language === The spoken language of Genova and the Ligurian coast would primarily have been the [[Ligurian language (ancient)|Ligurian language]].<ref>http://www.ethnologue.com/language/lij</ref> The [[Italian language]] was originally based on the fourteenth century vernacular of [[Florence]] in the adjacent region of [[Tuscany]], and would not have been the main spoken language of Genova in the fifteenth century. Although Columbus wrote almost exclusively in Spanish,{{#tag:ref|The oldest fragment of writing certainly attributable to Columbus is a marginal note in one of his books. De Lollis dates it around 1481. It is written in bad Spanish, mixed with Portuguese. All Columbus's letters, even those addressed to Genoese friends and to the Bank of Saint George, are written in Castilian.<ref name="Paolo Emilio Taviani"/>|group="nb"}} there is a small handwritten Genoese gloss in a 1498 Italian (from Venice) edition of ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Pliny's Natural History]]'' that he read after his second voyage to America: this shows Columbus was able to write in Italian and understand it.<ref>Milani, Virgil I. "''The written language of Christopher Columbus.''" State University of New York at Buffalo, 1973. Retrieved 2009-11-08.</ref> There is also a note in Italian in his own ''[[Book of Prophecies]]'' exhibiting, according to historian August Kling, "characteristics of northern Italian humanism in its calligraphy, syntax, and spelling".{{#tag:ref|De Lollis claims that Columbus wrote these notes in Italian because of his deep bitterness, at that time, against the Spanish court. Ballesteros advances a more logical theory, suggesting that this is the psychological reaction of an elderly man, nostalgic for his homeland. Surely Columbus would never have written in Italian if he had not been in such close touch with many compatriots, first in Portugal, then in Spain and finally during his voyages of discovery. It is generally accepted that he was on friendly terms with Genoese, Tuscans, Corsicans, Venetians and Neapolitans, and the point has been especially underlined by historians.<ref name="Paolo Emilio Taviani"/>|group="nb"}} Phillips and Phillips point out that 500 years ago, the [[Latinate languages]] had not distanced themselves to the degree they have today. [[Bartolomé de las Casas]] in his ''Historia de las Indias'' claimed that Columbus did not know Spanish well and that he was not born in Castile.<ref>{{es icon}} De las Casas, Bartolomé. "''Historia General de las Indias.''" (''Colección de Documentos Inéditos'') Madrid, 1875. Retrieved 2011-11-14.</ref> Valiant scholars have dedicated themselves to the subject of Christopher Columbus's language.{{#tag:ref|Chief among them are Menéndez Pidal, Arce, Caraci, Chiareno, Juan Gil, Milano, Consuelo Varela.<ref name="Taviani 10"/>|group="nb"}} They have conducted in-depth research both on the ship's log and on other of his writings that have come down to us. They have analyzed the words, the terms, and the vocabulary, as well as rather frequent variations often bizarre in style, handwriting, grammar, and syntax. Christopher Columbus's language is Castilian punctuated by noteworthy and frequent Lusitanian, Italian, and Genoese influences and elements.<ref name="Taviani 10"/> == Catalan hypothesis == Since the early 20th century, researchers have attempted to connect Columbus to the [[Catalan language|Catalan]]-speaking areas of [[Spain]], usually based on linguistic evidence. The first of them who proposed a [[Crown of Aragon|Catalan]] birthplace was Luis Ulloa, a historian from [[Peru]] who wrote a book in 1927, originally in French, defending the Catalan origin of Columbus.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/u/ulloa_luis.htm|title=Luis Ulloa|language=Spanish|publisher=''Biografias y Vidas.com''|date= |accessdate=2010-02-23}}</ref>{{#tag:ref|The greatest of all Spanish historians Antonio Ballesteros Beretta,<ref name="Dario G. Martini"/><ref>Taviani, Paolo Emilio. "Christopher Columbus: His Birthplace and His Parents." Five Hundred Magazine, 1989. Retrieved 2010-06-12.