10. Correspondance de Nicolas Clénard, 1:151–52; 2:93–94.
XVI. Last Orders
1. Among the books Hernando noted he was reading or having read to him in these final years are Aymar Falconaeus, De tuta fidelium nauigatione inter varias peregrinoru[m] dogmatu[m] (Colombina 15–3–5[1], reading October 1536); the Expositio noue[m] lectionum que pro defunctis decantari solent (Colombina 14–3–12[3], November 1537), a meditation on death; and a medical treatise by Gaspar Torella, Obispo de Santa Justa, Pro regimine seu preservatione sanitatis. De ioculente & poculente dialogus (Colombina 15–4–26, November 1538). The order to exhume Columbus is found on 2 July 1537 in the Viajes del Emperador. Hernando’s license to transport household slaves to the New World is AGI, Indiferente, 423, L.19, ff. 4v–5r (31 March 1539), and the provision for burial while abroad in his will is found in Testamento, 128; on the epitaph see Guillén, 132–33.
2. The Memorial al Emperador is transcribed in Testamento, 241–43, which also contains the “testamento” (123–61) and the further notes by Marcos Felipe (226–46) ; the Memoria of the Bachiller Juan Pérez is transcribed in Obras, 47–76. On Hernando’s music collection, see Catherine Weeks Chapman, “Printed Collections of Polyphonic Music Owned by Ferdinand Columbus,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 21/8 (1968): 34–84.
3. Testamento, 139.
4. It is also clear from Hernando’s collecting practices that he did not mean “books” in a narrow sense here, so the library was not necessarily restricting its ambitions to those cultures that produced written codices. An interesting parallel to Hernando’s conception can be seen in the Speculum Maius of Vincent de Beauvais (composed 1244–55), a popular medieval encyclopedia, though there are enormous differences in the scale of books available and the breadth of acceptable texts; see Blair, Too Much to Know, 41–43.
5. The Bachiller Juan Pérez mentions in the Memoria a “Sala de Teología,” which may indicate that the library was still in multiple rooms at the time of Hernando’s death and that the plan to establish a single library room was still in progress; Obras, 47. On the belief that the works of the ancients would not have been lost if they had had printing, see Blair, Too Much to Know, 47.
6. Obras, 53: “The great usefulness of this book of epitomes is clear, because in it one can know in brief the substance of what is treated diffusely, and anyone who does not have many books to read, at the least will have this one that will show them what is treated of in many” (my translation).
7. Blair, Too Much to Know, 92.
8. As Guillén (129) and others suggest, this petition to the emperor was likely never sent.
9. Testamento, 138–40, 210.
XVII. Epilogue: Ideas on the Shelf
1. Obras, 23–25; Guillén, 120 (on the Inquisition marks in the Antibarbarorum, Colombina 12–2–26, title page and page 9).
2. The best introduction to these other library projects is Roger Chartier’s Order of Books; see Burke, Social History of Knowledge, 46, on Salomon’s House and the Casa de Contratación.
3. This passage from Biondo is beautifully captured and analyzed in Grafton, Worlds Made by Words, 137–38.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Impressions of many of the images used as illustrations in this book were owned by Hernando himself; references are provided here to the inventory numbers they bear in his Memoria de los dibujos o pinturas o Registrum C (Colombina 10–1–16), as well as to their entries in Mark P. McDonald’s Print Collection of Ferdinand Columbus, 1488–1539, 3 vols. (London, 2004).
Maps
The four maps in the prelims are reproduced courtesy of the British Museum © The Trustees of the British Museum.
In-Text Illustrations
A Drawing of the City of Cadiz, 1509 (España, Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, Archivo General de Simancas MPD, 25, 047).
Illustration from De insulis nuper in mari Indico repertis (Basel, 1494, ee [1]v; photo by MPI/Getty Images).
Giovanni Battista Palumba, Diana Bathing with Her Attendants, c.1500; (Hernando’s inventory number 2150; see McDonald, 2:386; public domain from the Metropolitan Museum of Art).
Native Americans ride on a manatee, 1621 (courtesy of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, 04056; JCB Open Access Policy).
A page showing an eclipse from the Mayan Dresden Codex (Sächsische Landesbibliothek, Dresden, Mscr.Dresd.R.310, http://digital.slub-dresden.de/werkansicht/dlf/2967/55;CC-BY-SA4.0).
Principium et ars totius musicae, Francesco Ferrarese (Hernando’s inventory number 3097; see McDonald, 2:559; “The Guidonian hand,” Italian School, [16th century]/Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale, Bologna, Italy/© Luisa Ricciarini/Leemage/Bridgeman Images).
