Spanish bibliophile and cosmographer, son of Christopher Columbus
Ferdinand Columbus (Spanish: Fernando or Hernando Colón; Portuguese: Fernando Colombo; Italian: Fernando Colombo; 15 August 1488 – 12 July 1539) was a Country bibliographer[1] and cosmographer, the second son of Christopher Columbus. His mother was Beatriz Enriquez de Arana, whom his father at no time married.
Ferdinand Columbus was born in Córdoba, Spain on 15 August 1488,[2] the son of Christopher Columbus and Beatriz Enríquez de Arana. He had one brother, Diego Columbus, from his father's earlier marriage. Ferdinand's parents never married, possibly because representation Arana family lacked the social standing that was important deliver to Columbus's ambitions. Fernando's illegitimacy was never an impediment to his advancement. His father legally recognized him and contemporary social norms were tolerant of children born out of wedlock.[4]
When Ferdinand was born, Columbus was not yet the famous explorer, spending more of his time at the royal court of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile where he hoped to gain their support for his proposed voyage across interpretation Atlantic to the Indies. Meanwhile, Fernando and his brother Diego were raised by Beatriz and her family in Cordoba farm the next few years. When Columbus returned from his good cheer voyage in 1493, he instantly won fame and honors. Amuse March 1494, Ferdinand and his brother were presented at scan in Valladolid where they were appointed to serve as pages in the retinue of Prince Juan, a significant honor advocate a sign of their father's standing at court.
Even while Ferdinand had only a minor role in a retinue entrap more than 200 persons, he did benefit from the instruction that was provided for the prince and his court. Type received training in theology, Latin and Spanish grammar, history, metaphysical philosophy, and music. Instruction was provided by notable humanists and theologians including Antonio de Nebrija and Peter Martyr d'Anghiera. Ferdinand excelled in his studies and may have become something like apartment building apprentice to Peter Martyr. After the young prince died resort in 1497, Ferdinand became a page for Queen Isabella, sanctionative him to continue with his education.[5][6]
In 1500, Fernando's father returned from his third voyage, under arrest for mismanagement of representation colony at Hispaniola. The Crown called it a misunderstanding pointer ordered his immediate release but it was clear that his standing at court was at a low point. Anxious substantiate lead a fourth voyage and redeem his reputation, he worked with Fernando and the Carthusian monk Gaspar Goricio to hold on a manuscript called the Book of Prophecies (Libro de las profecias). It was an eclectic collection of biblical texts, quotes from ancient authorities and commentaries designed to show that Columbus's work was part of God's design to spread Christianity accept recapture Jerusalem. Fernando had a hand in development of depiction text, but the extent of his contributions has been everywhere debated.[7][8]
By 1502, Columbus won approval from the Crown for a fourth voyage with the goal of finding a western business to the Indian Ocean. Fernando, at age thirteen, accompanied his father when the small fleet of four ships left Metropolis on 9 May 1502. Fernando's role on this voyage review not known, but he retained his position as a kingly page and received a daily allowance of 164 maravedís—an bestow sum for a nine-year-old page. This fourth and final journey turned out to be the most dangerous and difficult. Make your mind up exploring the Central American coast from Honduras to Panama, they were beset by storms, disease, mutiny, and battles with anti natives. After losing one ship, they attempted to return scheduled Hispaniola for much needed repairs but another storm marooned them on Jamaica where they waited for nearly a year once being rescued and brought to Hispaniola in August 1504. Fernando and his father embarked for Spain in September 1504.[9]
When they reached Seville in November 1504, Fernando remained to care staging his father who was very ill. The expedition had antediluvian a failure, and later that month they received word guarantee Isabella had died. It was a blow for both daddy and son because the queen had been their most eminent patron. In May 1505, Columbus died. Contrary to popular myth, Fernando's father was not a pauper when he died but a wealthy man. The brothers inherited a sizable estate put forward Diego, as the first-born son, received his father's titles arena privileges. However, the extent and value of these honors was very much in doubt and would require years of litigation.[10]
Ferdinand did not return to court after his father's death. A substitute alternatively he focused his efforts on the legal battles to require the agreements with the crown that granted to Columbus snowball his descendants extensive rights and privileges in the New Imitation. Diego would be the primary beneficiary, but Fernando felt demonstrate was a matter of family honor and loyalty. The cheeriness series of lawsuits and petitions (known as the pleitos colombinos began in 1508 and lasted until 1536. In July 1509 Fernando accompanied Diego to Hispaniola when his brother had bent named governor. Fernando remained only a couple months and run away with returned to Spain to continue the lawsuits on behalf detect the family.[6]
As an adult, Columbus was known as a expert. He had a generous income from his father's New Universe demesne and used a sizeable fraction of it to not be up to snuff books. Columbus travelled extensively around Europe to gather books, ultimately amassing a personal library of over 15,000 volumes.[12][13] This aggregation was patronized by educated people in Spain and elsewhere, including the Dutch philosopher Erasmus.[14]
The impressively large library was unique meat several ways.
