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© Merrill, Nov. de 1994

Charles J. Merrill

Mount Saint Mary's College,
Emmitsburg, MD

(Study presented in the V Catalan Symposium (nov.1994). Essays in Honor of Josep M. Solà-Solé [New York: Peter Lang, 1996])

Why should anything written by the Genoeseexplorer Christopher Columbus be counted as Catalan literature?Yes, many people consider Columbus not to have been Genoese at all,but a Catalonian. And if he were, then the letter he wrote in 1493to Ferdinand and Isabella on his way back from the Indies, called"the most important printed document of universal history [1]," isoneof the most significant things written by anyone of his nation.This study addresses not only the claim that since Columbus wasCatalan, anything he wrote belongs to the literature of Catalonia;it also addresses why the 1493 letter provides both external andinternal evidence that its author was not from Genoa —or Corsica,Greece, Croatia, Norway, Galicia, or Castile, as has also beenclaimed— but from somewhere in the Països Catalans.
     First it may be useful to give a very brief overview of the questionof Columbus's nationality [2] . It is only fairto say that theupholders of the official thesis of Columbus's origins insist thattherereally is no such question, as only dilettantes and lunatics haveclaimed that the Admiral was anything but a Genoese Italian. Bethat as it may, there is a long history of oral traditions, booksand articles that reject the Genoese and Italian account [3].Briefly,here are the reasons that have been given for doing so. First ofall, Columbus never said, in any of his many letters and otherwritings that are extant, that he was Genoese. (The onedocument inwhich he does speak of Genoa "en ella nací e de ellasalí" is a forgery.) He was not called Genoese in anydocument issued by the chanceries of Castile or Aragon, nor do KingFerdinand or Queen Isabella ever call him Genoese. Neither does theletter of naturalization by which his brother Diego is made aCastilian say anything about Genoa, whereas all the other Castilianletters of naturalization that survive do say from where the personbeing naturalized is. Nor did the Genoese ambassadors who werepresent in 1493 in Barcelona when he was received by the Iberianmonarchs refer to him as a fellow citizen when they wrote to Genoa.Furthermore, early authors who do say Columbus was Genoese seem tobe very hesitant about doing so and never claim to have heard itfrom him and are never sure about any particulars of his earlylife.
     But, object the Genoverians, none of that matters.Authentic documents show that a Cristoforo Colombo was born inGenoa in 1451 and left there in the 1470s. Other documents attestto the fact that a man who came to be called CristóbalColón came to Castile in 1485 after having lived for someyears in Portugal. He must have been the same man as the Colomboborn in Genoa.
But the differences between Colón andColombo seem to be too great to be explained away to those whodoubt that Columbus was Italian. To sum up these differences,Colombo was born in 1451, Colón in 1436 or 1446; Colombowas uneducated, Colón read and wrote in such a way andabout such things as to suggest that he had been schooled foryears; Colombo was a wool-weaver and cheese merchant, Colónwas a nobleman; Colombo can have had no great experience as amariner and a ship's captain, Colón had years of experienceas both; Colombo spoke the Genoese dialect of Italian,Colón did not, or any other kind of Italian; the Genoesewool- weaver's name was Colombo, the Admiral of the Indies nevercalled himself Colombo and was never called Colombo by anyone whoknew him.
     So if he was not a Genoese, why believe that he wasCatalan? To begin with, the original form of Columbus's surname wasneither Colombo nor Colón, but Colom. And Colom was aCatalan name. If it had been Colombo, it would have stayed Colomboin Castile. Colomo and Colón, the two forms the name hastaken there, are simply phonetic castilianizations of Colom.Columbus did not insist on being identified as a Catalan becausehis family had fought against King John the Faithless in the1462-1472 civil war waged by the Generalitat de Catalunya againstthe King of Aragon, and he wanted a favor of John's son Ferdinand.Many of his greatest supporters and associates —Lluís