FLORENCE, ITALY – Italian Carabinieri art police have recovered the orginal letter in which Christopher Columbus announced the discovery of the New world.
The letter was stolen from Florence’s Riccardiana library and sold on in the United States: it was produced in 1493. Columbus wrote it to his sponsors King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain upon returning to Europe: the original letter contained Colombo’s first impressions of people and the landscape in the so-called New World.
Columbus’ letter on the first voyage is the first known document announcing the results of the first voyage of Christopher Columbus that set out in 1492 and reached the Americas. The letter was ostensibly written by Columbus himself, on February 15, 1493, aboard the caravel Niña, while still at sea, on the return leg of his voyage. A post-script was added upon his arrival in Lisbon on March 4, 1493, and it was probably from there that Columbus dispatched two copies of his letter to the Spanish court.
In his letter, Columbus claims to have discovered and taken possession of a series of islands on the edge of the Indian Ocean in Asia. He described the islands, particularly Hispaniola and Cuba, exaggerating their size and wealth, and suggested that mainland China probably lay nearby. He also gave a brief description of the native Arawaks (whom he called “Indians”), emphasizing their docility and amenability, and the prospects of their mass conversion to Catholic Christianity.
The letter also revealed local rumors about a fierce man-eating tribe of monsters in the area (probably Caribs), although Columbus himself disbelieved the stories, and dismissed them as myth. The letter provides very few details of the oceanic voyage itself, and covers up the loss of the flagship of his fleet, the Santa María, by suggesting Columbus left it behind with some colonists, in a fort he erected at La Navidad in Hispaniola. In the letter, Columbus urges the Catholic monarchs to sponsor a second, larger expedition to the Indies, promising to bring back immense riches.
The Columbus letter was found in the United States Library of Congress in Washington DC. The Congress library had bought it for around $400,000, although experts believe the document’s real value is closer to $1 million.
It’s not clear when le letter was stolen due to the enormous number of copy around the world (17 or 18), but it was donated to the Library of Congress in 2004. Italian Carabinieri with the Department of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) got information that one of those copies had been stolen from Biblioteca Riccardiana in Florence and replaced with a forgery in 2012. Italian Culture Minister and US Ambassador John R. Phillips recently agreed that the precious document could return to Italy. The original letter will soon be replaced in the Florence’s Riccardiana library.
Tornerà, grazie ai Carabinieri Tpc, alla Biblioteca Riccardiana la lettera di Colombo sulla scoperta dell’America. pic.twitter.com/39nHZXbOVM
— Dario Franceschini (@dariofrance) 18 maggio 2016
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