Scholar casts doubt on claims that Columbus was a Catalan
Dom
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http://medievalnews.blogspot.com/2009/10/scholar-casts-doubt-on-claims-that.html
Monday, October 26, 2009
Scholar casts doubt on claims that Columbus was a Catalan
The recent announcement that the explorer Christopher Columbus was not
an Italian, but rather came from the Kingdom of Aragon, has come under
scrutiny, with one scholar poking large holes into the thesis.
Last week, we reported that a new book by Estelle Irizarry, a
linguistics professor at Georgetown University, claims that evidence
from Columbus' own writings shows that he was likely a Catalan and may
even have been Jewish.
One of the key pieces of evidence was the explorer's used of a slash
symbol - similar to the ones used in Internet addresses - that
Columbus employed to indicate pauses in sentences.
That symbol, also known as a virgule, did not appear in texts of that
era written in Castilian nor in writings from any other country, but
only in records and letters from the Catalan-speaking areas of the
Iberian peninsula, namely present-day Catalonia and the Balearic
Islands.
Irizarry explains, "The virgules are sort of like Columbus' DNA. They
were a habit of his. Columbus was a punctuator and was one of the few
of that era."
Now, in an interview with Medievalists.net, Dr. Diana Gilliland Wright
confirms that the slash symbol was used in other places outside of
western Spain. Wright, who is an expert in Italian history in the late
Middle Ages, says, "the virgule is a very common marker for pauses in
sentences" among Venetian documents from the later half of the
fifteenth century.
Dr. Wright also casts doubt on Irizarry's belief that Columbus'
spelling inconsistencies can also be a clue to his origins. "Spelling
in the 15th century was extremely fluid," she says, "and it is normal
to find in official Venetian documents and records three different
spellings of the same name, even when it was the name of a person
known to the writer of the document. I cannot see that variation in
spelling can be used to demonstrate anything but that the writers
didn't have my spelling teacher."
Xavier Llobet
<0a1871d3-f7d6-437d...@n35g2000yqm.googlegroups.com>,
Dom <DR...@teikyopost.edu> wrote:
> Wright, who is an expert in Italian history in the late
> Middle Ages, says, "the virgule is a very common marker for pauses in
> sentences" among Venetian documents from the later half of the
> fifteenth century.
So now he is Venetian?
_x.
Dom
> In article
> <0a1871d3-f7d6-437d-9047-a509d3282...@n35g2000yqm.googlegroups.com>,
No! He is Genoese! Samuel Eliot Morison, who had absolutely no reason
to be anything but completely objective, wrote the following in
Chapter II of his book "Admiral of the Ocean Sea," pp.7-8.
"There is no mystery about the birth, family or race of Christopher
Columbus. ... There is no more reason to doubt that Christopher
Columbus was a Genoese-born Catholic Christian, steadfast in his faith
and proud of his native city, than to doubt that George Washington was
a Virginia-born Anglican of English race, proud of being an American.
"Every contemporary Spaniard or Portuguese who wrote about Columbus
and his discoveries calls him Genoese. Three contemporary Genoese
chroniclers claim him as a compatriot. Every early map on which his
nationality is recorded describes him as Genoese. Nobody in the
Admiral's lifetime, or for three centuries after, had any doubt about
his birthplace.
"If, however, you suppose that these facts would settle the matter,
you fortunately know little of the so-called 'literature' on the
'Columbus Question.' By presenting farfetched hypotheses and sly
innuendos as facts, by attacking documents of proven authenticity as
false, by fabricating others (such as the famous Pontevedra
documents), and drawing unwarranted deductions from things that
Columbus said or did, he has been presented as Castilian, Catalan,
Corsican, Majorcan, Portuguese, French, German, English, Greek, and
Armenian."
Morison noted that many existing legal documents demonstrate the
Genoese origin of Columbus, his father Domenico, and his brothers
Bartolomeo and Giacomo (Diego). These documents, written in Latin by
notaries, were legally valid in Genoese courts. When notaries died,
their documents were turned over to the archives of the Republic of
Genoa. The documents, uncovered in the 19th century when Italian
historians examined the Genoese archives, form part of the "Raccolta
Colombiana". On page 14, Morison wrote:
"Besides these documents from which we may glean facts about
Christopher's early life, there are others which identify the
Discoverer as the son of Domenico the wool weaver, beyond the
possibility of doubt. For instance, Domenico had a brother Antonio,
like him a respectable member of the lower middle class in Genoa.
Antonio had three sons: Matteo, Amigeto and Giovanni, who was
generally known as Giannetto (the Genoese equivalent of 'Johnny').