</ref> Professor of the [[Complutense University of Madrid|University of Madrid]] and director of the monumental series of publications on the ''Historia de America y de los pueblos americanos'', engaged in a deeper scrutiny of the [[Origin theories of Christopher Columbus#Catalan hypothesis|Catalan thesis]]. He writes: "[Ulloa] ''penetrates the great labyrinth of Columbus court documents to gather arguments in favor of his preconceived theory. It is not possible to follow him in all of his lucubrations. His fiery imagination pushes him into a continuous hermeneutics.''" "''But what document, what proof,''" Ballesteros continues, "''can be exhibited which affirms that Columbus was Catalonian? Absolutely none''" and concludes that "''with the Catalonian thesis we are faced by a system of clues based essentially on a negative approach, which declares that anything which can prove that the discoverer was Genoese is false.''"<ref name="Taviani 10"/>|group="nb"}} Some more recent studies also state Columbus had Catalan origins,<ref>Govan, Fiona. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/6326698/Christopher-Columbus-writings-prove-he-was-Spanish-claims-study.html "Christopher Columbus writings prove he was Spanish, claims study."] The Telegraph, 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-04.</ref> based on his handwriting, though these have been disputed.<ref>[http://medievalnews.blogspot.com/2009/10/scholar-casts-doubt-on-claims-that.html "Scholar casts doubt on claims that Columbus was a Catalan."] Medieval News, 2009. Retrieved 2009-10-26.</ref> Throughout Columbus's life, he referred to himself as ''Christobal Colom''; his contemporaries and family also referred to him as such. It is possible that Colom is the shortened form of Columbus used for the Italian surname Colombo (which means "dove"). Colom can also be a Portuguese, French, or Catalan name, and in the latter means "dove". There was a wealthy mercenary and merchant noble named Joan Colom i Bertran living in [[Barcelona]] in the 15th century, who has been proposed as the real Christopher Columbus. According to Charles J. Merrill, a Doctor in medieval literature and associate professor of foreign languages, the analysis of Columbus's handwriting indicates that it is typical of someone who would be a native Catalan, and Columbus's phonetic mistakes in Castilian are "most likely" those of a Catalan, with examples such as "a todo arreo" (a tot arreu), "todo de un golpe" (tot d'un cop), "setcentas" (set-centes), "nombre" (instead of número), "al sol puesto" (el sol post).<ref name="merrill">{{es icon}} [http://hemeroteca-paginas.lavanguardia.com/LVE05/PUB/2009/12/01/LVG200912010641LB.pdf "Colón era un barcelonés que camufló su origen."] La Hemeroteca de La Vanguardia, 2009. Retrieved 2010-03-15.</ref> Merrill states that the Genoese Cristoforo Colombo was a modest wool carder and cheese merchant with no maritime training and whose age does not match the one of Columbus.<ref name="merrill" /> Merrill's book ''Colom of Catalonia'' was published in 2008.<ref>Merrill, Charles J. [https://books.google.com/books?id=TggNAQAAMAAJ&dq= "''Colom of Catalonia: Origins of Christopher Columbus Revealed.''"] Demers Books LLC, 2008. Retrieved 2010-08-07.</ref> However, [[Samuel Eliot Morison]] has cast no doubts regarding Columbus's marriage to the Portuguese noblewoman Filipa Perestrello.<ref name="Samuel Eliot Morison"/> == Catalan-Jewish hypothesis == Some researchers have postulated that Columbus was of [[Iberian Jews|Iberian Jewish]] origins. The linguist Estelle Irizarry, in addition to arguing that Columbus was Catalan, also claims that Columbus tried to conceal a Jewish heritage.<ref>http://medievalnews.blogspot.cz/2009/10/christopher-columbus-was-catalan-and.html</ref> In "Three Sources of Textual Evidence of Columbus, Crypto Jew,"<ref>[http://www.tbspr.org/_kd/Items/actions.cfm?action=Show&item_id=2026& "Three Sources of Textual Evidence of Columbus, Crypto Jew."] ''Tbspr.org.'' Retrieved 2009-11-09.