The birth of a plan. Correspondence with Toscanelli, Florentine geographer whose map was used by Columbus

The death of feudalism and the transition to capitalism in Europe accelerated the Great Geographical Discoveries. These include the largest discoveries of the 15th-16th centuries, the main of which were the discovery of America and the sea route to India around Africa. In other words, it was the discovery of overseas lands by Europeans under certain historical conditions. Therefore, one should not include, for example, the Viking journeys to America or the discoveries of Russian explorers.

For a long time, the peoples of Europe lived without making long sea voyages, but suddenly they had a desire to discover new lands, and almost simultaneously both America and a new route to India were discovered. This kind of “suddenly” does not happen by chance. There were three main prerequisites for the discoveries.

1. In the 15th century. The Turks, having conquered Byzantium, cut the trade route from Europe to the East. The flow of eastern goods to Europe sharply decreased, and Europeans could no longer do without them. It was necessary to look for another way.

2 Lack of gold as a monetary metal. And not only because gold flowed to the East. The economic development of Europe required more and more money. The main direction of this development was the growth of the marketability of the economy, the growth of trade

They hoped to extract gold in the same eastern countries, which, according to rumors, were very rich in precious metals. Especially India. Marco Polo, who visited there, said that even the roofs of the palaces there were made of gold. The Portuguese were looking for gold on the African coast, in India, throughout the Far East, wrote F. Engels, gold drank with that magic word that drove the Spaniards across the Atlantic Ocean; gold - that’s what the Europeans first demanded as soon as they stepped onto the newly discovered shore.”

True, gold had its owners, but this did not bother us: the Europeans of that time were brave people and not constrained by morality. It was important for them to get to the gold, and they had no doubt that they would be able to take it away from the owners. And so it happened: the crews of small ships, which, from our point of view, were just large boats, sometimes covered entire countries.

3. Development of science and technology, especially shipbuilding and navigation. On previous European ships it was impossible to sail the open ocean: they either sailed with oars, like Venetian galleys, or under sail, but only if the wind was blowing in the stern.

The sailors were guided mainly by the sight of familiar shores, so they did not dare to go into the open ocean.

But in the 15th century. A ship of a new design appeared - the caravel. It had a keel and sailing equipment that made it possible to move in crosswinds. In addition, in addition to the compass, by this time an astrolabe had also appeared - a device for determining latitude.

Significant advances had also been made in geography by this time. The ancient theory of the sphericity of the Earth was revived, and the Florentine geographer Toscanelli argued that India could be reached by moving not only east but also west, around the earth. True, it was not expected that there would be another continent on the way.

So, the Great Geographical Discoveries were led to by: the crisis of trade with the East, the need for a new path, the lack of gold as a monetary metal, and scientific and technological achievements. Major discoveries were made in the search for routes to India, the richest country in Asia. Everyone was looking for India, but in different directions.

The first direction is to the south and southeast, around Africa. The Portuguese moved in this direction. In search of gold and treasures, Portuguese ships from the middle of the 15th century. began to move south along the coast of Africa. Characteristic names appeared on maps of Africa: “Pepper Coast”, “Ivory Coast”, “Slave Coast”, “Golden Coast”. These names show quite clearly what the Portuguese were looking for and finding in Africa. At the end of the 15th century. A Portuguese expedition of three caravels led by Vasco da Gama circumnavigated Africa and reached the shores of India.

Since the Portuguese declared the lands they discovered to be their property, the Spaniards had to move in a different direction - to the west. Then, at the end of the 15th century, the Spaniards on three ships under the command of Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean and reached the shores of America. Columbus believed that this was Asia. However, there was no gold in the new lands, and the Spanish king was dissatisfied with Columbus. The man who discovered the New World ended his days in poverty.

In the footsteps of Columbus, a stream of poor, brave and cruel Spanish conquistador nobles poured into America. They hoped to find gold there and the nations of Cortez and Pizarro plundered the states of the Aztecs and Incas; the independent development of American civilization ceased.