Anonymous printmaker, after Jan Wellens de Cock, c.1520–30, The Ship of St. Reynuit (Hernando’s inventory number 2808; see McDonald, 2:518; image reproduced is Rijksmuseum RP-P-1932-119).
Illustration of Rome by Pleydenwurff and Wolgemut in The Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493 (Hernando’s inventory number 433; see McDonald, 2:566; reproduced by kind permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library, Inc.0.A.7.2[888]).
Andrea Palladio’s sketch of Bramante’s Tempietto (PRISMA ARCHIVO/Alamy Stock Photo).
Giovanni Battista Palumba, Mars, Venus, and Vulcan (Vulcan forging the arms of Achilles), c.1505 (number 2032 in Hernando’s inventory; see McDonald, 2:364; © The Trustees of the British Museum).
Leonardo da Vinci illustrations in Luca Pacioli, Divina Proportione (Venice: Alessandro Paganini, 1509).
Raphael’s sketch of the elephant Hanno, c.1516 (Kupferstichkabinett Berlin, KdZ 17949; Wikimedia Commons).
Map of Tenochtitlan, from Hernán Cortés (Biblioteca Colombina 6–2–28, BCC Sevilla).
Albrecht Dürer, sketch of Antwerp harbor, 1520 (Albertina Museum Vienna; World History Archive/Alamy Stock Photo).
Anonymous, c.1470–80, the relics, vestments, and insignia of the Holy Roman Empire (Hernando’s inventory number 2959; see McDonald, 2:541; © The Trustees of the British Museum).
The Utopian alphabet, from Thomas More, De optimo rei Statu deque nova insula utopia libellus vere aureus . . . (Basel: Johannes Froben, 1518, sig. b3r); “Signes Employés par Fernand Colomb dans son bibliotheque,” p. 59 in Guy Beaujouan, “Fernand Colomb et le marché du livre scientifique à Lyon en 1535–1536,” in Lyon: Cité de savantes, actes du 112e Congrès national des sociétés savantes (Lyon, 1987), section “d’Histoire des sciences et des techniques,” tome I (Paris: Éditions du CTHS, 1988), 55–63 (reproduced by kind permission of the CTHS).
Illustration of Franciscan friars burning the sacred treasures of the Aztecs, Hunter ms. 242, fol. 242r. Reproduced by permission of University of Glasgow Library, Special Collections.
Hans Weiditz, Two shipwrecked men clinging to the same plank; the figure at left dressed as a fool; various drowning figures, cargo, and parts of the boat floating in the sea; illustration to Cicero, Officia (Augsburg: Steiner, 1531), woodcut (© The Trustees of the British Museum).
World map by Diego Ribeiro, produced under Hernando’s supervision during his time as pilót mayor, 1529 (photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images).
A perspective of Seville, showing Hernando’s house at the Puerta de Goles, from Civitates orbis terrarum (Cologne: Petrum à Brachel, 1612–18, vol. 1).
“Horti Publici Academiae Lugduno-Batavae cum areolis et pulvillis vera Delineatio.” by Jan Cornelisz van ’t Woudt (Willem Isaacsz. van Swanenburg, 1610). From the Rijksmuseum, RP-P-1893-A-18089.
Instruction in an apothecary’s shop, from Hieronymus Brunschwig, Liber de arte distillandi de Compositis (Strasburg, 1512), Aaa.vv (from Das Buch der Cirugia published Strasbourg in 1497; litho, Hieronymus Brunschwig [1450–c.1512]; after/Private Collection/The Stapleton Collection/Bridgeman Images).
Hans Weiditz, Winebag and wheelbarrow; satire on gluttony with a fat peasant facing right spitting and resting his large belly on a wheelbarrow, c.1521 (Hernando’
s inventory number 1743; see McDonald, 2:311; engraving, Hans Weiditz [c.1500–c.1536]/Private Collection/Bridgeman Images).
Psalterium Hebreum, Grecum, Arabicum & Chaldeum (Genoa, 1516), c.viiv.
Plates
Sebastiano del Piombo, Portrait of a Man, Said to Be Christopher Columbus (portrait of Christopher Columbus, 1519. Found in the collection of Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Artist: Sebastiano del Piombo, [1485–1547]; photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images).
Portrait of Hernando Colón (BCC Sevilla).
Early map of Hispaniola, pasted into Biblioteca Colombina 10–3–3 (BCC Sevilla).
Elio Antonio de Nebrija [1441–1522], Spanish humanist, Nebrija teaching a grammar class in presence of the patron Juan de Zuniga (“Introducciones Latinae,” National Library, Madrid, Spain; photo by Prisma/UIG/Getty Images).
