Note IV-26 — Chapter IV · COLUMBUS ON THE COASTS OF HONDURAS, NICARAGUA, AND COSTA RICA. 1502-1506.
Reading edition
I have remarked at some length on Fernando Colon's life of his father, and on the letters of the admiral, and other documents in Navarrete, Salvá and Baranda, Pacheco and Cárdenas, and Mendoza, and elsewhere. The standard historians, Las Casas, Oviedo, Peter Martyr, Gomara, and Herrera, I will pass for the present, only remarking that each in his own way tells the story of the admiral, and all must be carefully considered in a study of his life and achievements. Other early or important authorities are Zorzi, Paesi Nouamente retrouati, Vicentia, 1507; Ruchamer, Newe unbekanthe landte, Nuremberg, 1508; Stamler, Dyalogvs, Augsburg, 1508; Marineo, Obra Compuesta de las Cosas Memorables e Claros Varones de España, Alcala, 1530; Geraldini, Itinerarivm ad Regiones svb Æqvinoctiali, Rome, 1631; Grynævs, Novvs Orbis Regionvm ac Insularvm veteribvs incognitarvm, Basle, 1532; Maffei, Historiarum indicarum, Florence, 1588; Gambaræ, De navigatione Christophori Columbi, Rome, 1585; Charlevoix, Histoire de l'Isle-Espagnole, Paris, 1730; Cladera, Investigaciones historicas, Madrid, 1794; Bossi, Vita di Colombo, Milan, 1818. Die vierdte Reise so vollenbracht hat Christoffel Columb, at page 6 of Löw, Meer oder Seehanen Buch, Cologne, 1598, should be read in reference with the maps, to be appreciated. See also Ramusio, Viaggi, iii. 16-18 and 98-9; Benzoni, Hist. Mondo Nvovo, 27-30; Galvano's Discov., 100-1; Humboldt, Exam. Crit., passim; Major's Select Letters of Columbus, Hakluyt Soc., London, 1847; Castellanos, Elegías de Varones ilustres de Indias, 42-3; Acosta, Compend. Hist Nueva Granada, 1-17; Repertorio Americano, iii. 186-225; Vetancvrt, Teatro Mex., 3-6 and 101-6; Lerdo de Tejada, Apuntes Hist., 77-80; Remesal, Hist. Chyapa, 162-3; Gordon's Hist. Am., i. 247-64; Lardner's Hist. Discov., ii. 16; Payno, Cronología Mex., in Soc. Mex. Geog.; Robertson's Hist. Am., i. 59-175; Corradi, Descub. de la Am., i. 6-312; Simon, Conq. tierra firme, 44-50; Mesa y Leompart, Hist. Am., i. 1-64; Torquemada, i. 20-1, and iii. 283-94; Vega, Comentarios Reales, ii. 7; Acosta, Hist. Ind., passim; Villagvtierre, Hist. Conq. Itza, 5-19; Mendieta, Hist. Ecles., 13-39; Cavanilles, Hist. España, v. 27-55 and 104-9; Nueva España, Breve Resumen, MS., i. 1-14; Maglianos, St Francis and Franciscans, 521-32; Aa, Naaukeurige Versameling, ii. and iii. passim; Holmes' Annals Am., i. 1-16; Puga, Cedulario, 4-5; Gonzalez Dávila, Teatro Ecles., i. 255-6; Burke's Europ. Set., i. 1-45; Major's Prince Henry, 347-67; Help's Span. Conq., passim; Heylyn's Cosmog., 1083; Ogilby's Am., 55-6; Ens, West- und Ost-Indischer Lustgart, 178-84 and 408-9; Campe, Hist. Descub. Am., 1-133; Poussin, De la Puissance Américaine, passim; Hist. Mag., Aug. and Sept. 1864, and Feb. 1868; Mariana, Hist. España, vi. 307 etc. and vii. 80; Muñoz, Hist. Nuevo Mundo, i. 27-312; Morelli, Fasti Novi Orbis, 11-12; Purchas, His Pilgrimes, v. 801-4; Pizarro y Orellana, Varones Ilvstres del Nvevo Mvndo, 1-53; Montanus, De Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld, 1-43; and Laet, Nov. Orb., 345-6. The first work to throw a clear light on the question of birthplace was the Della patria di Cristoforo Colombo, by Conte Napione di Coconato, Florence, 1808, a dissertation published by the Academy of Sciences, of Turin. In this and supplementary works the ability and zeal of the author are manifest. In 1853, at Rome, was issued a new edition of Napione and de Conti, entitled Patria e Biografia Del Grande Ammíraglio D. Cristóforo Colombo ... rischiarita e comprovata dai celebri scrittori Gio. Francesco Conte Napione di Coconato e Vincenzo de Conti, the latter author of Storia del Monferrato, in which appears a wealth of new information second only to the original narratives and documents themselves. The Dissertazioni epistolari bibliografiche, Rome, 1809, of Francesco Cancellieri, which Leclerc calls 'savante et fort curieuse,' should not be overlooked. John S. C. Abbott throws together a Life of Christopher Columbus, New York, 1875, in popular form, in which extracts are conspicuous, the author having made quite free with the writings of his predecessors.