England began searching for new lands later and, in order to take its toll, tried to find a new route to India - the “northern passage”, through the Arctic Ocean. Of course, it was an attempt with inadequate means, Chancellor's Expedition, sent in the middle of the 16th century. in search of this passage, she lost two of the three ships; instead of India, Chancellor ended up through the White Sea to Moscow. However, he was not at a loss and obtained from Ivan the Terrible serious privileges for the trade of English merchants in Russia: the right to trade duty-free in that country, pay with his own coin, build trading yards and industrial enterprises. True, Ivan the Terrible scolded his “loving sister”, Queen Elizabeth of England, as a “vulgar girl” because her kingdom, in addition to her, was ruled by “trading men”, and sometimes he oppressed these trading men, but still provided them with protection. Monopoly position The English were deprived of Russian trade only in the 17th century - the Russian Tsar deprived them of their privileges because they “committed an evil deed with all the land: they killed their sovereign King Charles to death.”

The first consequence of the Great Geographical Discoveries was a “price revolution”: as cheap gold and silver poured into Europe from overseas lands, the value of these metals (hence the value of money) fell sharply, and the prices of goods increased accordingly. The total amount of gold to Europe in the 16th century. increased by more than twofold, silver - threefold, and prices increased by 2-3 times.

First of all, the price revolution affected those countries that directly plundered new lands - Spain and Portugal. It would seem that the discoveries should have caused economic prosperity in those countries. In fact, the opposite happened. Prices in these countries increased 4.5 times, while in England and France - 2.5 times. Spanish and Portuguese goods became so expensive that they were no longer bought; preferred cheaper goods from other countries. It must be taken into account that as prices rise, production costs also increase accordingly.

And this had two consequences: gold from these countries quickly went to the countries whose goods were purchased; handicraft production fell into decline because its products were not in demand. The flow of gold flowed, bypassing the economy of these countries from the hands of the nobles and floating abroad. Therefore, already at the beginning of the 17th century. There was a shortage of precious metals in Spain, and so many copper coins were paid for a wax candle that their weight was three times the weight of the candle. A paradox arose: the flow of gold did not enrich Spain and Portugal, but dealt a blow to their economy, because feudal relations still prevailed in these countries. On the contrary, the price revolution strengthened England and the Netherlands, countries with developed commodity production, whose goods flowed to Spain and Portugal.

First of all, the producers of goods benefited - artisans and the first manufacturers, who sold their goods at increased prices. In addition, more goods were now needed: they went to Spain, Portugal and overseas in exchange for colonial goods. Now there was no longer any need to limit production, and guild craft began to develop into capitalist manufacture.

Those peasants who produced goods for sale also benefited, and paid their dues with cheaper money. In short, commodity production won.

And the feudal lords lost: they received the same amount of money from the peasants in the form of rent (after all, the rent was fixed), but this money was now worth 2-3 times less. The price revolution was an economic blow to the feudal class.

The second consequence of the Great Geographical Discoveries was a revolution in European trade. Maritime trade grew into ocean trade, and in connection with this, the medieval monopolies of the Hanseatic League and Venice collapsed: it was no longer possible to control ocean roads.

It would seem that Spain and Portugal should have benefited from the relocation of trade routes, which not only owned overseas colonies, but were also geographically located very conveniently - at the beginning of routes across the ocean. The rest of the European countries had to send ships past their shores. But Spain and Portugal had nothing to trade.

The winners in this regard were England and the Netherlands - producers and owners of goods. Antwerp became the center of world trade, where goods from all over Europe were collected. From here, merchant ships headed overseas, and from there returned with a rich cargo of coffee, sugar and other colonial products.

The volume of trade has increased. If previously only a small amount of eastern goods arrived in Europe, which were delivered to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea by Arab merchants, now the flow of these goods has increased tenfold. For example, spices to Europe in the 16th century. received 30 times more than during the period of Venetian trade. New goods appeared - tobacco, coffee, cocoa, potatoes, which Europe did not know before. And the Europeans themselves, in exchange for these goods, must produce much more of their goods than before.

The growth of trade required new forms of its organization. Commodity exchanges appeared (the first was in Antwerp). On such exchanges, merchants entered into trade transactions in the absence of goods: a merchant could sell coffee from the future harvest, fabrics that had not yet been woven, and then buy and deliver to his customers.

The third consequence of the Great Geographical Discoveries was the birth of the colonial system. If in Europe since the 16th century. capitalism began to develop; if, economically, Europe overtook the peoples of other continents, then one of the reasons for this was the robbery and exploitation of the colonies.

