Was Columbus Italian?

[Kinthalis]

He’s obviously celebrated as one, but I keep hearing from people that he wasn’t. Some say he was portuguese, others say he was a spaniard.

So what’s the straight dope? And if wasn’t Italian, then why is he celebrated as one?

[UncleBeer]

Born in Genoa in 1451. I’d say that makes him Italian. He “discovered America” under Spanish aegis after being rejected by the Portugal.

Magellan, on the other hand, was born in Portugal and after renouncing his citizenship, also sailed under Spanish aegis.

[Zabali_Clawbane]

Here is a link to the Discorvery channel’s recent coverage on this issue. It seems they are leaning more towards the idea that he was Spanish/Catalan nobility now, based on his writings etc.

@from the site

Colom," the original form of Columbus’ surname, is not an Italian name, but rather associated with Catalonia — a region in what is now Spain.

The Coloms of Catalonia were noble and educated, and some of them were mariners. By contrast, the “Colombos” of Genoa, Italy — where history says Christopher Columbus came from — are not known for their sea-going capabilities.

They did DNA tests to try to get to the truth too.

@from the site

Historians and scientists questioning Columbus’ heritage have put modern forensic techniques to work to help answer questions. Perhaps the most critical is DNA testing performed this year on bones that are believed to be those of Christopher Columbus, as well as remains from Columbus’ son (Hernando) and brother (Diego).
Annunciada Colon, Columbus’ direct descendent, handed over the key to a burial chest, disinterred from the Cathedral in Seville, Spain, that is reported to hold Columbus’ bones. But there is debate about whether Columbus’ body — which was moved repeatedly over the centuries — actually rests there.

Dr. Antonio Lorente of the University of Granada in Spain, a specialist in forensic genetics, is attempting to compare the genetic material from the three sets of remains to see if he can prove that this is Columbus.

[Zabali_Clawbane]

Adding, the program also brought up that Columbus himself mentioned in writing having got his start on the sea in the Catalan uprising with a command rank, (Don’t remember the rank he gave, but believe it was also one used by the Catalans.) which is plausible if he came from Catalan from a noble mariner family, but not so plausible if he was born in Italy to a humble merchant. It is also pointed out that his documents are in Spanish, and that it wasn’t native Castilian spanish due to errors, it was most likely Catalan.

@from the site I previously linked

None of what Columbus is known to have written is in Italian, which would seem at least a bit odd for an Italian-born-and-raised mariner.

@from the site previously linked

In addition, Columbus’ handwriting — his way of making letters — seems to have been peculiar to Catalan and looked like Catalan letters.

At the least, the case is made for a second look at the rote learning we all recieved, isn’t it?

[bonzer]

The short answer is that all the contemporary documents consistently have him being born in Genoa. There isn’t a vast number of these, but it’s about what you’d expect for someone of non-noble birth in the period.
For example, Samuel Eliot Morison’s Journals and Other Documents … (Heritage, 1963) includes - as a selection - a Genoese legal deposition from 1470 that mentions him, another longer one from 1479 and a contract from 1496 agreeing that three relatives in Genoa should go to Spain to join their now-famous cousin.

However, rather in the manner that people dispute whether Shakespeare was from Stratford and was actually Bacon, Oxford, Marlowe etc. etc., there’s long been no shortage of those who’ve sought to prove that he was Catalan, Castilian, Portuguese, Jewish, from the Canaries, etc. etc. The normall technique has been to allege that documents like these have been faked to obscure The Truth, with overly-patriotic Genoese usually being suggested as the forgers.

[Incidentally, the “Columbus house” in Genoa is a load of bollocks. IIRC, it’s just an old house that happens to be on the site of an older building that was lived in by someone in the family at some time.]

@Zabali_Clawbane

Here is a link to the Discorvery channel’s recent coverage on this issue. It seems they are leaning more towards the idea that he was Spanish/Catalan nobility now, based on his writings etc.

The version shown in Britain was strikingly thinly argued. One suspected that they’d invested in making a film about the DNA testing (which is interesting, but has little to do with whether he was from Genoa) and then when that proved inconclusive, they tried to reorient the project around his ancestry.
A brief read through of the site doesn’t inspire confidence either. For example, they quote their main expert thus:

One of the first big publishing successes was his Letter from the Indies. It was published in Rome in Latin but was said to be translated from the Spanish idiom, most likely from Catalan.

The earliest edition was actually probably that published in Castilian by Pedro Rosa in Barcelona. Nor would it be terribly surprising if this was the language Columbus wrote it in. Not only does everybody agree that he was fluent in it by 1493, the original was written to Luis de Santangel, the Queen’s Keeper of the Privy Purse at the Spanish court; Castilian was the obvious language for him to use.

[Colibri]

@bonzer

The earliest edition was actually probably that published in Castilian by Pedro Rosa in Barcelona. Nor would it be terribly surprising if this was the language Columbus wrote it in. Not only does everybody agree that he was fluent in it by 1493, the original was written to Luis de Santangel, the Queen’s Keeper of the Privy Purse at the Spanish court; Castilian was the obvious language for him to use.

Here’s more on the history of Columbus’ Letter from the Indies. Since it was written to speakers of Castilian, it would be pretty absurd for Columbus to have written it in Catalan.

Columbus biographer Samuel Eliot Morison believed that Columbus did not learn to read and write well until he emigrated from Genoa to Portugal as a young man. Morison thought that Columbus’ spelling errors in Castilian, particularly on the vowels, were due to the fact that his first written language was Portuguese.

If the fact that Columbus didn’t write to his family in Italian but in Castilian is used as an objection to him being Italian, why didn’t he write to them in Catalan? Catalan is a quite distinct language from Castilian Spanish - possibly more different than Portuguese is - so exactly the same objection should apply to it as to Italian.

[Excalibre]

@Zabali_Clawbane

Adding, the program also brought up that Columbus himself mentioned in writing having got his start on the sea in the Catalan uprising with a command rank, (Don’t remember the rank he gave, but believe it was also one used by the Catalans.) which is plausible if he came from Catalan from a noble mariner family, but not so plausible if he was born in Italy to a humble merchant. It is also pointed out that his documents are in Spanish, and that it wasn’t native Castilian spanish due to errors, it was most likely Catalan.

At the least, the case is made for a second look at the rote learning we all recieved, isn’t it?

His letters don’t look even vaguely like Catalan. Older Spanish writing and Portuguese are a good deal more similar to each other, so I’m not certain if his writing betrays Portuguese influences or not - but the editions I’ve seen at least of his records looked like Portuguesey Spanish. Certainly not like Catalan. The explanations I’ve heard are that he first learned to read and write in Portuguese, and I’ve read that his Italian was peppered with bits of portuguese orthography as well. Not what you’d expect from a noble Catalan family.

[pocelene]

Columbus intentionally disguised his beginnings. Some say it was because he had ducked out of service/apprentice obligations as a young man. Some say he just was a social climber that wanted to distance himself from his past.
If you’ve read the log made during his first trip, you will quick appreciate that much of his life was spent in posturing, posing, and outright manipulation of others above and below him in rank. Like the trick where he he has sailors pull stones out of a hat and miraculously has the key one left for himself, an easy palming trick. And he fawns over the queen’s special topics, like naming islands for her list of saints, like counting how many “souls he’s converted”, usually by the wave of his hand as he pass by an island settlement. On a later voyage, of course, he will trick a chieftain about an eclipse to obtain freedom. And when he was put in chains on one voyage, he insisted that they remain on when they landed so he could flaunt the injustice of it all. A real polititian/snake oil salesman.