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I just learned that Mark McDonald (British Library) published an awesome
two-volume work in 2004 entitled The Print Collection of Ferdinand Columbus
(1488-1539) - A Renaissance Collector in Seville.
This project which involved several scholars resulted in the
painstaking reconstruction of this collection using a surviving manuscript
version
of Ferdinand's inventory of all his prints and maps (3200 in all). This
amazing collection was a supplement to the much larger collection of books
(around 15,500) which formed the famous Biblioteca Colombina in Seville.
Only about 2000 volumes still survive in the library which was given to the
Cathedral to maintain after Ferdinand's death in 1539.
Ferdinand who was a fanatical collector and who made many book-buying
trips throughout Europe evidently did not acquire that many maps. But he
owned two Rosselli maps of Naples and France and one Waldseemueller map of
Europe dated to 1520. The image of Europe is inverted from what one
normally sees with the Mediterranean at the top and Scandinavia at the bottom
with a cartouche lined all around with a series of various European coats of
arms.
Ferdinand possessed considerable expertise and was a major figure in
the Portuguese-Spanish maritime conference in 1525 to resolve the maritime
demarcation line for the Far East, the Moluccas. He seems to have wanted
the best modern world maps and it is noted that he owned a six-sheet world
map made in Venice in 1527.
There is a suggestion on page 248 that Ferdinand may have discarded
other maps in favor of the most advanced depictions of the New World. At
this point, the question is raised as to whether he ever owned the
Waldseemueller world map of 1507 and then perhaps discarded it. Or it is also
suggested that perhaps he never acquired a copy even though he did own at
least
one Waldseemueller map.
Why would he have not bothered to acquire the Waldseemueller map of
1507?
The author suggests on page 248 that perhaps Ferdinand could not
stomach the decision to name the New World in honor of Vespucci rather than
his father and therefore could not bring himself to buy this particular world
map. "It seems most likely that in this particular case filial piety for
once got the better even of Ferdinand's acquisitiveness."
There are numerous problems with this suggestion of undying
anti-Vespucci sentiment on the part of Ferdinand.
First, in a famous passage in La Historia de las Indies, an
incredulous Las Casas vents his bitterness and even strong anger toward
Ferdinand
Columbus for failing to show anger about how Vespucci had undercut, stabbed
Columbus in the back and stole his glory. Ferdinand's blase attitude
toward Vespucci was something that Las Casas could not fathom. Second, as
some
Columbus scholars know, Vespucci supported the Colon family in its legal
dispute with King Ferdinand over the concessions Queen Isabella had given the
Admiral in 1492 in the Capitulations. Third, Columbus and Vespucci were
extremely close friends (see famous letter of the Admiral dated February 5,
1505). Fourth, there is a strong hint that when Vepuscci served as the
executor to the estate of Francesco Berardi from whom Columbus had borrowed a
lot of money for the Second voyage in 1493, the Florentine wrote off all
the Admiral's debts to the estate of Berardi in the mid-1490s when Columbus
was at the height of his fame and influence at the Spanish court. (See
Consuela Varela, Colon y los Florentinos)
Thus, the Columbus-Vespucci relationship was one of deep friendship
and surely Ferdinand who was almost 24 years old when Vespucci died in
1512 was well aware of this fact which explains why he harbored no animosity
toward Vespucci.
Finally, as this is a discovery of mine, in the inventory known as
the Abecedarium for his 15,500 books Ferdinand indicates that he not only
owned copies of Cosmographiae Introductio (one amazingly in
"de mano") which gave the baptized the New World in honor of Vespucci.
Ferdinand also owned many copies in several languages of Vespucci's writings
-- Mundus Novus and the Letters concerning Vespucci's alleged Four Voyages.
If Ferdinand could not stomach Vespucci, why bother to acquire all these
books and writings?
Thus, the argument that anti-Vespucci sentiment may have kept
Ferdinand -- who visited the Strasbourg area at least twice -- from buying
Waldseemueller's world map of 1507 is not credible.
Why Ferdinand did not acquire this huge world map remains
difficult to answer in part because explaining why something did not happen is
generally more difficult. This takes me beyond what I want to say on this
topic for the time being.
Peter
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