The colonies did not immediately begin to be exploited by capitalist methods, nor did they immediately become sources of raw materials and markets. At first they were objects of robbery, sources of initial accumulation of capital. The first colonial powers were Spain and Portugal, which exploited the colonies using feudal methods.

The nobles of these countries did not go to new lands in order to organize an orderly economy there, they went to rob and export wealth. In a short period of time, they captured and exported to Europe gold, silver, jewelry - whatever they could get their hands on. And after the wealth was taken out and something had to be done with the new possessions, the nobles began to use them in accordance with feudal traditions. The conquistadors captured or received as a gift from the kings territories with a native population, converting this population into serfs. Only serfdom here was brought to the level of slavery.

What the nobles needed here was not ordinary agricultural products, but gold, silver, or at least exotic fruits that could be sold at a high price in Europe. And they forced the Indians to develop gold and silver mines. Entire villages of those who did not want to work were exterminated. And around the mines, according to eyewitnesses, even the air was contaminated from hundreds of decomposing corpses. The natives were exploited using the same methods on sugarcane and coffee plantations.

The population could not withstand such exploitation and died out in droves. On the island of Hispaniola (Haiti) at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards there were about a million inhabitants, and by the middle of the 16th century. they were completely exterminated. The Spaniards themselves believed that in the first half of the 16th century. they destroyed the American Indians.

But by destroying the workforce, the Spaniards undermined the economic base of their colonies. To replenish the labor force, African blacks had to be imported to America. Thus, with the advent of the colonies, slavery was revived.

But in general, the Great Geographical Discoveries accelerated the decomposition of feudalism and the transition to capitalism in European countries

Svet Yakov Mikhailovich::: Columbus

A small stream flowing from the icy celestial springs gives rise to the great Amazon River, which carries more water into the Atlantic than the Amur, Yenisei, Ob, Volga, Dnieper and Danube taken together.

Great plans have origins as inconspicuous as the queen of rivers. A chance meeting, an inadvertently spoken word is like a spark from which a mighty flame will flare up.

Perhaps the former wool worker from the San Stefano suburb did not think or wonder about any plans or projects at the time when he became a frequent visitor to the Genoese harbor.

But, more than once, he must have had to listen to the bitter complaints of sailors and merchants: such difficult times have come, there is no way to the East, the damned Turks are crowding us out and ruining us. And, perhaps, in Saint-Siro Square, perhaps in the same harbor, he more than once heard wise people talking about new routes to India that the Portuguese were laying.

House of Centurion, traded with the West. This was the European West, but from the harbors of Castile, Portugal, France, and England, roads led to as yet unknown distances. Signors Centurione, Negro, Spinola, Lomellini were business people, and they knew only commercial geography: from Tana to Bruges the journey is forty-two days, from Genoa to Lisbon a week and a half, and it is more profitable to stay on such and such a coast, and bypass such and such islands and capes.

But they knew that in Calicut or Hormuz, quintal pepper costs ten times less than in Alexandria.

Due to lack of leisure, they did not read Marco Polo, but they knew that in Far Asia there is a country of China and a country of Sipango, and that many other eastern countries are incredibly rich. Perhaps the Venetian merchant Niccolo Conti visited Piazza San Siro, or if he didn’t, then one way or another rumors about his adventures on the islands of the Malay Archipelago, in Burma and Siam reached Old Genoa. There they read fascinating stories - “Four Books of History about the Variability of Fate.” According to Niccolò Conti, these four “geographical novellas” were written by the wonderful stylist and great polymath Poggio Bracciolini.

That the Earth is a sphere was learned in the 15th century not only by geographers, but also by businessmen. Both of them knew: Europe is washed by the Ocean in the west, but this same Ocean also approaches the shores of China, Sipango, Java and India. It's not that wide. Businessmen believed the geographers, but, as sober people, they refrained from drawing practical conclusions. From this, however, it does not at all follow that the tempting possibilities of finding a Western route to India and China were not discussed in table conversations.

