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The exact place and date of birth of Colombus have been the source of much speculation although most historians believe that he was Italian.^[1] There are, however, several competing theories regarding his national origin.

Contents

Genoese theory

Portuguese theory

Catalan theory

Other theories

Language

References

Genoese theory

Gianni Granzotto, a modern historian, puts forward the following information from documents written by contemporaries of Columbus:^[2]

★ Pietro Martire d'Angera, a Lombard, was the earliest of Columbus's chroniclers and was in Barcelona when Columbus returned from his first voyage. In his letter of May 14, 1493, addressed to Giovanni Borromeo, he referred to Colonus as Ligurian ''[vir Ligur]'', Liguria being the Region where Genoa is located.

★ A reference, dated 1492 by a court scribe Galindez, referred to Columbus as ''Cristóbal Colón, genovés''.

★ In ''History of the Catholic Kings'', Andrés Bernaldez wrote: "Columbus was a man who came from the land of Genoa."

★ In ''General and Natural History of the Indies'', Bartolomé de Las Casas did not assert his "Genoese nationality";

★ In a book of the same title, Gonzalo de Fernández de Oviedo wrote that Columbus was "originating from the province of Liguria."

★ Antonio Gallo, Agostino Giustiniani and Bartolomeo Serraga wrote that Columbus was Genoese.
Historian Samuel Eliot Morison, in his book ''Christopher Columbus: Admiral of the Ocean Sea'', notes that many existing legal documents demonstrate the Genoese origin of Columbus, his father Domenico, and his brothers Bartolomeo and Giacomo (Diego). These documents, written in Latin by notaries, were legally valid in Genoese courts. However Morison did not show any if this proof. The documents, uncovered in the 19th century when Italian historians examined the Genoese archives, form part of the ''Raccolta Colombiana''. On page 14, Morison writes:
Other accounts, for example the biography written by Fernando Columbus, claimed that his father was of Italian aristocracy. He describes Columbus to be a descendant of a Count Columbo of the Castle Cuccaro (Montferrat). Columbo was in turn said to be a descended from a legendary Roman General Colonius, and two of his first cousins were allegedly direct descendants of the emperor of Constantinople. It is now widely believed that Christopher Columbus used this persona to ingratiate himself to the good graces of the aristocracy, an elaborate illusion to mask a humble merchant background.
A biography written by Columbus's son Fernando, ''Historie del S. D. Fernando Colombo; nelle quali s'ha particolare, & vera relatione della vita, & de fatti dell'Ammiraglio D. Cristoforo Colombo, suo padre: Et dello scoprimento ch'egli fece dell'Indie Occidentali, dette Mondo Nuovo'' (''The life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by his son Ferdinand''), exists.^[3] [1]
In the first paragraph of page 3 of Keen's translation, Fernando dismissed the fanciful story that the Admiral descended from the Colonus mentioned by Tacitus. However, he refers to "those two illustrious Coloni, his relatives". According to Note 1, on page 287, these two "were corsairs not related to each other or to Christopher Columbus, one being Guillame de Casenove, nicknamed Colombo, Admiral of France in the reign of Louis XI". At the top of page 4, Fernando listed Nervi, Cugureo, Bugiasco, Savona, Genoa and Piacenza as possible places of origin. He also stated:
The publication of ''Historie'' has been used by historians as providing indirect evidence about the Genoese origin of the Discoverer. Fernando's manuscript was eventually inherited by his nephew Luis, the playboy grandson of the Discoverer. Luis was always strapped for money and sold the manuscript to Baliano de Fornari, "a wealthy and public-spirited Genoese physician". On page xv, Keen wrote:
On page xxiv, the April 25 1571 dedication by Giuseppe Moleto states:
Other historical evidence of Columbus's Genoese origin include his will of February 22, 1498, in which Columbus wrote "yo nací en Genoba" (I was born in Genoa). This will mentions a Genoese merchant who is also mentioned in a lawsuit that was tried in a Genoese court in 1479. There exists a transcript of the testimony in that lawsuit, and Columbus was called to testify (presumably under oath). In that testimony, Columbus declared that he was a citizen of Genoa, living in Lisbon.
This ''Last Will and Testament of 1498'', which resides in the archives of Seville, is a copy of an original whose whereabouts is unknown. It contains many inconsistencies, such as being signed ''El Almirante'', whereas in the notarized copy of the codicil of 1506, the public notary stated clearly that the will that he had inspected was signed ''Christo Ferens'' furthermore this ''Testament of 1498'' has now been proven to be false in all aspects thus making the only document that connected the Admiral Colon to the wool weaver Colombo inadmissible as evidence.
^[4]

