The Libro de las profecías of Christopher Columbus: An en face edition (Columbus Quincentenary Series)

Perhaps the most important single volume on Columbus ever published in EnglishThe authors classification of Columbuss piety as evangelical will be controversial but is exactly right He as as cosmopolitan in his piety as in his cosmography.This is a marvelously well-written and organized study that has all the authority of deep scholarship. Leonard Sweet president Union Theological Seminary Dayton OhioThe book in which Christopher Columbus explains his vision to his king and queen is now available for the first time in English. Columbus compiled the Libro in 1501-1502 after returning in chains from his third voyage to the New World. He hoped that his notebook of biblical prophecies would inspire King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to finance a fourth trip for him one that would allow them to fulfill millennial prophecies of becoming monarchs of the New JerusalemThough historians and biographers agree that the document is authentic until now it has been available only to multilingual scholars. Even those with access to the work paid it slight attention viewing it as an unimportant excursion into fanaticism that occurred late in the explorers life.The commentators argue that apocalyptic thought played a significant role in Columbuss grand scheme throughout his life and that biblical prophecies were a major factor motivating his explorations backing their claims with analyses of his intellectual and cultural background the apocalyptic thought in Spain at the time and other writings by his contemporariesThe Libro de las profecas was compiled under the direction of Columbus by his thirteen-year-old son Ferdinand his close friend Father Gaspar Gorricio and other clerics. It is reproduced in this handsome volume with the original Latin and Spanish texts and the English translation on facing pages as the second title in the Columbus Quincentennary Series.Delno C. west a research fellow at the Center for Theological Inquiry at Princeton is professor of history at Northern Arizona University. He is coauthor of Christopher Columbus: The Great Adventure and Joachim of Fiore: A Study in Spiritual Perception and History.