There was a corporation of cartographers in Genoa, and it lived in close friendship with geography, and not with commercial, but with true geography. It included people whose works were well known. It was they, the Genoese cartographers, who in 1457 compiled a map of the world, which incorporated information from Niccolò Conti about the countries of Far Asia and the Portuguese discoveries in Africa.

Columbus apparently met with his fellow cartographers, in particular, with the fairly famous compiler of nautical maps Niccolo Cauvery, but it is difficult to establish what influence these figures had on him.

In a word, we can assume that the roots of the Columbus project go to the Genoese “subsoil”. Unfortunately, it has not yet been sufficiently examined by historians, and this task is not easy. Notarial documents, which have given so much to clarify the family situation in the "House of Columbus", remain silent in all cases when it does not involve litigation, deeds of gift, wills and trade transactions.

Italian Columbus scholars more than once accused the great navigator of ingratitude: he proposed his project first to the Portuguese King João II, and then to the Spanish royal couple, but at the same time forgot about Genoa. And if so, then perhaps Columbus’s ties with his native city were not so close...

Yes, of course, Columbus’s project was considered, rejected and approved in the countries of the Iberian Peninsula. But the possibility cannot be ruled out that Columbus made some proposals to the Genoese authorities, although documents in this regard have not yet been found.

The initial “points of growth” of Columbus’s plan should be sought in Genoa, although, undoubtedly, it finally crystallized in Portugal in 1480-1484.

Niels Bohr was extremely reserved about theories that were not crazy enough. From the standpoint of modern geography, Columbus's project was insane. Crazy and wrong.

This was his strength. Know Columbus that departure his the calculations are incorrect, it is unlikely that he would have gone out into the Sea-Ocean. Mistakes led him to victory, but he discovered something completely different from what he wanted to discover, and until the end of his days he defended false ideas killed by his own voyages.

Columbus's plan was simple.

It was based on two premises: one absolutely true and one absolutely false.

Premise No. 1 (absolutely true): The Earth is a ball.

Premise No. 2 (absolutely false): most of the Earth’s surface is occupied by land - a single massif of three continents, Asia, Europe and Africa, a smaller part - by sea, and because of this, the distance between the western shores of Europe and the eastern tip of Asia is small, and in a short time it is possible , following the western route, reach India, Sipango (Japan) and China.

The first premise is an axiom, unconditionally accepted in the era of Columbus.

The second premise corresponded to the geographical ideas of this era. Since the times of classical antiquity, the opinion has taken root that on our planet there is a single landmass - Eurasia with an African touch - and a single, its all sides washing the ocean. At the same time, ancient and medieval geographers believed that a single landmass was either equal to or greater in length than a single sea.

The greatest authority in ancient geology, Ptolemy believed that the width of the land was equal to the ocean; his predecessor, the Greco-Syrian geographer of the 1st century AD. e. Marin of Tire argued that the land is much “longer” than the sea. Marinus of Tire calculated that land accounts for 225 degrees out of 360 degrees of the earth's circumference, and only 135 degrees for the ocean.

And from this it followed that the western route from Europe to Asia should be relatively short. A navigator who chose this route could reach India and China by covering only 2/5 of the earth's circumference.

However, a purely practical question arose: what is the length of this sea leg of the circumnavigation of the world?

This question could be easily answered, knowing the extent of the earth's degree. This type of measurement was carried out repeatedly in pre-Columbian times. Back in the 3rd century BC. e. the remarkable Greek geographer Eratosthenes established that on the meridian of Aswan the degree distance is 700 stadia. 700 stadia correspond to 110.25 kilometers.

This is actually the length of the earth's degree at the equator. At the latitude of the Canary Islands it is less - 98.365 kilometers.

Columbus was not satisfied with this value. Even taking the considerations of Marin of Tire as the basis for the calculation, he would have to obtain a very respectable figure for 2/5 of the earth’s circumference. In fact: 135 X 98.365 = 13,216 kilometers.

And the author of the project to sail to Asia by the western route decided to reduce this distance. Columbus knew that the length of a degree was determined even after Eratosthenes. He knew that such research was carried out, in particular, by the Central Asian geographer of the 9th century, Ahmed ibn Muhammad ibn Kathir al-Fargani, who was called Alfargan in Europe.

