Research Catalog

The mythical Indies and Columbus's apocalyptic letter : imagining the Americas in the late Middle Ages

Title
The mythical Indies and Columbus's apocalyptic letter : imagining the Americas in the late Middle Ages / Elizabeth Moore Willingham.
Author
Willingham, Elizabeth M. (Elizabeth Moore)
Publication
Brighton ; Chicago ; Toronto : Sussex Academic Press, 2016.

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextUse in library JFF 16-1133Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315

Details

Additional Authors
Columbus, Christopher
Description
xxii, 394 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, facsimiles; 26 cm
Summary
"With his Letter of 1493 to the court of Spain, Christopher Columbus heralded his first voyage to the present-day Americas, creating visions that seduced the European imagination and birthing a fascination with those 'new' lands and their inhabitants that continues today. Columbus's epistolary announcement travelled from country to country in a late-medieval media event--and the rest, as has been observed, is history. The Letter has long been the object of speculation concerning its authorship and intention: British historian Cecil Jane questions whether Columbus could read and write prior to the first voyage while Demetrio Ramos argues that King Ferdinand and a minister composed the Letter and had it printed in the Spanish folio. The Letter has figured in studies of Spanish imperialism and of discovery and colonial period history, but it also offers insights into Columbus's passions and motives as he reinvents himself and retails his vision of Peter Martyr's Novus orbis to men and women for whom Columbus was as unknown as the places he claimed to have visited. The central feature of the book is its annotated variorum edition of the Spanish Letter, together with an annotated English translation and word and name glossaries"--Provided by publisher.
Subjects
Note
  • Includes facsimiles of the "Spanish folio," ISTC ic00756000 (first publication of the letter, from the only known copy in the New York Public Library), the "Spanish quarto," ic00756500 (the second publication, from the only known copy in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan) and the "Simancas manuscript," in the Archivo General de Simancas, Valladolid).
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references and index.
Language (note)
  • Text in English with some Spanish. Text of included facsimiles in Spanish.
Contents
Foreword: Aims and apparatus -- An introduction to Columbus's letter -- Discovery and commerce : a letter in folio -- A slippery job : identifying the folio's printer -- Lasting impressions : the initial and the types -- The letter goes abroad : the Roman connection -- Lost, found, and yet undiscovered : peninsular quartos -- Manuscripts : real and imagined -- Reading the Variorum -- A Variorum edition of the Spanish folio -- Debriefing : ink and paper, men, and stemma -- An English translation of the folio -- Parsing the reading -- Columbus and his apocalyptic letter -- Guide to abbreviations, frequent short references, proper names and symbols -- Glossary -- Publications of the Columbus letter -- Incunabula and early sixteenth-century books cited.
Call Number
JFF 16-1133
ISBN
  • 9781845197001
  • 1845197003
  • 9781845197018
  • 1845197011
  • 9781782840374 (ePub ebook) (canceled/invalid)
LCCN
  • 2014037593
  • 40025499133
OCLC
904800639
Author
Willingham, Elizabeth M. (Elizabeth Moore), author.
Title
The mythical Indies and Columbus's apocalyptic letter : imagining the Americas in the late Middle Ages / Elizabeth Moore Willingham.
Publisher
Brighton ; Chicago ; Toronto : Sussex Academic Press, 2016.
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Language
Text in English with some Spanish. Text of included facsimiles in Spanish.
Added Author
Columbus, Christopher. Carta (Feb. 18, 1493)
Columbus, Christopher. Carta (Feb. 18, 1493). English.
Other Form:
ebook version : 9781782840374
Other Standard Identifier
40025499133
Research Call Number
JFF 16-1133
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