Posthumous portrait of Christopher Columbus by Ridolfo Ghirlandaio. There are no known authentic portraits of Columbus
One of the outstanding possessions of the American Library of Congress today is one of four original copies of the Columbus Codex which was signed between Christopher Columbus and the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. Here in this Codex were the signatures of the two Spanish monarchs that took place in the beautiful Alcázar Palace at Córdoba, Spain just re-conquered by the Spanish monarchs in 1492 when the last Muslim stronghold on the Iberian Peninsula fell to the Christian Spanish rulers and the Muslim occupation of Spain since the 13th century was now over.
This was not Christopher Columbus’ first royal rejection. First spurned by Queen Isabella on the advice of her Catholic court confessor, Columbus left the city of Córdoba, but was intercepted by the royal guard of King Ferdinand who later credited himself as "the principal cause why those islands were discovered." According to the document, fifty percent of the financing for the voyage came from private Italian investors, who Columbus had already secured, and the other rest would come from the royal treasuries of Spain. The problem was that Spain was financially broke after the final Granada campaign that gave the entire Spanish Peninsula back into the Roman Christian Spanish control.
Christopher Columbus would eventually take four separate voyages to America, yet in disputes with his contracts with the Spanish crown for not receiving all the provisions of his contracts including the appointment as the "Great Admiral of the Ocean", governor of any and all lands he discovered, and given one-tenth of all revenue from those lands. In preparation of his legal redress to reclaim the lost privileges with the Crown of Spain, he prepared a document called the “Book of Privileges”.
Just prior to his fourth and final voyage to America, Christopher Columbus assembled in his home in Seville, Spain an assembly of several distinguished judges and notaries for an important legal meeting. They were there to document authentic copies of the original documents with the Royal Crown of Ferdinand and Isabella in Spain that were a part of his archival collection. These included thirty-six documents concerning the titles, revenues, powers, and privileges granted to himself and his descendants that became the official copies of the “Book of Privileges”.
Four of these copies of the “Book of Privileges” were known to exist in 1502. Three were written on vellum and one on paper. One of the three vellum copies is today archived in the “Top Treasures” of the Treasuries of the American Library of Congress. Together with the Book of Privileges is also a unique addition, a paper copy of the Papal Bull Dudum siquidem dated, September 26, 1493, which extended the Spanish claim to the New World to include all future Spanish explorations.
These “Christopher Columbus Treasures” are today archived in the Library of Congress’ Rare Book and Special Collections Division. They include:
- Columbus’ Three Voyages written by Angelo Trevisan, "Storia de la Navegacion del Colon", [Trevisan codex] Venice: 1503, Rare Book & Special Collections Division, Bequest of Mrs. John Boyd Thacher, 1925 – This is the earliest written description of Columbus as recorded in Angelo Trevisan's record of the first three voyages of Columbus and Cabral's 1500 landing on the Brazilian coast. The author, Trevisan, represented the Venetian financial interests in Spain in which he compiled his " Storia," that was transcribed almost verbatim from the notes and writings of the historian Peter Martyr.
- Map of the Island of Hispaniola taken from the History by Pietro Martire d' Anghiera, (Peter Martyr), "Martyris Angli mediolanensis opera, legatio babylonica, oceani decas, poemata, epigrammate", Seville:1511 – This history attests that the Island of Hispaniola where the nations of Haiti and Dominican Republic are located became the first site of permanent European colonization in America until the years of 1505-1511 when the islands of Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Cuba were occupied and colonized. In the year 1525, Peter Martyr, a Milanese humanist associated with the court of the Spanish crown reported to his Venetian friend, Gaspare Contarini that the “islands of Hispaniola, Cuba, and Jamaica were inhabited by over a million natives at the time of the arrival of Columbus’ voyages, but by 1525 most of the islanders had died by disease, infanticide, despair, and cruel treatment, till almost none were left.
- “The Book of Privileges” compiled by Christopher Columbus, “Códice Diplomático Columbo-Americano”, Seville: ca. 1502, Vellum, Manuscript Division, Purchased from William Everett, 1901.
- Letter by Christopher Columbus, “Islands of India beyond the Ganges”, Epistola de insulis nuper inventis, Printed letter, Rome: 1493m, Rare Book & Special Collections Division, Purchased, 1946 – This letter from Columbus attests to his discoveries of “Islands of India beyond the Ganges”. It was first printed in Barcelona, Spain on April 1493 and a month later in Latin by Stephan Plannck in Rome, and then news of the discover to the rest of Europe.