Sixtus IV Appointing Platina as Prefect of the Vatican Library, 1477, by Melozzo da Forlì (1438–94), detached fresco transferred to canvas (photo by De Agostini/Getty Images).
Portrait of Luca Pacioli, c.1495 (Pacioli [1445–1517], Italian mathematician, with his pupil Guidobaldo de Montefeltro [1445–1514]—painting by Jacopo de Barbari [1440/50–1516], oil on wood, 1495 [99 x 120 cm]—Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy; photo by Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images).
Tommaso Inghirami [Portrait of Fedra Inghirami], c.1514–16, by Raphael Sanzio [1483–1520], oil on wood, 90 x 62 cm; photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images).
Charlemagne by Albrecht Dürer, 1511–13 (Emperor Charlemagne [742–814], king of the Franks, whose conquests formed the basis of the Holy Roman Empire. Painting by Albrecht Dürer c.1512; Bettmann/Contributor).
Vista de Sevilla, Alonso Sánchez Coello (atrib.). Museo de América, Madrid.
Endpaper
Índice numeral or Registrum B; Biblioteca Colombina 10-1-4 (BCC Sevilla).
INDEX
A note about the index: The pages referenced in this index refer to the page numbers in the print edition. Clicking on a page number will take you to the ebook location that corresponds to the beginning of that page in the print edition. For a comprehensive list of locations of any word or phrase, use your reading system’s search function. Page numbers in italics indicate illustrations.
Aachen cathedral, 204, 212, 275
Abecedarium (alphabetical lists), 209–10, 237, 253–54, 266, 276, 288
accounting system, in Renaissance Italy, 149
Adages (Erasmus), 254, 255–56
Adrian VI, Pope (Adrian of Utrecht), 195, 214, 230–31, 236
Agnadello, Battle of (1509), 218
d’Ailly, Pierre, 25, 64, 120, 245
Alba, Duke of, 126, 127, 128, 145, 242
Albert the Great, 122
Alberti, Leon Battista, 181–82, 183
Albertini, Francisco, 140–41
Albuquerque, Duke of, 196
Alburema (Caribbean lagoon), 93
Alcazaba, Simón de, 244, 248–49
alchemy, 122, 238
Alexander VI, Pope, 30, 155
Alexandria, Library of, Egypt, 123–24, 150, 240, 275
Alfonso X “the Wise,” King of Castile and León, 68, 183
Alfragan (al-Faragani), 25–26, 29, 245
Allstedt, Saxony, 283
Almanac (Zacuto), 106–07, 108
Almazán, Spain, 53
alphabetical lists, 209–10, 237, 253–54, 266, 268, 276, 288
alphabets
early printed books and, 227–28
Utopian, 227–28, 228, 269
Amadists (branch of reformed Franciscans), 144
Anabaptists, 283
Antibarbarorum (Erasmus), 208–09
Antillia region, 24
Antwerp, 43, 202, 204, 205, 281, 304, 314, 316
apothecaries, 265, 266
Apostolic Palace, Vatican, 144–46, 154, 156
Aprile de Carona, Antonio Maria, 262
Apuleius, 147
Aquinas, Thomas, 41, 170
Arabic astronomers, 106, 183
Arabic language, 133, 287, 295, 311, 317
Arabic manuscripts, 287–88, 293, 294
Arabic medicine, 266
Arabic Spain, 17
Aragon, 53, 55, 125, 177, 195
Arana relatives of Hernando, 28, 31
Aransolo, Juan de, 2, 233, 324
architecture
Gothic, 33, 42, 191, 206, 313
Julius II’s projects and, 142, 152–54, 157
masonry in New World, 93
Moorish, 35, 79
neoclassicism in, 33, 42, 142, 181–82, 206, 262
in Segovia, 191
Archivio Segreto Vaticano, 145, 150, 275
Arcila, Morocco, 78–79
Aretino, Pietro, 178
Aristotle, 30, 121, 122, 170, 245
Aristotlean philosophy, 41, 52, 86
art
Dutch and German masters in, 197
Gothic, 33, 42, 191, 206
Low Countries and, 204–06
Moorish aesthetic and, 35
neoclassicism and, 33, 42, 142, 181–82, 206, 262
north’s influence on, 197, 206
Renaissance and, 144, 153, 159, 160, 170–71
Vignola dynasty and, 118
see also printed images
artillery, and bomb-making, 272–73
astronomy, 66, 122, 123, 148, 183, 320
Badajoz conference and, 241, 243, 244, 250
Zacuto’s Almanac on, 106–07, 108
Augustine, Saint, 26, 30, 64, 65, 66, 68