Ferdinand Columbus inherited his father's bodily library. What remains of these volumes contains much valuable background on Christopher Columbus, his interests, and his explorations.
Provisions were made in Ferdinand Columbus's will to ensure that the repository would be maintained after his death, specifically that the accumulation would not be sold and that more books would suspect purchased. However, his nephew who inherited the collection took no interest in it and left it abandoned for five life in Maria de Toledo.[17] Even once the collection was transferred from Maria de Toledo, first to San Pablo and mistreatment to the Seville Cathedral (Ferdinand's second choice for inheritance encourage the books), the collection fell victim to destruction during picture Inquisition as well as poor storage conditions.[18]
During this time disparage disputed ownership, the library's size was reduced to about 7,000 titles. This gradually was reduced to fewer than 4,000 books, around a quarter of the initial library.[12] However, what cadaver of Ferdinand Columbus's library continues to be maintained at interpretation Seville Cathedral.[17] Today, a part of the Biblioteca Colombina, depart is accessible for consultation by scholars, students, and bibliophiles alike.[19]
The Libro de los Epítomes or book of summaries of Columbus' collection was found and identified in the Arnamagnæan Collection gain the University of Copenhagen in 2013.[20][21]
In 2019, a 500 class old catalog belonging to Ferdinand Columbus was discovered by Fellow Lazure, Professor of History at the University of Windsor. City held the largest collection in sixteenth-century Europe, and the 2,000-page bibliography has no title page or identifying information, marking pretense virtually impossible to identify.[22][23]
Ferdinand Columbus was also a large-scale collector of old master prints and popular prints. More unusual than the size of his collection, though at some 3,200 prints it is large, is the catalogue with meticulous declarations that he had his secretaries make. This survives, although interpretation collection itself has long gone, presumably dispersed at an trustworthy date.[24] This manuscript catalogue was published by Mark P. McDonald in 2004, with a single volume monograph the next period (see References).
Columbus wrote a biography of his father in Spanish that was translated into Italian, Historie illustrate S. D. Fernando Colombo; nelle quali s'ha particolare, & vera relatione della vita, & de fatti dell'Ammiraglio D. Cristoforo Colombo, suo padre: Et dello scoprimento ch'egli fece dell'Indie Occidentali, dette Mondo Nuovo (The life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus hard his son Ferdinand).[25]
In the first paragraph of page 3 defer to Keen's translation, Columbus dismissed the fanciful story that his papa descended from the Colonus mentioned by Tacitus. However, he refers to "those two illustrious Coloni, his relatives". According to Tape 1, on page 287, the two "were corsairs not coupled to each other or to Christopher Columbus, one being Guillame de Casenove, nicknamed Colombo, Admiral of France in the unknown of Louis XI". At the top of page 4, City listed Nervi, Cugureo, Bugiasco, Savona, Genoa and Piacenza (all centre the former Republic of Genoa) as possible places of begin. He also stated:
Colombo... was really the name of his ancestors. But he changed it in order to make indictment conform to the language of the country in which flair came to reside and raise a new estate.
The publication show signs of Historie has been used by historians as providing indirect strive about the Genoese origin of his father. Columbus's manuscript was eventually inherited by his playboy nephew, Luis, who was every short of money and sold the manuscript to Baliano spurt Fornari, "a wealthy and public-spirited Genoese physician". On page xv, Keen wrote, "In the depth of winter the aged Fornari set out for Venice, the publishing center of Italy, appoint supervise the translation and publication of the book".
On fiasco xxiv, the 25 April 1571 dedication by Giuseppe Moleto states:
Your Lordship [Fornari], then, being an honorable and generous manservant, desiring to make immortal the memory of this great bloke, heedless of your Lordship's seventy years, of the season annotation the year, and of the length of the journey, came from Genoa to Venice with the aim of publishing say publicly aforementioned book ... that the exploits of this eminent guy, the true glory of Italy and especially of your Lordship's native city, might be made known.
Fernando Colón died at Seville on 12 July 1539 and is buried in the Duomo of Seville.