Everybody has read about Christopher Columbus – the famous “admiral” who came across some islands by sailing West from Europe to discover a new path to Oriental lands. He had no idea there was a continent barring tips on how to his destination. Within decades, this unexplored land evolved into a lucrative transatlantic empire for Spain. Columbus had two sons. Hernando was Christopher Columbus’ only illegitimate son; Diego Columbus was the explorer’s legitimate son. While Diego continued his father’s legacy as governor and admiral from the Indies, Hernando set his sights on being a scholar by building the most important collection of printed books that existed.
University of Cambridge literature professor Edward Wilson-Lee recently published “The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books” (2019), that is the only book detailing the life span of Columbus’ second son Hernando with the exceptional incredible obsession with books. Just as his father explored lands for gold and Christian converts, Hernando explored bookshops for all on the printed books and maps he can find. His goal ended up being to create a universal library of books that is certainly shared with the Spanish individuals who sought info on every topic on this planet. Hernando’s huge ambition would turn his great library to the first “database” of info. He pursued these books by frequently planing a trip to visit most with the bookshops in a minimum of fifteen major European cities and bought every new book which have recently been printed. At the end of his life in 1539, he acquired over 15,000 to 20,000 volumes.
Hernando came to be in 1488 and that is important simply because the printing press ended up being invented 4 decades prior and first utilized to print manuscripts into books. He started collecting in 1509 until his death in 1539 which put pressure on him to accumulate all printed books over the last sixty to eighty years after Gutenberg invented the printing press.
Hernando desired to build his library operating known printed books, because he needed to catalogue all human knowledge atlanta divorce attorneys language and each subject. He couldn’t make this happen monstrous job alone, but paid an army of readers in summary every book he owned. Early In 2019, a thick 2000-page volume was discovered in Scandinavia, that was entitled, “El Libro de los Epítomes,” or “Book of Epitomes” which was missing for three hundred and half a century. It summarized the valuables in many books and classified them into getting some sort of systematic structure. Lee believes that many with the books summarized within this collection don’t exist anymore. Fortunately, but it surely shows what Europeans understand five hundred in the past (“Typeroom” website, Aug 2, 2019).
Christopher Columbus’ second son is definitely an underrated historical figure who singlehandedly bought virtually every printed book considering that the invention in the printing press in 1450, from 1509 to his death is 1539. Although little ended up known about Hernando until Professor Edward Wilson-Lee highlight the book collector’s life as part of his recent biography, “The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books”. He recognizes Hernando as creating the first database “search engine” with summaries of his many books. According to the author, Hernando “collected everything he could lay his on the job. Manuscripts, pamphlets, tavern posters – all made their way into his library.” (“The Guardian”).
After almost 30 years of wandering the streets of Europe, exploring bookshops and acquiring every one he hadn’t bought, Hernando died, along with his books. Today only one-fourth of his collection is stored in the Cathedral in Seville, Spain since 1552. Many were either stolen yet others were damaged by flooding. Yet that numerous books certainly are a huge amount, during today’s quantities for the average-sized library.
Hernando attemptedto preserve his father’s honor by collecting a “new world” of numerous books. While Hernando’s father, Christopher discovered parts with the New World which Spain soon claimed within an empire, Hernando discovered books that they dreamed would become an empire for learning. Although Christopher himself didn’t build a lucrative method of obtaining wealth for Spain, Hernando’s library wouldn’t become the way to obtain knowledge, as had hoped, with the Spanish people. Ultimately, the Columbus family name declined from history.