Footnote 400: "A Gutierrez vuestro solicitador, ruego à Dios que nunca le falte papel, porque escribe mas que Tolomeo y que Colon, el que halló las Indias." Rivadeneyra, Curiosidades bibliográficas, p. 59, apud Harrisse, Christophe Colomb, tom. i. p. 1.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 401: Harrisse, loc. cit., in 1884, gives the number at sixty-four.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 402: Sometimes from a slip of memory or carelessness of phrasing, on Columbus's part, sometimes from our lacking the clue, sometimes from an error in numerals, common enough at all times.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 403: "Ora, l' Ammiraglio avendo cognizione delle dette scienze, cominciò ad attendere al mare, e a fare alcuni viaggi in levante e in ponente; de' quali, e di molte altre cose di quei primi dì io non ho piena notizia; perciocchè egli venne a morte a tempo che io non aveva tanto ardire, o pratica, per la riverenza filiale, che io ardissi di richiederlo di cotali cose; o, per parlare più veramente, allora mi ritrovava io, come giovane, molto lontano da cotal pensiero." Vita dell' Ammiraglio, cap. iv.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 404: Twenty years ago M. Harrisse published in Spanish and French a critical essay maintaining that the Vita dell' Ammiraglio was not written by Ferdinand Columbus, but probably by the famous scholar Perez de Oliva, professor in the university of Salamanca, who died in 1530 (D. Fernando Colon, historiador de su padre, Seville, 1871; Fernand Colomb: sa vie, ses œuvres, Paris, 1872). The Spanish manuscript of the book had quite a career. As already observed, it is clear that Las Casas used it, probably between 1552 and 1561. From Ferdinand's nephew, Luis Columbus, it seems to have passed in 1568 into the hands of Baliano di Fornari, a prominent citizen of Genoa, who sent it to Venice with the intention of having it edited and published with Latin and Italian versions. All that ever appeared, however, was the Italian version made by Ulloa and published in 1571. Harrisse supposes that the Spanish manuscript, written by Oliva, was taken to Genoa by some adventurer and palmed off upon Baliano di Fornari as the work of Ferdinand Columbus. But inasmuch as Harrisse also supposes that Oliva probably wrote the book (about 1525) at Seville, under Ferdinand's eyes and with documents furnished by him, it becomes a question, in such case, how far was Oliva anything more than an amanuensis to Ferdinand? and there seems really to be precious little wool after so much loud crying. If the manuscript was actually written "sous les yeux de Fernand et avec documents fournis par lui," most of the arguments alleged to prove that it could not have emanated from the son of Columbus fall to the ground. It becomes simply a question whether Ulloa may have here and there tampered with the text, or made additions of his own. To some extent he seems to have done so, but wherever the Italian version is corroborated by the Spanish extracts in Las Casas, we are on solid ground, for Las Casas died five years before the Italian version was published. M. Harrisse does not seem as yet to have convinced many scholars. His arguments have been justly, if somewhat severely, characterized by my old friend, the lamented Henry Stevens (Historical Collections, London, 1881, vol. i. No. 1379), and have been elaborately refuted by M. d'Avezac, Le livre de Ferdinand Colomb: revue critique des allegations proposées contre son authenticité, Paris, 1873; and by Prospero Peragallo, L' autenticità delle Historie di Fernando Colombo, Genoa, 1884. See also Fabié, Vida de Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, Madrid, 1869, tom. i. pp. 360-372.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 405: See Harrisse, Christophe Colomb, Paris, 1884, 2 vols., a work of immense research, absolutely indispensable to every student of the subject, though here and there somewhat over-ingenious and hypercritical, and in general unduly biased by the author's private crotchet about the work of Ferdinand.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 406: One of the most radical of these reconstructions may be found in the essay by M. d'Avezac, "Canevas chronologique de la vie de Christophe Colomb," in Bulletin de la Société de Géographie, Paris, 1872, 6e série, tom. iv. pp. 5-59.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 407: Washington Irving's Life of Columbus, says Harrisse, "is a history written with judgment and impartiality, which leaves far behind it all descriptions of the discovery of the New World published before or since." Christophe Colomb, tom. i. p. 136. Irving was the first to make use of the superb work of Navarrete, Coleccion de los viages y descubrimientos que hicieron por mar los Españoles desde fines del siglo XV., Madrid, 1825-37, 5 vols. 4to. Next followed Alexander von Humboldt, with his Examen critique de l'histoire de la géographie de Nouveau Continent, Paris, 1836-39, 5 vols. 8vo. This monument of gigantic erudition (which, unfortunately, was never completed) will always remain indispensable to the historian.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 408: Harrisse, op. cit. tom. i. p. 196.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 409: "In senectute bona, de edad de setenta años poco mas o menos." Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, tom. i. p. 334.[Back to Main Text]