CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus

The Legend of Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus is remembered for having been the first European to reach the Americas on a deliberate mission. In many ways, it is easier to discuss Columbus as a historical figure than as a literary figure; yet, both interpretations of the man and his life are fraught with difficulties. When discussing the life and writings of Columbus, little can be said with any certainty. Columbus himself was given to contradictions and withholding information and many of his biographers have manipulated facts to present a Columbus in accord with their personal taste. The historical record reveals few facts and the same problem arises with respect to his works. Few documents of literary merit exist that are indisputably believed to be Columbus's own work. Much of what he wrote was addressed to the Spanish sovereigns with the hope of garnering or reinforced their continued support for his project of discovery. Few of his works were intended for the broader public, and those that were made available passed through the hands of frequently unknown editors and revisers.

Scholars continue to debate the authenticity of the works ascribed to Columbus, and a consensus has yet to be reached on the matter. Further, the translation of Columbus into English has been sporadic since the mid eighteenth century, and many of his letters have yet to be translated. Nonetheless, the impact of the works attributed to Columbus on both his contemporaries and on later writers and scholars cannot be denied. Columbus, or at least the idea of Columbus, and his works have had a tremendous impact on literary production and the popular understanding of the New World from the years immediately following 1492 up to the present. He had the unique opportunity of being, at least symbolically, the first European to experience the New World and respond to it. His response, problematic as it may be, has inspired the imagination of generations of readers and writers.

From Columbus's own reference to his birth, and from contemporary documents, scholars generally agree that Christoforo Colombo was born in the state of Liguria in the northwest corner of Italy sometime around 1451. His parents were Dominico and Susanna Colombo, and he had at least two younger brothers, Bartolomé and Diego, who sailed with him to the New World. Most likely his family lived in or near Genoa and worked in the wool trade. Columbus claims he went to sea when he was eleven and had sailed most of the known world by the time he arrived in Spain with his petition for the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella. By 1476, Columbus was living in Portugal and sailing for the Portuguese king. He married a Portuguese woman of the lesser nobility, Felipa Perestrello e Moniz, and his first son, Diego, was born in Lisbon in 1480. It appears that he had decided on his plan to reach Asia by sailing west sometime in the 1480s. He approached King João II of Portugal with his plan ...