Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x24gv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T19:54:06.335Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Controversial Skill of Columbus as a Navigator: An Enduring Historical Enigma

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 June 2009

Douglas T. Peck
Douglas T. Peck*
Affiliation:
(Independent Historian)
*
(Email: peckhistory@earthlink.net)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study of Columbus' navigation is unique because it was written by an historian who is also a trained and experienced professional global (and ocean) navigator, rather than an academic historian with only superficial knowledge of the science of navigation as practiced by Columbus and other early navigators. The study is also unique in that as an American historian author disagrees with his colleagues in the USA who present the “politically correct” view of Columbus as an unskilled entrepreneur who obtained his limited knowledge of navigation as a crew member or passenger on Portuguese voyages, rather than as one of the most skilled and experienced of the cadre of respected Genoese captains and navigators used by kings throughout Europe to perform their maritime enterprises.

Keywords

ColumbusNavigation history
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Navigation , Volume 62 , Issue 3 , July 2009 , pp. 417 - 425
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Navigation 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1De Lollis, Cezare (1892), Scritti di Cristoforo Colombo, in Nuova Raccolta Colombiana, Ministry of Cultural and Environmental Assets. With notes comparing Las Casas' Historia de las Indias, Ferdinand's Historie, and Herrera's Historia General, Instuzione del Maggiorasco, Rome.Google Scholar
2Jane, Cecil (1988), The Four Voyages of Columbus. Originally published as; Select Documents Illustrating the Four Voyages of Columbus; Including those Contained in R. H. Major's “Select Letters of Christopher Columbus,” translation with Introduction, notes, and commentary by Cecil Jane. Published by the Hakluyt Society as Vol. 1 (1930) and Vol. 2 (1933). Both volumes combined and published in an unabridged edition by Dover Publications, Inc., New York.Google Scholar
3Taviani, Paolo Emilio (1985), Christopher Columbus: The Grand Design. Translated by Luciana F. Farina, Orbis Publishing Limited, London. And Taviani, Paolo Emilio and Consuela Varela (1988), The Journal: Account of the First Voyage and Discovery of the Indies. English edition in two Parts (491 pages); Part I contains a literal translation of the Journal adjacent to the Spanish text with Introduction and ample notes on unclear portions where interpretations are controversial. Part II contains extract translations and commentary on the many Spanish documents and books related to Columbus' voyage. Published in the Nuova Raccolta Colombiana series, Ministry of Cultural and Environmental Assets, Rome.Google Scholar
4Varela, Consuela, ed. (1985), “Diario del Primer y Tercer Viaje de Cristóbal Colón,” in Obras de Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas, Alianza Universidad, Madrid.Google Scholar
5Davidson, Miles H. (1997), Columbus Then and Now, University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
6Morison, Samuel Eliot (1942), Admiral of the Ocean Sea. Little Brown and Company, New York; and (1974), The European Discovery of America: The Southern Voyages. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, pp. 3–161.Google Scholar
7Henige, David (1991), In Search of Columbus: The Sources for the First Voyage. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Google Scholar
8Wilford, John N. (1991), The Mysterious History of Columbus: An Explanation of the Man, the Myth, the Legacy. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.Google Scholar
9Keen, Benjamin (1992), The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by His Son Ferdinand, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick.Google Scholar
10Las Casas, Bartolomé de (1951), Historia de las Indias. Translated into modern Spanish and published in 3 volumes by Fondo de Cultura Económica, Biblioteca Americano, Mexico City.Google Scholar
11Peck, Douglas T. (2007), “Lisbon,” in The Oxford Companion to World Exploration (2 vols.), Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York.Google Scholar
12Barros, Joao de (1778), Da Asia. Archivo Naciónal, Lisbon.Google Scholar
13Taylor, Eva G. R. (1953), “The Navigating Manual of Columbus,” in Bollettino del Civico Istituto Colombiano, #1, Genoa.Google Scholar
14Peck, Douglas T. (2002), “Theory Versus Practical Application in the History of Early Ocean Navigation,” Terrae Incognitae, Vol. 34, pp. 46–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar
15Farina, Luciana F. and Tolf, Robert W. (1992), Columbus Documents: Summaries of Documents in Genoa. Translation and commentary on 179 documents from the archives of the State of Genoa including an appendix on Columbus' Book of Privileges, Omnigraphics, Inc., Detroit.Google Scholar
16D'Ailly, Pierre, (1992), Ymago Mundi y otros opúsculos. Translated by Antonio Ramirez de Verer, Alianza Editorial, Seville.Google Scholar