- “The Life of Columbus” written by Columbus’ son, Fernando Colombo, titled, “Historie del signor D. Fernando Colombo. . . “ Venice: 1571, Rare Book & Special Collections Division (6.3) at the Bequest of Mrs. John Boyd Thacher, 1925.
As history will attest, of all the hundred of historical accounts on Christopher Columbus, there are not any to date that give common agreement to the place of birth of Christophe Columbus, his native language, his religious affiliation, a description of his likeness or the place in which his physical remains rest. Here is where our quest begins. Not only that, there are not any historical accounts in which Columbus is known as “Christopher” or “Columbus”. Instead he was called; Comom, Colonus, Colomo, Colon Colón, Guiarra and Guerra.
According to official history, Christopher Columbus was born somewhere between August 25, and October 31, 1451 in Genoa, Italy. His father, Domenico was a middle-class wool weaver, married to Susanna Fontanarossa and three brothers, Bartolomeo, Giovanni Pellegrino and Giacomo. Bartolomeo was later employed in a map-making cartographic shop in Lisbon, Portugal.
As early as the age of ten, Columbus was sailing “the ocean blue”. By the age of 19 years, he was a mercenary on the Genoese ship hired in the service of René I of Anjou in his military campaign to conquer the Kingdom of Naples. Later he became an apprentice business agent by the famous Italian consortium of the Centurione, Di Negro and Spinola families of Genoa, where he was hired to accompany an armed convoy carrying valuable cargo to England (Bristol), Ireland (Galway) and Iceland in 1477.
Columbus's notes in Latin, on the margins of his copy of The Travels of Marco Polo
Two years later, Christopher was still trading for the Centurione family but was also spending more and more time with his brother in the Portuguese cartographic shop. This same year, he fell in love and married Filipa Moniz Perestrelo, the daughter of the Portuguese nobleman of Genoese origins, Bartolomeu Perestrello, who was the Governor of the Portuguese Island of Porto Santo near the Island of Madeira. About the year of 1480, his son, Diego Columbus was born.
This official history was challenged in the Israel National News article on October 8, 2008 written by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu, titled, “Kabbalistic Signet Ring indicates Columbus was an Exiled Jew”. It attests to a different history of Christopher Columbus and has been documented Columbus’ secret identity in the Kabblaistic monogram written in Hebrew, Latin and Greek.
Here we begin the exploration that Columbus had an identity that was a secret to the royalty of Spain and was attested by his signet ring which Columbus used to seal all of his agreements with the Royal Crown of Spain, King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I. This ring also contained his two secret names; his “pen name” or pseudonym that was adopted by Columbus and his birth name. According to Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu;
Kabbalistic Signet Shows Columbus was a Jew
Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu – “Columbus was a Jew named Salvador Fernando Zarco and was among those expelled from Spain in 1492, a rare triangular Kabbalistic signet indicates. Jose Rodrigues Dos Santos has authored an historical novel, “Codex 632: The Secret Identity of Christopher Columbus”, which relates the deciphering of a rare triangular Kabbalistic signet. The interpretation of the recent discovery of the signet claims to reveal the secret identity of Columbus. The unique triangular monogram is similar to inscriptions on the gravestones in Jewish cemeteries in Spain and southern France.
The interpretation of the recent discovery of the signet claims to reveal the secret identity of Columbus. It was used in the agreement between Columbus and Spanish King and Queen Ferdinand and Isabella. The Kabbalistic monogram, in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, contains two secret names: Cristobal Colon, his "nom de plume," and Salvador Fernando Zarco, Columbus's birth name, according to the author.”
Cristobal Colon, as he was known, had already tried to seek royal support for his journeys to find the land of India be going west rather than east. He traveled back to Genoa and over to Venice, but found no financial backers from the merchants or royalty households there. His brother went to the court of King Henry VII of England. The king seriously considered his offer, but by the time Columbus received England’s affirmative answer, he had received the commitment of thenew royal household of Spain, King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile.
Then something strange happened on the date in which Columbus prepared to set sail westward to find the mystical land of India in the Far East.
Christopher Columbus, the Apocalyptic Quest of a Secret Jew
Go to Part One – “The Mystery of the Kabbalist Jew and Explorer of America, Christopher Columbus”
Go to Part Two – “The Mysterious Date Christopher Columbus set Sail to Find the Land of India”
Go to Part Three – “The Influence of the Final Apocalypse upon the Jewish Life of Columbus”
Go to Part Four – “The Legacy of the Jewish Explorer of the Americas: Christopher Columbus”
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