Portuguese theory

Another theory claims that he may have been a Portuguese nobleman, purportedly born in Cuba, Alentejo under the name of Salvador Fernandes Zarco.^[5] The hypothetical offspring of an extramarital relationship between D. Fernando — Duke of Viseu and Beja and son of King Edward I — and Isabel Gonçalves Zarco — daughter of João Gonçalves Zarco, discoverer of Madeira — , Salvador Fernandes Zarco would have been an illegitimate child and thus easily omitted from contemporary historical and genealogical records.
All this is inferred from an interpretation of some facts and documents of the Admiral's life and an analysis of his signature under the Jewish Kabbalah, which he might have used to encipher the truth concerning his family, his origin and, most of all, his real name: Christo Feren's', with Christo meaning Savior (Salvador), Feren's' being an anagram of Fernes, a diminutive of Fernandes, and the final 's' an inverted Lamedh, know as Zarco.^[6] Since he never signed his name conventionally, the pseudonymous theory is reinforced. His name, Christopher, was of Greek origin, meaning "Bearer of Christ" which had moved into Latin holding the same meaning "Bearer of Christ" (Christo ferens) "and of the Holy Spirit" (Columbus, dove in Latin, since the dove traditionally symbolizes the Holy Spirit), a reference to the Order of Christ, which succeeded the Knights Templar in Portugal and initiated the Age of Exploration. The corollary
of the above is that he would be knowingly diverting the Castilian kings from their target of India. Therefore he would have reasons to hide his identity and origin since Portugal was the biggest rival of Spain in its sea ventures. In sum, he was a "secret agent".
He got married in Portugal, in 1479, with a local noble woman, Filipa Moniz who was a member of the Order of Santiago thus proving that the King of Portugal had to authorize their marriage.^[7] [2] They had a son, Diogo Colón, in 1480 who became the 2nd Admirla of the Indies.
Pope Alexander VI issued two bulls mentioning Columbus. Both present Columbus' name written in Portuguese. This has been interpreted as a clue to his Portuguese origin[3], [4], [5] ^[8].
His coat of arms also gives much information about his origin, see [6] for more information.
The names Columbus gave to the places he discovered have also been interpreted as evidence of his Portuguese origins.^[9] More than 40 Portuguese names can be found, among them Cuba (after his native village), Salvador, Bocas das Serpentes ("snakes' mouths"), Santarém, Belém, Mourão, Redondo, Fernandina (after his father Fernando) and Isabelina (after his mother Isabel). Many of them represent names of places in the Alentejo region.
It also a known fact the during the Portuguese Age of Discoveries an extreme secret policy was employed by the Portuguese due to the competition with Spain and other European countries. For this reason, many documents that reached other countries were fake records showing false names, facts and dates, thus misleading any other nation's possible efforts.

Catalan theory

In 2003, a team of Spanish scientists gained the right to exhume Columbus's remains from Seville, Spain.^[10] They performed a DNA analysis of bones from Columbus, his son, and his brother Diego, and looked at Columbus' writings. Columbus wrote in a Northern Italian form ; the Genoese language was not a written one in his time, and it has been suggested that, being an illiterate in his youth, he never mastered it. Analysis of the words Columbus used, and the linguistic mistakes he made, suggested that he most likely learned Catalan as a young man during his trips to Spain, while analysis of his handwriting suggests that he was educated as a young man.
Signs of his Catalan heritage were also searched for. Throughout Columbus' life, he referred to himself as ''Christobal Colom''; his contemporaries and family also referred to him as such. Columbus always maintained that he was an Italian . It is possible that Colom is the shortened form of Columbus used for the Italian surname Colombo (which means "dove"). Colom can also be a Portuguese, French or Catalan name. There was a wealthy mercenary and merchant family of nobility in Barcelona (Spain) named Joan Cristòfor Colom i Bertran.
CATALAN THEORY
Catalan theory is based on a series of facts. Most important among them are proofs of throughout censorship in everything concerning America discovery and conquest.

★ Additionally to normal censorship, an special authorization was required to publish anything concerning America

★ Exportation of any books to other countries was forbidden

★ It exists at least one book in the state of "being currently censored". It shows "Catalonia" corrected into "Genoa".

★ No original document from the first 40 years since discovery has been preserved. This includes all writings by Columbus.

★
★ Columbus writings present no less than five different handwritings, that correspond to five different persons. At least four of them are not Columbus. According to this theory, none of them is.