Giannetto, like Christopher, gave up a humdrum occupation to follow
the sea. In 1496 the three brothers met in a notary's office at Genoa
and agreed that Johnny should go to Spain and seek out his first
cousin 'Don Cristoforo de Colombo, Admiral of the King of Spain,' each
contributing one third of the traveling expenses. This quest for a job
was highly successful. The Admiral gave Johnny command of a caravel on
the Third Voyage to America, and entrusted him with confidential
matters as well."
Xavier Llobet
<9b1dc127-2a7d-427f...@m38g2000yqd.googlegroups.com>,
Dom <DR...@teikyopost.edu> wrote:
> On Nov 2, 5:24�pm, Xavier Llobet <Xavier.Lloo...@citycable.ch> wrote:
> > In article
> > <0a1871d3-f7d6-437d-9047-a509d3282...@n35g2000yqm.googlegroups.com>,
> >
> > �Dom <DR...@teikyopost.edu> wrote:
> > > Wright, who is an expert in Italian history in the late
> > > Middle Ages, says, "the virgule is a very common marker for pauses in
> > > sentences" among Venetian documents from the later half of the
> > > fifteenth century.
> >
> > So now he is Venetian?
>
> No! He is Genoese!
The information you provided that some features of Columbus writing are
found, other than in Catalan documents, in Venetian ones, does NOT
support the Genoese option.
As stated, this information implies that the alternative to him being
Catalan is being Venetian :-)
_x.
--
Only one "o" in my e-mail address
Dom
> In article
> <9b1dc127-2a7d-427f-8644-50fdfb494...@m38g2000yqd.googlegroups.com>,
According to Wright, <<"the virgule is a very common marker for pauses
in sentences" among Venetian documents from the later half of the of
the fifteenth century.>>
This does not exclude the use by others, nor does it indicate how
Columbus picked up this usage. Prior analyses of Columbus' writings
concluded that he wrote in a version of Castilian that was common
along the Portuguese border. Moreover, nothing can be concluded about
his national origin based on his writings. I am sure that if one
examined the writings of Giuseppe Garibaldi, who became fluent in
Poutuguese and Spanish during his 14 years in South America, "one
could not exclude" that he was Catalan, Portuguese, Galician,
Corsican, or whatever.
Xavier Llobet
<924761ce-dd92-4888...@m26g2000yqb.googlegroups.com>,
Dom <DR...@teikyopost.edu> wrote:
> On Nov 3, 3:24�am, Xavier Llobet <Xavier.Lloo...@epfl.ch> wrote:
> > In article
> > <9b1dc127-2a7d-427f-8644-50fdfb494...@m38g2000yqd.googlegroups.com>,
> >
> > �Dom <DR...@teikyopost.edu> wrote:
> > > On Nov 2, 5:24�pm, Xavier Llobet <Xavier.Lloo...@citycable.ch> wrote:
> > > > In article
> > > > <0a1871d3-f7d6-437d-9047-a509d3282...@n35g2000yqm.googlegroups.com>,
> >
> > > > �Dom <DR...@teikyopost.edu> wrote:
> > > > > Wright, who is an expert in Italian history in the late
> > > > > Middle Ages, says, "the virgule is a very common marker for pauses in
> > > > > sentences" among Venetian documents from the later half of the
> > > > > fifteenth century.
> >
> > > > So now he is Venetian?
> >
> > > No! He is Genoese!
> >
> > The information you provided that some features of Columbus writing are
> > found, other than in Catalan documents, in Venetian ones, does NOT
> > support the Genoese option.
> >
> > As stated, this information implies that the alternative to him being
> > Catalan is being Venetian :-)
>
> According to Wright, <<"the virgule is a very common marker for pauses
> in sentences" among Venetian documents from the later half of the of
> the fifteenth century.>>
>
> This does not exclude the use by others
Of course, "this does not exclude the use [of virgule] by swahili
writers". And?
> Moreover, nothing can be concluded about
> his national origin based on his writings.
Some people seem to think otherwise.
> I am sure that if one
> examined the writings of Giuseppe Garibaldi, who became fluent in
> Poutuguese and Spanish during his 14 years in South America, "one
> could not exclude" that he was Catalan, Portuguese, Galician,
> Corsican, or whatever.
You are sure...
Dom
People have believed, and continue to believe, all sorts of flimflam
about Columbus.
Xavier Llobet
<7d988205-d1b0-451c...@b15g2000yqd.googlegroups.com>,
Dom <DR...@teikyopost.edu> wrote:
> People have believed, and continue to believe, all sorts of flimflam
> about Columbus.
You are right, on that one.
_x.