Alfargan in 827, on behalf of Caliph Mamun, checked the calculations of the Greeks and found that on the meridian of the city of Raqqa, located in the upper reaches of the Euphrates, the length of a degree is 56 2/3 miles.

An Arab mile corresponds to 1973 meters, and therefore there were 111.767 kilometers in an Alfargan degree. But Columbus replaced Arab miles with Italian ones. There are only 1480 meters in one Italian mile. After such an operation, the length of the degree was immediately reduced by 25 percent, and the length of the thirty-five degree ocean decreased accordingly: 56 2 / 3 X 1480 X 135 = 11,339 kilometers.

A lot of!!! And this figure should have been cut. Are being entered further amendments. Marinus of Tire lived at a time when the eastern tip of Asia was unknown to the Romans and Greeks. Asia ended somewhere beyond the Golden Chersonese - the modern Malacca Peninsula. But Marco Polo visited beyond this border, in China, and found out something about the country of Sipango, or Chipangu, Japan. Therefore, Columbus reasoned, the land contains not 225, but much more degrees. And to the figure of Marin of Tire he added another 58 degrees - 28 for China and 30 for Japan.

Now the Ocean has only 77 degrees left. But the open and unknown sea began only behind the Canary Islands, the westernmost of which were 9-10 degrees west of Lisbon; therefore, from the reduced value of 77 degrees, it was possible to drop another 9 degrees. It was 68 degrees left. That's all. The “true” distance separating the Canary Islands from Sipango - Japan was obtained:

68 X 56 2 /з X 1480 = 5710 kilometers.

In fact, the Canary Island of Ferro (Hierro) lies at 18° west longitude, and Tokyo at 139° 47 "east longitude. And the distance between them (if you overcome it from east to west) is not 68, but 202° 13 /, the length of the degree the distance at 28° north latitude is 98.365 kilometers.

202°13" X 98.365 = 19042 kilometers!

Columbus's Japan lay on the meridian of Cuba and Chicago, and the Chinese harbor of Hangzhou - the miracle city of Kinsai in Marco Polo's notes ended up in the places where the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco now stand.

Winners are not judged, but Columbus was harshly judged by geographers and historians of the 19th and 20th centuries.

But if there is a higher court of history, then such a tribunal should pronounce a verdict: the accused is guilty, but deserves all possible leniency. It is not only Christopher Columbus, the Genoese, who must be held accountable, but also his century.

We, people of the 20th century, judge Columbus’s ways of seeing the world from our high bell tower. We are accustomed to accurate maps, the most advanced methods for measuring spatial parameters, and jewelry techniques for counting microunits of time have become part of our flesh and blood.

We live in the age of milli-micron tolerances, the designs of our spacecraft and satellites are calculated with fantastic precision.

Meanwhile, the man of the 15th century did not feel the slightest need for such assessments of spatial and temporal elements.

The Florentine merchant Balduci Pegolotti, who lived one hundred and fifty years before Columbus, surprised the world with a wonderful guide for traveling merchants, a book called “Pratica de la mercatura” - “The Practice of Trade”. This was an archetypal reference guide for that time, but in it the distances on the way from Crimea to Catay or from Constantinople to Tabriz were given in days, and the path itself remained unmeasured. The day is an indefinite unit. It can stretch or contract depending on the means of transport at hand. One could travel from Kaffa to Sarai for a month on camels or in a week if fast Tatar horses were at hand. The indications on the distance traveled by the famous travelers of the 15th century - Clavijo, Varbaro, Contarini, Afanasy Nikitin - are no less vague. And this is not because they were careless. These people simply did not feel the need for accurate measurements of the path traveled.

Ptolemy's Geography, retrieved from the darkness of oblivion, estimated distances in degrees, and this completely satisfied the geologist of the 15th century.

In addition, the greatest confusion reigned in the “metrology” of that time. Almost every province used its own measures; there were leagues, miles, feet, cubits of different lengths, arrobs, almuts and fanegas of different capacities; this incredible discrepancy did not really bother the sailors and merchants. Indeed, what did the distance between Lisbon and Venice, determined by the helmsman, matter in Italian or Portuguese miles, if it was not indicated whether favorable or contrary winds were blowing at the time when this voyage was made?

Even the most advanced maps of the 15th century with a degree grid and scale bars were archetypal, and this circumstance did not irritate or surprise anyone.