★
★ Some descriptions in Columbus first voyage log can only be understood if it is assumed they are translation errors from catalan language. No other explanation makes sense.

★
★ All crew members of all the expeditions are fake names. None could ever be traced to actual population census.
Catalan theory states that the origin of first voyage was the seaport in Pals (Catalonia, Northeast Spain) in the Mediterranian sea, and not from Palos de Moguer.

★ A picture of the city of Pals is shown in the cover of one of the copies of first voyage log.

★ Voyage log states that Gibraltar was passed by. This is impossible for pretended Palos de Moguer start.

★ Palos de Moguer does not correspond to any existing place. Correct name should be Palos.

★ Palos does not have, nor ever had, a sea port. Water depth is insufficient and always has been.

★ Pals (Catalonia) geographical coordinates are used as a reference in the voyage log under the name of "Puerto de los Mares" (a nonexisting place).

★ Pals had a seaport at that time. It was destroyed by civil works some centuries later.

★ Distance travelled by Columbus in the first expedition from Pals to Gibraltar is the correct distance when counted in catalan miles.

★ The log says that first voyage returned to the departure port. Time used by Columbus to travel by foot (by horse) from Pals to Barcelona matches the actual distance.

★ All of the three Pinzon brothers have been documentally proven to live in Pals (Catalonia). No Pinzon is shown in the existing Palos (South Spain) census. Pinzon (Pinçon) brothers at Pals were shipbuilders. The given names of the three brothers match.

★ Nothing exists in Palos (Spain) pointing to Columbus or Pinzon. Pretended Pinzon houses have been proven to be built later and belong to other families; no Pinzon is known at that village.

★ Palos (Spain) does not match the description given in the voyage log, while Pals (Catalonia) do.
It is pretended that America discovery was done by Castille. At the time Columbus lived, Spain was separated into two different kingdoms: Castille and Aragon. Each one had different laws, language, currency, etc. Catalonia belonged to Aragon.

★ Columbus contract with the kings was registered in Aragon and archived by aragonese civil servants. It was forbidden by the matrimonial contract of the kings to use civil servants of one kingdom for matters of the other kingdom.

★ The person who provided the money to pay the first voyage was the Secretary of the Treasury of Aragon (Escrivà de Ració).

★ Titles demanded by Columbus to the kings existed according to aragonese law, but not in Castille law.
Pretended columbus birth in Genoa as a layman does not match all other data.

★ Columbus stated to have travelled by sea since very young. Genoa Columbus did not travel to anywhere until a much more advanced age.

★ Genoa Columbus could not read or write. He signed with a cross. The discoverer had a broad culture, could write in latin and spoke several languages, but not italian. He never used italian not even when writing to Italy.

★ Columbus married a noble lady. This is completely impossible for a layman at that time. It is so completely impossible that this proof by itself invalidates Genoa theory.

★ The employements that Columbus obtained from Spain kings were reserved by law to noblemen. Yet nobody protested.

★ Columbus did not consider himself a member of the nobility. Because of his proudness he considered superior to them.

★ "Colom" name is catalan. It is not french nor portugese nor italian.
A possible match with one existing Joan Colom i Bertran has been found. This is not a sure match, but it explains some other data. Joan Colom was an old man by the time of the first voyage.

★ Columbus is often described as a "venerable" person with white hair.

★ Special allowances were granted to Columbus by the king of Portugal and also in Spain for him to use a donkey (normally not allowed to noblemen) because of his "advanced age".

★ Columbus was very ill at the time of his death. He stayed for one year in his bed.

★ Joan Colom was a sailor. He commanded a float during catalan civil war.
It is known that travel to America from nordic countries happened before Columbus discovery.

★ "Johanes Columbus" name appears in the roll of one such voyages. That would match Joan Colom i Bertran.

★ It is conjectured from the language used in the contract with the kings, that Columbus already discovered (no "was going to discover") the new lands.

★ It is conjectured that Columbus presented evidence to the kings of the existence of the new lands. This would explain the terms accepted to Columbus in the contract.
According to this theory, Columbus never attempted to hide his origin or nation.

★ He had his family with him. Nobody tries to hide who he is, and has his family arround.

★ He had too much power to be an unknown. He was second only to the king. He was allowed to speak in the name of the king. He was the chief of the land army and admiral of the seas.

★ Confusion about his origins was created after his death by censorship. No original document remains from Columbus history. All existing documents are copies.

★ Oral tradition arround Barcelona (Catalonia) say that Columbus was born and lived in Marina, a neighbourhood in Barcelona.
Some other data worth mentioning:

★ Early maps of the new lands show the catalan flag in them.

