THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA, VOL. I

It is hard to find anyone who has not heard of the great navigator Christopher Columbus. They will reply with certainty that he is the man who discovered America, adding that the name of the continent comes from the name of another great explorer, Amerigo Vespucci, who, among other things, understood that the places Columbus discovered were a new continent. There is no doubt that Columbus died continuing to believe in his delusion that he had found the western route to the Indies (Asia) and was so deeply convinced that no power in the world could change his mind. We know from a letter that on 5 February 1505 – thirteen years after his first journey and one before his death – he met Vespucci and they conversed for a long time. Details of the discussion are not available, but it is clear that they talked about the newly discovered places and their geographical location. Even then Columbus was not dissuaded. Mulish old man, one might say. Maybe. But it was this narrow-mindedness, this special structure of his character, that allowed him to actually make the journey. They attribute the famous “egg” incident to Columbus. No doubt, this is a mistake – Voltaire proved that it is Brunelleschi’s “egg” – but regardless of this, we must note that the personality of Columbus was not suited to practical and simple solutions. Columbus was not an innovator who went beyond the concepts of his time. Instead, it was he who selectively employed, as we shall see below, the perceptions of his time to convince first himself and then others of the feasibility of his journey.