Therefore, we unwittingly fall into error when applying modern criteria to Columbus's calculations. Psychological error. And in order to avoid it, one should abandon the usual standards of our time and imagine the structure of thought and norms of behavior of people of a long-gone era.

Yes, the people of the 15th century thought and acted completely differently from their distant descendants living in the times of Einstein and Bohr, Korolev and Armstrong.

If we ignore the historical and psychological aspects and move on to less shaky ground, then it is impossible not to note that any contemporary of the great navigator, developing a project for sailing the western route to the eastern outskirts of Asia, would have proceeded from approximately the same considerations. It is no coincidence that John Cabot developed a similar project independently of Columbus. . Perhaps other contemporaries of Columbus would not have allowed such “overexposures,” but ultimately their routes would still have been much shorter than the Lisbon-Havana-Tokyo air route.

This was very convincingly demonstrated by the Soviet Columbus scholar M. A. Kogan in the article “On the geographical views of Europeans on the eve of the great geographical discoveries” (12).

M.A. Kogan rightly says that the very concept of the United World Ocean - and it dominated science from ancient times until the era of Columbus - assumed that it was possible all the time, following from the shores of Europe to the west, to reach the eastern edge of Asia.

The idea of ​​the reality of such a voyage was expressed by Aristotle and Seneca, Pliny the Elder, Strabo and Plutarch, and in the Middle Ages the theory of the Single Ocean was consecrated by the church. It was recognized by the Arab world and its great geographers Masudi, al-Biruni, Idrisi.

The great scientists of the 13th - 14th centuries, in particular Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon, had no doubt that India could be reached by following from the shores of Europe to the west; Dante was also convinced of this.

Cartographers of the 14th and 15th centuries held similar views. In 1959, the Yale University Library acquired a map by the German Heinrich Martel, compiled around 1490. On it, the Eurasian land is elongated according to the standards of Marin of Tire, and the single sea is compressed to 110 degrees.

Approximately the same proportions are maintained on the famous globe made by the German cartographer Martin Beheim in 1492.

M.A. Kogan in the 60s of the 20th century knew much more ancient and medieval advocates of the concept of the Western route than Columbus in the 70s and 80s of the 15th century.

The literature he had at his disposal was sufficient to develop this project; it mirrored the ideas of the prophets of the Western path.

In Columbus’s personal “library” the most valuable book is “Imago Mundi” - “Image of the World” by the French polymath, Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly (the Spaniards and Columbus called him Aliak).

This is the most important reference book of the great navigator. It is incredibly disheveled, there are many notes in the margins (marginalia), sometimes very brief, sometimes very lengthy. In all likelihood, Columbus acquired the “Imago Mundi” in 1481 and did not part with this book until his death.

Pierre d'Ailly lived for a very long time and died in 1420. He wrote “Imago Mundi” ten years before his death and in this work brought together the most important ancient and medieval judgments about the figure of the Earth, its size, its belts, the extent of land and sea His book was a detailed commentary on the treatises of Greek, Roman, Arab and Western European authors. Pierre d'Ailly was not interested in facts. He was not a geographer in the modern sense of the word, but a book reader, very diligent and very thorough.

He apparently considered descriptions of all kinds of travel to distant lands a frivolous form of literature, if only because neither Aristotle, nor Pliny, nor Holywood-Sacrobosco could find references to the opinions of Marco Polo or Odorico Pordenone.

There was some embarrassment between d'Aya and Ptolemy. Circumstances so happened that at the same time as the "Imago Mundi" the Byzantine Manuel Chrysolorus finished the Latin translation of Ptolemy's "Geography" (he took the Greek manuscripts of this work from Constantinople) and his Italian student, Jacopo d" Angelo.

For Columbus, Imago Mundi, a rather mediocre work even by 15th-century standards, was invaluable. This book faithfully served him as an oracle; it was that storehouse of wisdom from which he drew the necessary information and the necessary references to authorities by the full handful.

There are 898 marginal notes in the margins of Kolumbov’s “Imago Mundi”. True, not all of them were made by the hand of the great navigator. Bartolome Columbus also used the book, and his handwriting was very similar to that of his older brother. There are also notes from later owners of this work.