★ First names given to discovered islands were names of places in Catalonia.

★ When Columbus was about to die, the king started a voyage to go visit him. He was heading towards Barcelona. The king arrived there after Columbus death.
Catalan theory explains that America discovery was not done by chance. It was done by probably the best sailor of the time. A man who had the noble origin necessary to deal with the kings, had a good education, had sailed since an early age ("through all the existing seas" according to himself). He had learned cartography at Mallorca (Catalonia), where the best maps of the time were made. Could use a crew of well trained seamen, since Catalonia had an extensive float. Catalonia had an army capable of conquering the new lands, since it had occupied most of present Italy and Greece. In short, it is a theory that makes sense as a whole.
Because this theory is based on the fact of extensive censorship existing in Spain and pretends that all existing documents from Columbus time are fake copies, it implies the need to interpret the documents from the point of view of the censor. This means that every data must be chosen to be true or false. This is highly open to interpretation. The theory is based on the following criteria: When data is inconsistent among several documents, it has been altered and cannot be trusted. Rest of the data is checked against other documentation that is not directly related to America (and so, free of this particular censorship). With what is left a consistent story is build and checked against other facts. This is the way that Pals was discovered to have had a seaport, after that old maps were searched for, and found, showing that port.
The final conclusion is that censorship was established to recover from Columbus and his family the money and power conceded to him initially. The way it was done was to deny all participation of Catalonia in the discovery and conquest of America because the opposite was actually true.

Other theories

The question of Columbus's nationality became an issue after the rise of nationalism; the matter was scarcely raised until the time of the quadricentenary celebrations in 1892 (see World's Columbian Exposition), when Columbus' Genoese origins became a point of pride for some Italian Americans. In New York City, rival statues of Columbus were underwritten by the Hispanic and Italian communities, and honourable positions had to be found for each, at Columbus Circle and in Central Park.
One hypothesis is that Columbus served under the French corsair Guillaume Casenove Coulon and took his surname but later tried to hide his piracy. Some historians have claimed that he was Basque.
Another theory is that he was from the town of Calvi on the island of Corsica, which at the time was part of the Genoese republic. Because the often subversive elements of the island gave its inhabitants a bad reputation, he would have masked his heritage.
One amateur historian has speculated that Columbus may have come from the island of Chios in Greece.^[11] The argument supporting this theory states that Chios was under Genoese control at the time, and was thus part of the Republic of Genoa, and that he kept his journal in Latin and Greek instead of the Italian of Genoa. He also referred to himself as "Columbus de Terra Rubra" (Columbus of the Red Earth); Chios was known for its red soil in the south of the island where grow the mastic trees that the Genoese traded.
Also, Norwegian Tor Borch Sannes has speculated that Columbus was Norwegian, comparing his coat of arms to that of the Bonde family who fled Norway for Italy in the 15th Century.^[12]
Others, such as Columbus researcher, Janes Francis Amler, have said that he was a ''converso'' (a Spanish Jew who publicly converted to Christianity). In Spain, even some converted Jews were forced to leave Spain after much persecution; it is known that many ''conversos'' were still practicing Judaism in secret. The correlation between the Alhambra decree, which called for the expulsion of all of the Jews from Spain and its territories and possessions by July 31 1492, and Columbus' embarcation on his first voyage on August 3 1492, has been offered as support for this claim. However, Discovery Channel's ''Columbus: Secrets from the Grave'' purports Columbus could not have been of Jewish descent because certain genetic markers characteristic of people with converso descent were not present in Columbus' DNA. Though DNA evidence alone could not conclude with such certainty that Columbus was Italian or Spanish, researchers concluded that, given the evidence, Columbus was likely of Catalan origin.^[13]
Other theories suggest that he may origin from the Colno or Cholno family of merchants and sailors living in Danzig (Gdańsk), as there was a Joannis de Colno who studied at the Cracow Academy in 1455. A John Scolvus or ''Jan z Kolna'' is reported to have taken part in the Didrik Pining expedition to Greenland in 1472.