deSantàngel, Joan de Coloma, Joana de la Torre, Pere Margarit,Bernat Boyl, Miquel Ballester, Antoni de Torres— were Catalans (orValencians). His coat-of-arms, which he had before the firstvoyage, was Catalan. The language underlying his acquired Castilianwas Catalan. Many of the names, such as Montserrat, that he gave toplaces in the Indies were Catalan. The admiral of the French fleetwith whom he fought against the Genoese in 1476, Guillem deCasanova Colom, was Catalan, and probably a relative. His libraryincluded many Catalan books. His son Fernando, who found norelatives in Italy, seemed at one point to be looking for them inCatalonia, but he was forbidden to continue by the King of Castile.The lands of the New World had been annexed to the Crown ofCastile, and Catalans were even prohibited from going there. Theport that enjoyed a monopoly of trade with the Indies wasCastilian. Consequently, the Castilian administration had aninterest in concealing the Catalan nationality of the man who wasresponsible for finding the Indies for them. It concealed hisnationality with great success, by means of censorship ofchronicles, suppression of documents, and legal actions against hisfamily.
Before showing how the "Letter from the Indies"supports the thesis of Columbus's Catalan nationality, it isimportant to understand what that letter was. There were three ofthem sent by Columbus from Lisbon to Barcelona in March 1493 givingan account of his first voyage of discovery: one to Ferdinand'sescrivà de ració, Lluís deSantàngel;a nearly identical one to Gabriel Sánchez, or Sanxis, thetreasurer general of the Crown of Aragon; and a similar one toFerdinand and Isabella themselves. The letter to Santàngelwas printed in Barcelona in April 1493, by the press of Pere Posa,and again in Valladolid in 1497 [4]. The Sánchez letter wastranslated into Latin and printed by Stephanus Plannck in Rome inMay 1493; and other editions of the Latin translation werepublished that same year in Antwerp, Basle, and Paris (threeeditions). Also from 1493 are no fewer than five editions of averse translation into Italian by Giulio Dati, in which the Admiralis called "Colombo" in Italian for the first time [5] .(In theLatinepigram appended to the Coscó translation he was called"Columbus" for the first time). In 1497 the German translationappeared in Strasbourg. In all there are seventeen early editionsof the various versions of the letters to Sant&agrae;ngel andSánchez. Antonio Rumeu de Armas says of the diffusion of theletter throughout Europe that "no hay acontecimiento comparableen propagación a todo lo largo del Renacimiento [6]."
     As for the letter written directly to the Catholic monarchs, it wasnot known at all until 1985, when the so-called Librocopiador turned up in a bookstore in Tarragona. Rumeu de Armas,who editedthe Libro copiador in 1988, calls attention to the symbolicandreal importance of this letter to Ferdinand and Isabella, naming it"the baptismal certificate of America" and the "authentic pearlamong all the Columbine documents" [7].
     The nine manuscriptletters of Columbus in the Libro copiador are mid-sixteenthcentury copies. The original of the "Carta a los Reyes" waspresumably once in the royal archives of Aragon or Castile, butit has disappeared. Columbus kept a copy of the letter he sent fromLisbon, and in 1500 he sent a second transcription to the monarchs.Both of these documents have also disappeared, and the originals ofthe letters to Santàngel and Sánchez have alsodisappeared[8].
     Was there a Catalan version of the letter? Nonesurvives, but there must have been one. The 1497 German edition was"getüeschet vss der katilonischen zungen vnd vss dem latin,"translated from the Catalan language and from Latin [9].And in aregister of Columbus's son's own library, the Colombina, appearsthe entry, "Letra enviada al escribano de ración. 1493. encatalán [10]." The letter this entry refers to is not in theColombina,however. No one knows where it is; it has suffered the fate of somany documents related to Columbus, namely of having disappearedwithout a trace. Caius Parellada believes that this Catalan lettermust have belonged to Fernando's father because its register entrylacks the details of purchase that mark items Fernando himselfacquired. He points out that next to the registration of theother two copies of the letter in Fernando's library, theCoscó translation and the Dati versification, is theannotation, "costó un cuatrín." So the only letterFernando inherited from his father was this "letra al escribano deración, en catalan[11]."