</ref> Irizarry notes that Columbus always wrote in [[Spanish language|Spanish]], occasionally included Hebrew in his writing, and referenced the Jewish High Holidays in his journal during the first voyage. In a 1973 book, [[Simon Wiesenthal]] (1908–2005) postulated that Columbus was a [[Sephardi]] (Spanish Jew), careful to conceal his Judaism yet also eager to locate a place of refuge for his persecuted fellow countrymen. Wiesenthal argued that Columbus' concept of sailing west to reach the Indies was less the result of geographical theories than of his faith in certain Biblical texts—specifically the Book of Isaiah. He repeatedly cited two verses from that book: "Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them," (60:9); and "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth" (65:17). Wiesenthal claimed that Columbus felt that his voyages had confirmed these prophecies.<ref>Wiesenthal, Simon. [https://books.google.com/books?id=wMVtAAAAMAAJ&q= "''Sails of Hope: The Secret Mission of Christopher Columbus.''"] Macmillan, 1973. Retrieved 2010-09-07.</ref> Jane Francis Amler argued that Columbus was a ''[[converso]]'' (a Sephardi Jew who publicly converted to Christianity). In Spain, even some converted Jews were forced to leave Spain after much persecution; it is known that many ''conversos'' were still practicing [[Judaism]] in secret. In a footnote to his translation of [[George Sand]]'s ''Un hiver à Majorque'', [[Robert Graves]] remarks: "There is strong historical evidence for supposing that Cristobal Colom (Christopher Columbus) was a Majorcan Jew; his surname is still common in the island." <ref>Sand, George, ''Winter in Majorca'', translated by Robert Graves, Valldemosa Edition, Mallorca, 1956, footnote to page 87</ref> == Greek hypothesis == The theory that Columbus was a [[Byzantine Greek]] nobleman was first proposed in scholarly fashion in 1943 by Seraphim G. Canoutas, a Greek-American lawyer and independent scholar.<ref>Canoutas, Seraphim G., ''Christopher Columbus: A Greek Nobleman,'' privately published (St. Marks Press, New York 1943). See also "Christopher Columbus Was a Greek Prince and His real Name Was Nikolaos Ypsilantis from the Greek Island of Chios" by Spyros Cateras, Manchester, New Hampshire, 1937. ''See also'' Durlacher-Wolper, Ruth G., ''The Identity of Christopher Columbus,'' privately published (New World Museum, San Salvador 1982), which relied on Canoutas’s work.</ref> The hypothesis rested mainly on statements attributed to Columbus by his son Ferdinand that Columbus had sailed for many years with Colombo the Younger, a famous seaman "of his name and family."<ref>"The first cause of the Admiral's coming to Spain and devoting himself to the sea was a renowned man of his name and family, called Colombo, who won great fame on the sea because he warred so fiercely against infidels and the enemies of his country that his name was used to frighten children in their cradles... He was called Colombo the Younger to distinguish him from another Colombo who in his time also won fame on the sea.... I return to my main theme. While the Admiral was sailing in the company of the said Colombo the Younger (which he did for a long time)...." Keen, Benjamin (trans.), ''The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by his Son Ferdinand'' (Rutgers Univ. Press, New Brunswick 1959), pp. 12-13. Ferdinando's biography is found at: [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k58802t/f2.image Historie del S.D. Fernando Colombo] {{It icon}}</ref> Canoutas pointed out that other scholars (including Harrisse, Salvagnini, Vignaud, and Gonzales de la Rosa<ref>Canoutas cited: Harrisse, Henry, ''Les Colombo de France et d’Italie'' (Paris 1872); Salvagnini, Alberto, "Cristoforo Colombo e i corsari Colombo," ''Commissione Colombiana: Raccolta di documenti e studi pubblicati dalla R. Commissione Colombiana'' (Rome 1892-1896), Pt. II, vol. III; Vignaud, Henry, ''Études critiques sur la vie de Christophe Colomb avant ses découvertes'' (Paris 1905), pp. 129-189; and Gonzales de la Rosa, Manuel, ''La solution de tous les problèmes relatifs à l’origine et la vie de C. Colomb'' (Paris 1902), p. 19 (also in ''Proceedings of the International Congress of Americanists,'' Sess. 12 (1900), pp. 43-62).