The commission had no connection with the celebrated University of Salamanca, but was under the guidance of the prior of Prado. Through the influence of these men the Government appointed a junta or commission of ecclesiastics that met at Salamanca late in 1486 or early in 1487, in the Dominican convent of San Esteban to investigate the scheme, which they finally rejected. Marchena also obtained for him the valuable sympathy of Cardinal Gonzalez de Mendoza. Columbus himself declared that these two priests were always his faithful friends. Late in 1485 or early in 1486, Columbus appeared twice before the court to submit his plans and while the Duke of Medina Celi may have assisted him to some extent, the chief support came from the royal treasurer, Alonzo de Quintanilla, Friar Antonio de Marchena (confounded by Irving with Father Perez of La Rábida), and Diego de Deza, Bishop of Placencia. Between 14 Columbus began his relations with Doña Beatriz Enriquez de Arana, or Harana, of a good family of the city of Cordova, from which sprang his much beloved son Fernando, next to Christopher and his brother Bartholomew the most gifted of the Colombos. No blame attaches to the noblemen for declining to undertake an enterprise which only rulers of nations could properly carry out. His attempts to secure the help of the Duke of Medina Sidonia were equally unproductive of results. He lived about two years at the home of the duke and made unsuccessful endeavors to interest him in his scheme of maritime exploration. Columbus went to Spain in 1485, and probably the first assistance he obtained there was from the Duke of Medina Celi, Don Luis de la Cerda, for whom he performed some services that brought him a compensation of 3000 maravedis in May, 1487. He vainly tried to obtain the support of the King of Portugal for his scheme to discover the Far East by sailing westward, a scheme supposed to have been suggested by his brother Bartholomew, who is said to have been earning a livelihood at Lisbon by designing marine charts. His marriage about 1475 to a Portuguese lady whose name is given sometimes as Doña Felipa Moniz and sometimes as Doña Felipa Perestrella seems certain.Ĭolumbus seems to have arrived in Portugal about 1471, although 1474 is also mentioned and supported by certain indications. For the rest, the early part of Columbus’s life is interwoven with incidents, most of which are unsupported by evidence, though quite possible. The experiences and researches referred to fit in satisfactorily with the subsequent achievements of Columbus. As in the case of most of the documents relating to the life of Columbus the genuineness of the letters written in 1474 by Paolo Toscanelli, a renowned physicist of Florence, to Columbus and a member of the household of King Alfonso V of Portugal, has been attacked on the ground of the youth of Columbus, although they bears signs of authenticity.

The fragment of a treatise written by him and called by his son Fernando “The Five Habitable Zones of the Earth” shows a degree of information unusual for a sailor of his day. He also gained a wide acquaintance with works on cosmography such as Ptolemy and the “Imago Mundi” of Cardinal d’Ailly, besides entering into communication with the cosmographers of his time. Certain it is that while quite young he became a thorough and practical navigator, and later acquired a fair knowledge of astronomy. He is also supposed to have sailed as far south as the coast of Guinea before he was sixteen years of age. Columbus is said in his early days to have been a corsair, especially in the war against the Moors, themselves merciless pirates. The early age at which he began his career as a sailor is not surprising for a native of Genoa, as the Genoese were most enterprising and daring seamen. Columbus himself in a letter to King Ferdinand says that he began to navigate at the age of fourteen, though in the journal of his first voyage (no longer in existence), in 1493, he was said to have been on the sea twenty-three years, which would make him nineteen when he first became a mariner. His son Fernando, quoting from his father’s writings says that in February, 1467, he navigated the seas about “Tile” (probably Iceland). Up to his arrival in Spain (1485) only one date has been preserved.

His family was respectable, but of limited means, so that the early education of Columbus was defective. (Italian CRISTOFORO COLOMBO Spanish CRISTOVAL COLON.)īorn at Genoa, or on Genoese territory, probably 1451 died at Valladolid, Spain.

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