     To believe that the original letterwas written in Catalan does not seem farfetched in view of the factthat its two private recipients, Santàngel andSánchez, were Catalan speakers and that its first translatoralso spoke Catalan. Leandre de Coscó was from the Aragonesebranch of the Coscó family that originated in a town inNoguera, but he had lived in Barcelona for a long time and wasdoubtless in touch with the numerous Catalan Coscós in thatcity [12]. His translation of the Sánchez letter abhispanoidiomate into Latin was printed in Rome in the spring of 1493evenbefore Columbus arrived in Barcelona from Lisbon. A comparison ofit to the printed version of the Santàngel letter, which mayhave also been a translation from one hispano idiomate intoanother, that was published in Barcelona that same spring, showsseveral features that cast light on its author's nationality [13].
     First of all, the Sánchez-Coscó version has thenew lands foundby Columbus claimed not "for your Highnesses" ("por sus Altezas")but"for our most happy king" ("pro felicissimo rege nostro"), that is,forthe count of Barcelona and king of Aragon alone (Sánchez220;Santàngel 308). Then where the Santàngel letter tellsthe monarchsthatthey can dispose of the new lands "as completely as of the kingdomsofCastile" ("tan complidamente como de los reinos de Castilla")(224), theSánchez-Coscó letter omits this phrase. In theSantàngel versiontheIndians are said to be inclined "to the love and service of yourHighnes-ses and of all the Castilian nation" ("al amor y cervicio de SusAltezasy de toda la nación castellana") (222); in theSánchez letter theIndiansare favorably inclined "to the King and Queen our Princes, and toall thenations of Spain" ("erga Regem, Reginam Principes nostros, etuniversasgentes Hispaniae") (314). And one more possibly telling differenceis thefact that the Sánchez letter has Columbus saying"thirty-three daysafterI set out from Cádiz I arrived in the Indic Sea" (309),whereas hewroteto Santángel "in thirty-three days I passed to the Indies"(220).Severalproponents of the Catalan thesis, notably Teresa Baqué andJordiBilbeny, see the version in the Sánchez letter as evidencethat thefirstvoyage left from Catalonia, specifically from Pals in theAmpurdà,stopping or passing Cádiz, which of course is east of Palos,on thewayto the Indic Sea [14].
     The Roman edition of the Sánchez letter concludes withanepigram by "R.L. de Corbaria, bishop of Montipalussi, to theundefeatedKing of the Spain" (324). This prelate has been identified byFrancescAlbardané as another Catalan, Ramon Lluís de Corbera,bishop ofMontepoloso in the Basilicata, the son of Joan de Corbera, a knightofBarcelona [15].Albardané believes that Sánchez,Santàngel, Coscó andCorbera were part of a Catalan attempt to forestall the completeCastilianization of the enterprise of the Indies [16].The edition inBarcelonaby Pere Posa of the Santàngel letter was also part of thisattempt,thoughit was more subject to censorship and pro-Castilian editing thanthetranslation Coscó made and printed in Rome. The monarchsthemselveshad almost managed to keep Columbus's arrival in Barcelona asecret.The official dietaris of the city and of the Generalitat donotevenmention his stay there in the spring of 1493. The copy of theletteraddressed to them was hidden until 1985, and of course the originalletters were destroyed or more definitively misplaced. The twoprivateletters that were printed, censored or not, at least establishedColumbusas the discoverer of the Indies, even if they did not succeed ingivingCatalonia-Aragon its full share in their exploitation andcolonization.