</ref>) had convincingly identified Colombo the Younger as Georges Paléologue de Bissipat (also known as Georges le Grec), an exiled Byzantine nobleman who was living in France by 1460 and rendering valuable service to the French king. However, these scholars rejected Columbus’s claim of kinship with de Bissipat. Accepting the kinship claim as true, Canoutas established (through references to works by Du Cange<ref>Du Cange, Charles du Fresne, ''Historia Byzantina duplici commentario illustrata'' (Paris 1680), Vol. 1 Familiae Byzantinae, Ch. XLII Familia Palaeologorum Bissipatorum, pp. 256-257. Found at: [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k26826q/f266.image.r=Du+Cange+historia+byzantina.langEN Historia Byzantina]</ref> and Renet<ref>Renet, Pierre-Rieul-César, "Les Bissipat du Beauvaisis," ''Mémoires de la Société Académique d’Archéologie, Sciences & Arts du Département de L’Oise,'' Tome XIV, Première Partie (Beauvais 1889), pp. 31-98. Found at: [https://archive.org/stream/memoires14soci#page/n9/mode/2up Les Bissipat du Beauvaisis] {{Fr icon}}</ref>) that Georges de Bissipat was in fact Georgios Palaiologos Dishypatos, scion of an ancient Byzantine noble family,<ref>''Cf.'' Entries for "Dishypatos," ''The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium,'' Vol. 1 (Oxford Univ. Press, New York & Oxford 1991), pp. 638-639.</ref> who fled to France sometime after the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and, until his death in 1496, rendered important service to French kings Louis XI (1423–1483) and Charles VIII (1470–1498), including as vice-admiral. According to Canoutas, accepting that Dishypatos and Columbus were noble kinsmen and longtime sailing companions helped explain many anomalies that had to be ignored, or attributed to error or imposture in order to reconcile the accepted account of Columbus's early life as a wool-worker's son with his later life as a nobleman and Admiral. Canoutas did not identify Columbus’s parents or place of birth, nor did he analyze Columbus’s claimed kinship bond with Dishypatos. However, Canoutas observed that the Byzantine imperial house of [[Palaiologos]], to which Dishypatos was related on his mother’s side, was closely connected by blood or marriage to the ruling families of Italy, including those of Genoa and Montferrat, such as the Doria, Spinola, Centurione, and Gattelusio families.<ref>''Cf.'' Entry for "Palaiologos," ''The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium,'' Vol. 3 (Oxford Univ. Press, New York & Oxford 1991), pp. 1557-1560.</ref> For example, the [[Palaiologos]] family were the [[rulers of Montferrat]] for more than 200 years. This connection, he argued, might explain why Columbus’s contemporaries and others considered him to be Genoese or Ligurian.<ref>Canoutas, ''op cit.'' pp. 68, 123.</ref> Another book written on his Greek origins is called "Christopher Columbus Was a Greek Prince and His real Name Was Nikolaos Ypsilantis from the Greek Island of Chios" by Spyros Cateras, New Hampshire, 1937. There is also a section in "The Secret Destiny of America" by Manly P. Hall, New York, 1944. pp 62–63. == Portuguese hypothesis == [[File:CristovaoColomboCuba.JPG|thumb|180px|A statue of Columbus in [[Cuba, Portugal|Cuba]], a town in Southern Portugal.]] The first author who claimed Portuguese nationality for Christopher Columbus was Patrocínio Ribeiro in 1916.<ref>{{pt icon}} Ribeiro, Patrocínio. "''O Carácter Misterioso de Colombo e o Problema da sua Nacionalidade.''" Coimbra, 1916. Retrieved 2011-11-22.</ref> The same text with some additions was again published in 1927, after his death, with a complementary study by the medical doctor Barbosa Soeiro relating Columbus' signature with the [[Kabbalah]]. In 1988 José Mascarenhas Barreto published a book<ref>Barreto, Mascarenhas. [https://books.google.com/books?id=jZh1AAAAMAAJ&q= "''The Portuguese Columbus: secret agent of King John II.''"] Macmillan, 1992. Retrieved 2008-11-24.