DISCOVERY OF AMERICA

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1082, 20 September 1930, Page 10

DISCOVERY OF AMERICA

NEW LIGHT ON COLUMBUS A DEALER IN BOOKS Dr. A S. W. Rosenbach, the book lealer of Philadelphia, recently announced that he had bought In London and brought to the United States a manuscript relating to the discovery of America. The manuscript is more than 400 years old. and is thought to have been written by a friend of Christopher Columbus front the explorer’s own account of his discovery. The manuscript says Columbus was “a dealer in printed books” in Andalusia and gives his birthplace as Milan, not Genoa. The author of the narrative, Andres Bernaldez, was born about 1450 at Feuntes de Leon. Spain, and in 14S8 was made curate of the village of Los Palacios, near Seville. Afterward he became chaplain to the Archbishop Diego de Deza, a friend of Columbus. When Columbus was on his way to the Court of Ferdinand and Isabella to report on his second voyage he was the guest of Bernaldez, who says in his narrative: "He left me some of his writings in the presence of Don Juan de Fonseca, wherefrom I copied and abridged them, with others which the Hon. Dr. Anca. of Chauca, and other noble gentlemen wrote who were with him cn the voyages already related, who wrote what they say; from which 1 was informed and wrote this about, the Indies as being a marvellous and heroic thing.” Bernaldez says further: “There was a converted Indian with Columbus, about whose neck hung a collar of gold, a tangible evidence of the' wealth of the New World.” According to Dr. Rosenbach a line for line comparison with other codices in Spain shows that, although there are similarities, this manuscript contains much information found in no other codex. There are also references to the discoveries of other navigators, including Portuguese voyagers, beside an account of the three voyages of Columus. Until recently the codex, which is entitled “The Story of Christopher Columbus and the Ship in which he Crossed the Ocean until he Discovered the Indies where they found Gold,” has lain disregarded in a Spanish library.