Auld Alliance, 196
Azores, 14, 20, 24, 62, 63, 80
Aztec Empire, 134, 135, 201–02, 203, 234, 235
Azúa, Hispaniola, 83–97, 90
Bacon, Francis, 328
Badajoz conference (1524), 240–41, 243–52, 253, 269, 272, 299, 319, 329
Bajazeth II, Sultan, 140
Balbi, Giovanni, 192
Balboa, Núñez de, 190
Barbary Coast, 55, 79, 311
Barcelona, 16, 17, 20–21, 22, 43, 198
Baroque era, 275
Basel (city-state), 18, 43, 217, 227, 282, 287
Basilea, Fadrique de, 42
beer, Hernando’s memories of, 232
Behaim, Martín de, 190
Belén river settlement, Panama, 95–99, 100, 111
Belgrade, fall of (1521), 218–19
Bembo, Pietro, 285–86
Benjamin, Walter, 286
Bermuda (Columbus’s ship), 77, 82, 100, 101–11, 124
capture of Mayan canoe by, 87–88
chieftain Quibian’s attack in Belén and, 99
shipping manifest for, 77–78
survival of hurricane by, 83
Bernáldez (chronicler), 22
Beroaldo, Filippo, 147
Bessarion, Cardinal Basilios, 121
Bible
The Book of Prophecies and, 64–65, 67–68, 70–72, 76, 84, 108–09
Erasmus’s Greek New Testament and, 207–08
Jerome’s Vulgate and, 207, 208
Jewish Scriptures and, 67–68, 69, 133–34
lands of Tarshish, Ophir and Kittim mentioned in, 71, 76
Nebuchadrezzar’s dream, 182, 283
Psalter in five languages and, 287, 294–96, 295
Renaissance libraries and, 172
Biblioteca Colombina, Seville, Spain, 6–7, 327
Biblioteca Hernandina (Hernando’s library), Seville, Spain
acquisition registers in, 236–37, 240, 276
alphabetical lists (Abecedarium) in, 209–10, 237, 253–54, 266, 276, 288
assistants for, 281–82, 287–88, 311, 320
biographies in, 300–01
book acquisition network and route for, 314–15
Book of Epitomes (catalogue) of, 253–55, 256–57, 266, 269, 276, 288, 319–20, 325, 327
Book of Materials (catalogue) of, 268–69, 275, 276, 288, 319–20, 325
bookshelves in, 3, 4, 319
bookshop of us
eless, duplicate titles in, 3, 319
browsing to discover new titles in, 320
building of, 259–62
The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books and, 5, 239–40
catalogues and shelving systems for order in, 4–5
Clenardus’s reaction to, 293–94
distribution of catalogues of throughout Spain, 319–20
duplicate copy storage in, 318–19
examples of images in, 38, 118, 212, 290
favoring of cheap prints for, 2–3, 4, 16, 151, 195–96, 315–16
final framework of, 276–77, 313–22, 330–31
financial issues and, 322–33
goal of collecting all books in universal library, 3, 209, 276, 287, 303, 316, 327–28
Hernando’s instructions to agents buying for, 315–16
Hernando’s preference for small booksellers in collecting for, 151
hieroglyphs used for navigating, 3, 5, 228–30, 228, 240, 321
influence of northern humanism on, 209–11
Inquisition proscribing of books and, 214, 326
inscription at entrance of, 3, 316
language organization of books in, 322, 328
languages of books collected for, 287–89
librarians and, 268, 269, 314, 318, 319
location of books lost from, 327
master blueprint and map for, 3, 5, 7
material from Columbus and, 16, 18, 23–24, 297, 298–99
models for, 149–51, 286
move to Seville Cathedral (1552) of, 326–27
neglect of over five centuries, after Hernando’s death, 326–37
physical design of, 3–4, 318–19
physiological ordering of knowledge, 307–09
as premonition of digital world, 8–9, 330
print catalogue for, 166–69, 176, 254
psychological ordering of knowledge, 304–05
reconstructing Hernando’s life from his books in, 7
Reformist works in, 214, 215
scholars (sumistas) employed in, 254, 255, 268, 269, 288
security and surveillance system of, 3, 286, 318–19
Seville Cathedral home for remaining books from, 6–7, 327
size of collection and problems in organizing, 256–57, 322
subject categories in, 122–23, 166–67, 168, 169, 238, 257, 268–69, 317, 320–21, 322, 330
The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books Page 38