</ref> which claims that Columbus was a Portuguese national and spy who hatched up an elaborate diversion to keep the Spanish from the lucrative trade routes that were opening up around Africa to the Indies. Barreto, through his interpretation of the Kabbalah and other research, suggested Columbus was born in [[Cuba Municipality|Cuba, Portugal]], the son of a nobleman and related to other Portuguese navigators. According to this claim, his real name was concealed, Christopher Columbus being a pseudonym, meaning Bearer of Christ and the Holy Spirit. His real name was supposedly Salvador Fernandes Zarco and he was the son of Dom Fernando, Duke of [[Beja (Portugal)|Beja, Alentejo]] and maternal grandson of [[João Gonçalves Zarco]], discoverer of Madeira. Mascarenhas Barreto, however, has been discredited by Portuguese genealogist Luís Paulo Manuel de Meneses de Melo Vaz de São Paio in his works ''Carta Aberta a um Agente Secreto, Primeira Carta Aberta a Mascarenhas Barreto''<ref>{{pt icon}} "Armas e Troféus." Revista de História, Heráldica, Genealogia e Arte. 1994 - VI serie — Tomo VI — pp. 5-52. Retrieved 2011-11-21.</ref> and ''Carta Aberta a um "Curioso" da Genealogia''.<ref>{{pt icon}} "Armas e Troféus." Revista de História, Heráldica, Genealogia e Arte. 1999 - IX serie — Tomo I — pp. 181-248. Retrieved 2008-05-16.</ref>{{#tag:ref|In this regard, the eminent American historian [[Samuel Eliot Morison]] writes: "''If, however, you suppose that these facts would settle the matter, you fortunately know little of the so-called "literature" on the "Columbus Question." By presenting farfetched hypotheses and sly innuendos as facts, by attacking documents of proven authenticity as false, by fabricating others (such as the famous Pontevedra documents), and drawing unwarranted deductions from things that Columbus said or did, he has been presented as Castilian, Catalan, Corsican, Majorcan, Portuguese, French, German, English, Greek, and Armenian.''"<ref name="Samuel Eliot Morison"/>|group="nb"}} Proponents of the Portuguese hypothesis also point to a court document which stated that Columbus' nationality was "Portuguese"{{#tag:ref|The document describes the person as Portuguese but his name is empty. However, Antonio Rumeo De Armas in his book identifies the person, whose name is omitted, as Christopher Columbus by matching it with the payment receipt in Alonso de Quintanilla's ledgers. It should be noted that Rumeu de Armas thinks Columbus was Genoese but so influenced by his years in Portugal that he could have been mistaken for a Portuguese by Spaniards.<ref>{{es icon}} Rumeu de Armas, Antonio. [https://books.google.com/books?id=_jEaAQAAIAAJ&q= "''El «portugués» Cristóbal Colón en Castilla.''"] Ediciones Cultura Hispánica del Instituto de Cooperación Iberoamericana, 1982. p. 29. Retrieved 2011-11-28.</ref>|group="nb"}} and in another Columbus uses the words "my homeland" in relation to Portugal.<ref>{{es icon}} Real Academia de la Historia (Spain). [https://books.google.com/books?id=rVeysdXFDHIC&pg=PA99&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false "''Congreso de Historia del Descubrimiento (1492–1556).''"] Real Academia de la Historia, 1992. p. 99. Retrieved 2011-11-28.</ref> This theory was popularized among the Portuguese public by the 2005 novel ''Codex 632'', a best-seller written by [[José Rodrigues dos Santos]]. == Polish hypothesis == Writing in ''[[The Polish Review]]'', Krystyna Lukasiewicz commented on rumours that King [[Władysław III of Poland]] did not die in 1444 but hid on the island of Madeira:<ref name="Lukasiewicz">{{cite journal|last1=Lukasiewicz|first1=Krystyna|title=Deceptive Practices in Fifteenth Century Europe: The Case of Wladyslaw III Jagiellon (Varnensis)|journal=The Polish Review|date=2012|volume=47|issue=2|pages=3–20|jstor=41558078}}</ref><blockquote>Beginning in all probability around the time of Henrique [Alemão{{#tag:ref|Henrique Alemão was "a [[Order of Saint Catherine of Mount Sinai|knight of St. Catherine]] who died on Madeira in 1472".<ref name="Lukasiewicz"/>|group="nb"}}]'s death, such rumors were for the first time recorded in the early eighteenth century. Further popularized by Leopold Kielanowski in the twentieth century, they became the starting point for a bizarre hypothesis that Christopher Columbus was actually the son of King Wladyslaw III Jagiellon hiding on Madeira under the name of Henrique Alemão.