Language

Although Genoese documents have been found about a weaver named Colombo, it has also been noted that, in the preserved documents, Columbus wrote almost exclusively in Spanish, and that he used the language, with Portuguese or Catalan phonetics, even when writing personal notes to himself, to his brother, Italian friends, and to the Bank of Genoa. His two brothers were woolweavers from Genoa and also wrote in Spanish.
There is a small handwritten Genoese gloss in an Italian edition of ''Pliny's Natural History'' that he read on his second voyage to America. However, it displays both Spanish and Portuguese influences. Genoese Italian was not a written language in the 15th century. There is also a note in non-Genoese Italian in his own ''Book of Prophecies'' exhibiting, according to historian August Kling, "characteristics of northern Italian humanism in its calligraphy, syntax, and spelling". However, and since this note is the only known case of Columbus writing in impeccable Italian, it is likely that the author was in fact Italian priest Gaspar Gorricio, who co-wrote the Book of Prophecies.
Phillips and Phillips point out that 500 years ago, the Latinate languages had not distanced themselves to the degree they have today. Bartolomé de las Casas in his ''Historia de las Indias'' claimed that Columbus did not know Spanish well and that he was not born in Castile. In his letters he refers to himself frequently, if cryptically, as a "foreigner." Ramón Menéndez Pidal studied the language of Columbus in 1942, suggesting that while still in Genoa, Columbus learned notions of Portuguese-influenced Spanish from travellers, who used a sort of commercial Latin or lingua franca (''latín ginobisco'' for Spaniards). He suggests that Columbus learned Spanish in Portugal through its use in Portugal as or "adopted language of culture" from 1450. This same Spanish is used by poets like Fernán Silveira and Joan Manuel. The first testimony of his use of Spanish is from the 1480s. Menendez Pidal and many others detect a lot of Portuguese in his Spanish, where he mixes, for example, ''falar'' and ''hablar''. But Menendez Pidal does not accept the hypothesis of a Galician origin for Columbus by noting that where Portuguese and Galician diverged, Columbus always used the Portuguese form.
Latin, on the other hand, was the language of scholarship, and here Columbus excelled. He also kept his journal in Latin, and a "secret" journal in Greek.
According to historian Charles Merrill, analysis of his handwriting indicates that it is typical of someone who was a native Catalan, and Columbus' phonetic mistakes in Spanish are "most likely" those of a Catalan. Also, that he married a Portuguese noblewoman, Filipa Perestrello e Moniz, the daughter of Bartolomeu Perestrelo who had been made first governor of Porto Santo in the Madeiras. She was also the granddaughter of Gil Moniz, who came from one of the oldest families in Portugal, and who had been a close companion of Prince Henry the Navigator. This is presented as evidence that his origin was of nobility rather than the Italian merchant class, since it was unheard of during his time for nobility to marry outside their class. This same theory suggests he was the illegitimate son of a prominent Catalan sea-faring family, which had served as mercenaries in a sea battle against Castilian forces. Fighting against Ferdinand and being illegitimate were two excellent reasons for keeping his origins obscure. Furthermore, the disinterment of his brother's body shows him to be a different age, by nearly a decade, than the "Giacomo Colombo" of the Genoese family.
In a little accepted theory expanding upon the "Chios theory" of Columbus' origin, he was the son of a Genoese noble family in Greece—which accounts for his penchant for the Greek language—who migrated at an early age to Castile and Leon near a large Portuguese city, where he adopted Latin, Portuguese, and Spanish (Castellano) for their potential uses in his journey. As such, this theory explains how he was an accomplished linguist and how his theories and plans could have been conceived much ahead of time than what is normally accepted.

References

1. ''Columbus: Secrets from the Grave'', Discovery Channel documentary, about a possible Catalan origin.
2. Christopher Columbus, , Gianni, Granzotto, University of Oklahoma Press, 1987,
3. English translation: ''The life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by his son Ferdinand'', translated by Benjamin Keen, Greenwood Press (1978)
4. ''O Mistério Colombo Revelado'', Ésquilo Edições, Lisbon (2006) pages. 154-166. Manuel Rosa.
5. Articles related to theory of Columbus' Portuguese origin
6. Da Silva, Manuel Luciano (1989) ''Columbus was 100% Portuguese''. Bristol County Medical Center.
7. Manuel Rosa and Eric Steele, O Mistério Colombo Revelado, Ésquilo Edições (2006)
8. Da Silva,Manuel Luciano (2006) ''Cristóvão Colon [Colombo] era Português''. Quidnovi
9. Barreto, Mascarenhas (1997) ''"Colombo" português: Provas documentais''. Nova Arrancada
10. 'Columbus remains' taken for tests
11. Ruth G. Durlacher-Wolper: ''Christophoros Columbus: A Byzantine Prince from Chios, Greece.'' The New World Museum, San Salvador, Bahamas. 1982.
12. Tor Borsch Sannes: ''Columbus – en europeer fra Norge?'', Norsk maritimt forlag, Oslo, 1991.
13. [7]