     There is one thing in the two private letters that relatesexplicitlyto Catalonia. Columbus writes that the circumference of the islandhenamed Española is more than "all Spain from Colonia(orCologna) tofontem rabidum," (316) as the Latin translation of theSánchezletter hasit, "máás que la España toda desdeColunia por costa de mar fastaFuenterabía en Viscay," according to the Santàngelletter (223).(Theletter to the monarchs says simply, "Esta otra Española esmayor encerco que toda la España" [230]).Colonia/Colunia/Cologna has beeninterpreted as Catalonia by some translators and editors. ConsueloVarela claims in her edition that it means "La Coruña"(230),whichisstrange since the comparison is to "toda la España." HenryHarrissereadit as Cotlliure, however, surely the correct reading,FuenterrabíaandCotlliure being the towns at either extremity of the Spanishcoast[17].CaiusParellada points out that there was a famous "Viatge deCircumval.lació"from Fuenterrabía to Cotlliure in 1476, when aFranco-Portuguesefleetmet King Afonso V of Portugal in Lisbon and took him to France. Thecommander of that fleet was none other than an admiral named Colom,the same one, Parellada and others have argued, to whom Columbuswasrelated, and with whom he fought in the battle of Cape St. VincentinAugust 1476 against the Genoese. So if Columbus made this voyagefrom Fuenterrabía to Cotlliure with his relative seventeenyearsearlier,it is not strange that he should have used it as a basis ofcomparison inhis letters to Santàngel and Sánchez[18].Thisreinforces theassociation ofColumbus with the "Caseneuve-Coulon" who fought the Genoese, andis another indication that he was not Italian but Catalan.
     In 1892 José Asencio wrote that rumors had circulatedthe yearbefore according to which in "a village of the Principality ofCatalonia"the original of the Santàngel letter had been found [19].If ithad beenfound,it was lost or hidden again. But the appearance of the letter totheMonarchs in 1985 in the bookshop of the Cathedral of Tarragona wasalmost as remarkable. The bookseller (José del Río)would notrevealwhere he had obtained the Libro copiador, but Antonio RumeudeArmassays that it had supposedly been in a private Majorcan library alltheseyears[20]. At any rate, it is noteworthy for our purposes thatthisthird formof the letter has Catalan connections, too. As for the language of the letters, it is hard to make any firmdeductions about the language of the author since the originalmanuscripts are not available. But if the original were in Catalan, orif theoriginal Castilian were written by a man whose first language wasCatalan, the Catalan substratum ought to be detectable. And thatsubstratum is undeniably there. Even Cesare de Lollis thought thattheremust have been an editio princeps in Catalan that wouldaccount forthemany catalanisms in the Barcelona edition [21].Pere Catalài Roca,JosepMaria Castellnou, Caius Parellada, and Nito Verdera have alsopublishedstudies on the question of Columbus's language [22].There is oneglaring and transcendental Catalanism that appears in the survivingversions ofboth the Sánchez and the Santángel letters; theirauthor isidentified asColom. At the end of the Santángel letter we read"Esta carta envioColom al escribano de racion de las islas halladas[23]."But thatletter wasedited in Barcelona, it may be objected, and the Catalan printermayhave been responsible for changing the original form of the name toColom. But then one finds at the beginning of the Latin translationof theSánchez letter the words "Epistola Christophori Colom," andat theconclusion, by way of signature, "Christophorus Colom, Oceanaeclassispraefectus" (308, 322). This Colom (published in Italy) is not anabbreviation, and it is the form that appears in all printedversions of theLatin letter, even in the ones where emendations to the firstedition weremade, such as changing "Rafael" to "Gabriel" Sánchez, andchangingone of the clauses to read that the new found lands were claimed"forour King and Queen." Not only is there absolutely noreference toitsauthor being Italian, the Italian form of his name has beensedulouslyavoided. It seems likely that Coscó was faithfully andcarefullytranscribing the form of the surname that he considered mostauthentic, notlatinizing it to Columbus, as R. L. de Corbaria did in the appendedepigram, or to Colonus, as Pedro Mártir de Angleríaalways did, butleaving it in its original form. And that original form was theCatalanColom. And that fact, along with the other evidences alludedtoabove,makes it legitimate to claim that the "Carta de las Indias" was notonlythe first thing written by a European about the New World, not only"themost important printed document of universal history," but also oneofthe most significant and valuable works in the history of Catalanletters.