</blockquote>Lukasiewicz cites [[Manuel da Silva Rosa]]'s ''Colón la Historia Nunca Contad'' (2009) as supporting this hypothesis.<ref name="Lukasiewicz"/> Rosa is an information technology analyst and amateur historian.<ref>[http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/2009/10/q-manuel-rosa-it-analyst-duke-comprehensive-cancer-center "Q+A with Manuel Rosa, IT analyst at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center."] ''Dukechronicle.com.'' Retrieved 2011-02-11.</ref><ref>[http://sites.duke.edu/dukecancerinstitute/?p=307 "Modern Day Sherlock Holmes Unearths New Evidence; Claims Columbus Was Secret Agent"] ''Duke Cancer Institute.'' Retrieved 2014-07-20.</ref> In his book Rosa claims that Columbus was the son of a Portuguese noblewoman and the king of Poland [[Władysław III of Poland|Władysław III]] who allegedly survived the [[battle of Varna]] in 1444 and later lived in Madeira.<ref>[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1333895/Christopher-Columbus-Polish-Portuguese-claim-historians.html "Christopher Colombowicz: America's discoverer Polish not Portuguese, claim historians."] The Daily Mail, 2010. Retrieved 2011-02-09.</ref>{{#tag:ref|However, according to the official historiography he was killed by the Turks<ref>Prazmowska, Anita J. [https://books.google.com/books?id=tRpdAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA56&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false ''A History of Poland.''] Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. p. 56. Retrieved 2015-05-08.</ref> and his head impaled on a stake to terrify the infidels.|group="nb"}} Rosa believes Columbus would not have been able to marry [[Filipa Moniz Perestrelo]], a Portuguese noblewoman, if he were not of noble birth. Rosa also suggests Columbus was a Portuguese secret agent working covertly in Spain and claims similarities exist between Columbus' coat of arms and that of the Polish king.<ref>Govan, Fiona. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/8166041/Christopher-Columbus-was-son-of-Polish-king.html "Christopher Columbus 'was son of Polish king'."] ''The Daily Telegraph'', November 28, 2010. Retrieved 2010-12-01.</ref><ref>[http://www.lithuaniatribune.com/31724/christopher-columbuss-true-identity-unmasked-a-lithuanian-prince-201331724/ "Christopher Columbus’s True Identity Unmasked: A Lithuanian Prince?"] LithuaniaTribune.com, March 16, 2013. Retrieved 2015-10-12.</ref> == Other hypotheses == ===Sardinia=== The [[Spain|Spanish]] historian Marisa Azuara has hypothesized that Columbus could be a [[Sardinian people|Sardinian]] noble from the town of [[Sanluri]], called ''Christòval Colòn'': she claimed that he was son of Salvatore of Siena and Alagon and Isabella Alagon of Arborea, related to [[Pope Pius II]]. At the time of his birth, the island of [[Sardinia]] was partially under [[Republic of Genoa|Genoese]] economic and political rule, until it was conquered at the end of 15th century by the [[Kingdom of Aragon]]. Christòval Colòn would be born in 1436 and he spent his youth studying nautical science, and he spoke both Italian and Spanish.<ref>Marisa Azuara, Cristoforo Colombo, la Crociata Universale, Barracoa, 2007.</ref> ===Corsica=== In [[Calvi, Haute-Corse|Calvi]], a town on the north coast of [[Corsica]], [[France]], which used to be part of the Genoese Empire, one can see the ruins of a house that locals believe to be Columbus' birthplace.<ref>{{cite news |title=Corsica 'discovers' Columbus birthplace |newspaper=[[Sarasota Herald-Tribune]] |date=October 18, 1934 |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1787&dat=19341018&id=2oQcAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Q2QEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6858,1311618 |accessdate=2012-01-17}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Calvi, Corsica: My kind of town |first=Martin |last=Buckley |work=[[The Daily Telegraph#Website|The Telegraph]] |date=September 12, 2008 |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/france/2823767/Calvi-Corsica-My-kind-of-town.html |accessdate=2012-01-17}}</ref> ===Norway=== Norwegians Svein Grodys and writer Tor Borch Sannes have investigated the anecdote that Columbus was born in [[Nordfjord]], [[Norway]]. In his 1991 book ''Christopher Columbus – en europeer fra Norge'',<ref>http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-13488360.html</ref> Borch Sannes highlights [[Ferdinand Columbus]]' claim that the name ''Colonus'' (farmer) was a translation of a foreign name.