These lines are thus paraphrased by M. Harrisse:—
To the Invincible King of the Spains:
Less wide the world than the renown of Spain,
To swell her triumphs no new lands remain.
Rejoice, Iberia! see thy fame increased!
Another world Columbus from the East
And the mid-ocean summons to thy sway!
Give thanks to him—but loftier homage pay
To God Supreme, who gives its realms to thee!
Greatest of monarchs, first of servants be!
Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima, p. 13.
The following is a literal version:—"Already there is no land to be added to the triumphs of Spain, and the earth was too small for such great deeds. Now a far country under the eastern waves has been discovered, and will be an addition to thy titles, O great Bætica! wherefore thanks are due to the illustrious discover Columbus; but greater thanks to the supreme God, who is making ready new realms to be conquered for thee and for Himself, and vouchsafes to thee to be at once strong and pious." It will be observed that nothing is said about "another world."
An elaborate account of these earliest and excessively rare editions is given by M. Harrisse, loc. cit.[Back to Main Text]
Footnote 535: Or, as Mr. Major carelessly puts it, "the astounding news of the discovery of a new world." (Select Letters of Columbus, p. vi.) Mr. Major knows very well that no such "news" was possible for many a year after 1493; his remark is, of course, a mere slip of the pen, but if we are ever going to straighten out the tangle of misconceptions with which this subject is commonly surrounded, we must be careful in our choice of words.—As a fair specimen, of the chap-book style of Dati's stanzas, we may cite the fourteenth:—
Hor vo tornar almio primo tractato
dellisole trovate incognite a te
in q̃sto anno presente q̃sto e stato
nel millequatrocento novātatre,
uno che xp̃ofan colōbo chiamato,
che e stato in corte der prefecto Re
ha molte volte questa stimolato,
el Re ch'cerchi acrescere il suo stato.
M. Harrisse gives the following version:—
Back to my theme, O Listener, turn with me
And hear of islands all unknown to thee!
Islands whereof the grand discovery
Chanced in this year of fourteen ninety-three.
One Christopher Colombo, whose resort
Was ever in the King Fernando's court,
Bent himself still to rouse and stimulate
The King to swell the borders of his State.
Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima, p. 29.
The entire poem of sixty-eight stanzas is given in Major, op. cit. pp. lxxiii.-xc. It was published at Florence, Oct. 26, 1493, and was called "the story of the discovery [not of a new world, but] of the new Indian islands of Canary!" (Storia della inventione delle nuove isole dicanaria indiane.)[Back to Main Text]