Colombo - Epistola Christofori Colom

Columbus's first excited letter home goes on sale
By Nigel Reynolds, Arts Correspondent
(Filed: 01/06/2006)
One of the world's earliest printed documents, Christopher Columbus's account of his first voyage to discover the New World, will come up for sale in London this month with a price tag of £500,000.
The Columbus Letter, or Epistola Christofori Colom, is the explorer's remarkably humane description of his first encounters with the natives of Hispaniola and other Caribbean islands early in 1493.

He wrote it on his return voyage to Spain for his sponsors, Ferdinand and Isabella of Aragon and Castile, and it was rushed into print so that the news could be disseminated around Europe, notably to demonstrate Spain's expansionist superiority over Portugal.
The document for sale, which runs to eight pages, is the first version printed in Latin on the orders of Pope Alexander VI. It was printed in Rome on April 29, 1493, six weeks after Columbus had landed to a hero's welcome in Palos, Spain.
Peter Harrington Antiquarian Books, which will offer the letter at the Antiquarian Book Fair in London starting next Thursday, said yesterday that it was perhaps the first known example of "a papal press release".
Adam Douglas, of Peter Harringtons, said that soon after, Alexander VI, a Spaniard who supported the sovereigns of Castile and Aragon, issued two papal bulls specifying Spanish rights, based on Columbus's discoveries, to all lands west of a line 100 leagues west of the Azores.
Probably no more than 500 copies of the letter were printed in Rome and only a handful survive. Mr Douglas predicted strong American interest in the sale.
"For any collector of American history, this is the number one item you want," he said.
Columbus's intended destinations were China and Japan. The islands and the people that he discovered in the Caribbean, which he at first placed in "the Indian sea", delighted him. He noted that there was an abundance of gold and spices.
He wrote: "All these islands are very beautiful and distinguished by various qualities; they are accessible and full of a great variety of trees stretching up to the stars.
"In the one which was called Hispana. . . there are great and beautiful mountains, vast fields, groves, fertile plains, very suitable for planting and cultivating and for the building of houses. On this island, indeed and on all the others I have seen, the inhabitants of both sexes go always naked, just as they came into the world, except some of the women, who use a covering of a leaf or some foliage, or a cotton cloth.
"When they perceive that they are safe, putting aside all fear, they are of simple manners and trustworthy and very liberal with everything they have, refusing no one who asks for anything they may possess and even themselves inviting us to ask for things. They show greater love for all others than for themselves."
Columbus also noted that the natives appeared "very ready and favourably inclined" for conversion to Christianity, as "these people practise no kind of idolatry".
He observed many canoes hewn from logs which were used for trade between islands.
"I saw some of these row-boats or canoes, which were carrying 70 or 80 rowers."
Columbus's letter also reveals his astuteness. Spanish laws prevented seizure of new territories without the approval of the inhabitants and while claiming the islands for Ferdinand and Isabella he covered himself legally.
He wrote: "I found many islands inhabited by men without number, of all which I took possession for our most fortunate king, with proclaiming heralds and flying standards, no one objecting."
The book fair, to be opened by Bob Geldof and Jerry Hall, is at Olympia from June 8-11.

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