<ref group="nb">In translations of Columbus' text, this claim does not appear to refer to ''Colonus'' but to ''Colón'', which Ferdinand Columbus connects to the Greek word ''κῶλον'', with the meaning ''member''. See Guzuskyte E., Christopher Columbus's Naming in the 'diarios' of the Four Voyages, p. 205, and Colon F., Keen B., The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus</ref> Sannes points out that if Columbus were of Scandinavian descent, ''Colonus'' would be derived from ''Bonde'', as in the [[Bonde|House of Bonde]]. He points out that the [[coat of arms]] of both Columbus and the royal [[Bonde]] lineage of [[Sweden]] were similar and at the time used a [[bend (heraldry)|bend]]. More specifically, Borch Sannes claims that Iohannes Colon, the grandfather of Christopher Columbus, was one Johannes Bonde, the grandson of [[Tord Bonde]] and thus a first cousin of king [[Charles VIII of Sweden]]/Charles I of Norway (whose name was Karl Knudsson Bonde), and a second cousin of [[Erik Johansson Vasa]]. Borch Sannes further points out that two of Columbus' father's neighbours had the name ''Bondi''. Columbus also had close acquaintances called ''Galli'', almost the name of another important Norwegian noble family at the time, ''Galle'',<ref>https://snl.no/Galle%2Fnorsk_adelsslekt</ref> as well as ''Scotto'', a name Sannes speculates could be Scottish-Norwegian (in the original form ''Schytte'', meaning "Scot"). According to Borch Sannes, the Bonde lineage originally had its seat in [[Hyen]], Nordfjord, but disappeared from Nordfjord with the [[Black Death]]. Based on what he admits is circumstantial evidence, Borch Sannes nevertheless outlines a scenario in which Columbus could have been born in Nordfjord. Sannes' book also claims that Columbus may have visited [[Devon Island]] in 1477, based on Columbus' description of the [[73rd parallel north]].<ref>Borch Sannes, Tor. "''Christopher Columbus: en europeer fra Norge?''" Norsk maritimt forlag, 1991. Retrieved 2006-11-25.</ref> Other writers have highlighted Columbus' links to the Justiniani family of Genova, pointing out that the Genovese Paulus Justiniani was the bishop of Bergen from 1457-60.<ref>http://www.juv.no/files/grodys.html</ref> A monument to Columbus has been raised in Hyen.<ref>http://home.sklbb.no/melheim/bg-trheim.html</ref> ===Scotland=== On 10 March 2009, British newspaper ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' reported that Spanish engineer and amateur historian<ref>{{es icon}} [http://www.abc.es/hemeroteca/historico-08-03-2009/abc/Cultura/jornadas-colombinas-en-marbella-tras-el-rastro-de-la-historia-y-del-adn_913623984950.html "Jornadas colombinas en Marbella tras el rastro de la Historia y del ADN."] ''Hemeroteca - ABC.es'' Retrieved 2010-02-23.</ref> Alfonso Ensenat de Villalonga claimed that Christopher Columbus was "''the son of shopkeepers not weavers and he was baptised Pedro not Christopher''" and "''his family name was Scotto, and was not Italian but of Scottish origin''".<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/4959361/Christopher-Columbus-was-actually-a-Scotsman-called-Pedro-Scotto-historian-says.html "Christopher Columbus was actually a Scotsman called Pedro Scotto, historian says."] The Telegraph, 2009. Retrieved 2009-03-10.</ref> == Footnotes == {{reflist|1|group="nb"}} == References == {{Reflist|30em}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Origin Theories Of Christopher Columbus}} [[Category:Columbus family]] [[Category:Christopher Columbus]] [[Category:Early lives by individual|Columbus, Christopher]]'
Whether or not the change was made through a Tor exit node (tor_exit_node)
0
Unix timestamp of change (timestamp)
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