[237] We know that Ferdinand bought a copy of this book in 1537; cf. Harrisse, Fernand Colomb, p. 27.
[238] Historical Collections, vol. i, no. 1,554.
[239] On the question of the connection of Columbus with his second companion, Donna Beatrix Enriquez who was of a respectable family in Cordova,—that there was a marriage tie has been claimed by Herrera, Tiraboschi, Bossi, Roselly de Lorgues, Barry, and Cadoret (Vie de Colomb, Paris, 1869, appendix); and that there was no such tie, by Napione (Patria di Colombo and Introduction to Codice Colombo-Americano), Spotorno, Navarrete, Humboldt, and Irving. Cf. Historical Magazine (August, 1867), p. 225; Revue des questions historiques (1879), xxv. 213; Angelo Sanguinetti’s Sull’origine di Ferdinando Colombo (Genoa, 1876), p. 55; Giuseppe Antonio Dondero’s L’onestá di Cristoforo Colombo (Genoa, 1877), p. 213; Harrisse, Fernand Colomb, p. 2; D’Avezac, in Bulletin de la Société de Géographie (1872), p. 19. It may be noted that Ferdinand de Galardi, in dedicating his Traité politique (Leyden, 1660) to Don Pedro Colon, refers to Ferdinand Colon as “Fernando Henriquez.” (Stevens, Bibl. Geog., no. 1,147).
The inference from Columbus’ final testamentary language is certainly against the lady’s chastity. In his codicil he enjoins his son Diego to provide for the respectable maintenance of the mother of Ferdinand, “for the discharge of my conscience, for it weighs heavy on my soul.” Irving and others refer to this as the compunction of the last hours of the testator. De Lorgues tries to show that this codicil was made April 1, 1502 (though others claim that the document of this date was another will, not yet found), and only copied at Segovia, Aug. 25, 1505, and deposited in legal form with a notary at Valladolid, May 19, 1506. Columbus dying May 20,—the effect of all which is only to carry back, much to Columbus’ credit, the compunction to an earlier date. The will (1498), but not the codicil, is given in Irving, app. xxxiv. Cancellieri, in his Dissertazioni, gives it imperfectly; but it is accurately given in the Transactions of the Genoa Academy. Cf. Harrisse (Notes on Columbus) p. 160; Torre’s Scritti di Colombo; Colon en Quisqueya, Santo Domingo (1877), pp. 81, 99; Cartas y testamento, Madrid, 1880; Navarrete, Coleccion; and elsewhere.
[240] De Lorgues, on the authority of Zúñiga (Anales eclesiásticos, p. 496), says he was born Aug. 29, 1487, and not Aug. 15, 1488, as Navarrete and Humboldt had said. Harrisse (Fernand Colomb, p. 1) alleges the authority of the executor of his will for the date Aug. 15, 1488. The inscription on his supposed grave would make him born Sept. 28, 1488.
[241] Prescott (Ferdinand and Isabella, ii. 507) speaks of Ferdinand Columbus’ “experience and opportunities, combined with uncommon literary attainments.” Harrisse calculates his income from the bequest of his father, and from pensions, at about 180,000 francs of the present day. (Fernand Colomb, p. 29.)
[242] There has been close scrutiny of the publications of Europe in all tongues for the half century and more following the sketch of Guistiniani in 1516, till the publication of the earliest considerable account of Columbus in the Ulloa version of 1571, to gather some records of the growth or vicissitudes of the fame of the great discoverer, and of the interest felt by the European public in the progress of events in the New World. Harrisse’s Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima, and his Additions to the same, give us the completest record down to 1550, coupled with the Carter-Brown Catalogue for the whole period.
[243] A copy of the inscription on his tomb in Seville, with a communication by George Sumner, is printed in Major’s Select Letters of Columbus, p. lxxxi.
[244] Cf. Edwards, Memoirs of Libraries, and a Memoir of Ferdinand, by Eustaquio Fernandez de Navarrete, in Colec. de doc. inéd., vol. xvi. A fac-simile of the first page of the manuscript catalogue of the books, made by Ferdinand himself, is given in Harrisse’s D. Fernando Colon, of which the annexed is the heading:—