1. Carlos Sanz, La carta de Colón (Madrid: 1956)11.

2. For a bibliography of books and articles onthe Catalan theoryof Columbus's origins, see Josep M. Solà-Solé, "ACatalan Columbus: A Bibliography," The Catalan Contexts ofColumbus: Proceedings of the Third Catalan Syposium, ed. JosepM.Solà-Solé (New York: PeterLang, 1994) 161-178.

3. For a longer summary of these arguments, seeCharles J.Merrill,"Why Question the Traditional Version of Columbus' Origins?" TheCatalan Contexts of Columbus 137-150.

4. Sebastian Plannck printed it again thatyear, and a thirdprinting was made on the press of Eucharius Argenteus (DemetrioRamos, La primera noticia de América, [Valladolid:Publicaciones de la Casa-Museo de Colón y seminarioAmericanista de la Universidad, 1986]).

5. Five editions according to Sanz, La cartadeColón 12;Gil says there were three (Cristóbal Colón, Textosydocumentos completos: Nuevas cartas, ed. Consuelo Varela andJuanGil [Madrid: Alianza, 1992] 219).

6. Libro copiador de CristóbalColón.:Correspondencia inédita con los Reyes Católicos sobrelos viajes a América (Madrid: Ministerio de Cultura) 1:51.

7. El libro copiador I: 37. The best andmost accessibleeditionof the letter to the Monarchs is in Textos y documentoscompletos:Nuevas cartas 273-285.

8. As has the letter written by MartínAlonso Pinzón fromBayona in Galicia (La primera noticia de América 6).

9. Sanz XII: 13.

10. Caius Parellada i Cardellach,Cristòfor Colom iCatalunya: Unarelació indefugible (Barcelona: La Llar del Llibre,1992)20.

11. Caius Parellada i Cardellach, Colomvenç Colombo(Barcelona:1986) 211-21.

12. Francesc Albardané i Llorens,"Seguint la pista deLeandre deCoscó," Butlletí del Centre d'EstudisColombins 5-6: 20.

13. I will refer to the edition of theSánchez-Coscóletter published as Epistola Christophori Colom in NavarreteI:308-325, and to the Pere Posa Barcelona printing of theSantàngel letter published in CristóbalColón,Textos y documentos completos: Nuevas cartas 219-235.

14. Jordi Bilbeny, "Christopher Columbus andthe Lie of Palos deMoguer," The Catalan Contexts of Columbus 95-108.

15. "Seguint la pista de Leandre deCoscó" 20.

16. Albardané, "Divulgació deldescobriment des deBarcelona," Butlletí del Centre d'Estudis Colombins9: 20.

17. Christophe Colomb, son origine, sa vie, sesvoyages, safamille es ses descendents (Paris, 1884) 420; cited in Parrellada,Colom venç Colombo 203.

18. Colom venç Colombo 200-203.

19. Lluís Ulloa, Noves proves de lacatalanitat deColom:Les grans falsetats de la tesi genovesa (Paris: Maisonneuve,1927)205.

20. El libro copiador I: 19.

21. Colom venç Colombo 206.

22. Català i Roca, "Sobre lositalianismos observados enla carta deColón a Santángel," Studi Colombiani (Genova,1951)II: 283-290;Castellnou, Cristòfor Colom, català (com parlavaCristòfor Colom)(Barcelona, La Llar del Llibre, 1989); Parellada, ColomvençColombo118-181, 204-214; Cristòfor Colom i Catalunya 17-28;NitoVerdera,Cristóbal Colón, catalanoparlante (Eivissa:EditorialMediterrània-Eivissa, 1994).

23. Colom venç Colombo 211.