However, the lion's share of marginalia belongs to Columbus. Christopher, not Bartholomew, and it was from Pierre d'Ailly that the future great navigator found the assessments and opinions that he based his project on.

The first premise of his plan is given in the form of a brief maxim in marginalia No. 480: “The Earth is a round sphere. The earth is divided into five climatic zones. The earth is divided into three parts."

The second premise (the land is large, the sea is narrow, the distance from the western end of Europe to the eastern edge of Asia is small) “ripens” in marginalia No. 23, 43, 363, 366, 486 and 677.

Here is the text of Pierre d'Ailly: “According to Aristotle and Averroes... the end of the inhabited earth in the East and the end of the inhabited earth in the West are quite close to each other, and between them there is a small (parvum) sea.”

Fifteen years would pass, and in a letter to Isabella and Ferdinand about his third voyage, Columbus would remember Aristotle, Averroes, and the author of “Imago Mundi,” from whom he borrowed information about the “small sea.”

And here is the marginalia for this passage. Marginalia No. 43: “The end of the inhabited land in the East and the end of the inhabited land in the West are quite close [Columbus’ style remains unchanged] and in the middle is a small sea.”

Again Pierre d'Ailly: “Pliny says that elephants live in the Atlas Mountains, and likewise in India... Aristotle concludes that these places are close.” And marginalia No. 365: “Elephants live near the Atlas Mountains, likewise and in India. Therefore, one place from another is not at a great distance."

And in marginalia No. 677, the idea of ​​​​the smallness of the Sea-Ocean is confirmed in this way: “Expertum est quod hoc mare est navigabile in paucis diebus, ventus conveniens” - “experience has shown that this sea can be passed by ships in a small number of days with favorable winds.” It is not clear whose experience we are talking about - either the Portuguese voyages, or the voyage of Columbus himself.

Combinations with data on degree distances are expressed in eight marginalia (No. 4, 28, 31, 481, 490, 491, 698, 812). The sacramental Alfargan figure 56 2 /3 appears here more than once, and in marginalia No. 490 Columbus, referring to his own experience of the Guinean voyages and to the calculations of the Portuguese cosmographer “Master Joseph”, or José Vizinho (this Vizinho was a member of the commission of the Lisbon Mathematical Junta, which in 1484 or at the beginning of 1485 rejected Columbus's project), definitely states that a degree is equal to 56 2/3 miles and there are 20,400 miles in the earth's circumference (along the equator).

From the text of the 689th marginalia it is clear that Italian miles are meant. The shortest and most “profitable” for the western route project.

Reading all these notes, we seem to be entering the “creative laboratory” of young Columbus. In “Imago Mundi” he looked for and found not so much specific data as authoritative confirmation of his daring and risky calculations. At various stages of project development, he again and again resorted to this invaluable source for him. One very important marginalia clearly dates back to 1488 or 1489. It evaluates the results of the expedition of the Portuguese Bartolomeu Dias, who rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488.

Pierre d'Ailly kept silent about the wonders of the East, but Columbus extracted all the information he needed on this matter from the 1485 Latin edition of Marco Polo's Book. Before acquiring this edition, Columbus probably used the manuscript of the Book. At that time in Europe there were many lists of Marco Polo's work.

Here the marginalia are brief, but there are quite a lot of them - 366, as many as there are days in a leap year.

For a European of the 14th - 15th centuries (and even more so for a Genoese), the tale of an enchanted Venetian wanderer, recorded by his enthusiastic neighbor in his prison cell, the not very literate Ligurian Rusticciano, was a true revelation.

The wanderer learned with the greatest amazement that the Earth is immensely large, that it is inhabited by countless peoples, about which the biblical prophets and evangelical apostles had no idea, that strange animals live in it, and in the alien skies shine stars that are not in Italian or French sky.

The Wanderer was the son of Venice, an amphibious city with burning worldly desires. A merchant and the son of a merchant, he, traveling from country to country, along the way compiled inventories of the countless riches of the East.

And his book aroused selfish dreams among Europeans. They raved about the incense of Arabia, the spices of India, the treasures of the Great Khan, the ruler of Manzi, or Manji (South China), Cathay and Tartary.

Somewhere in the inaccessible distance were the miracle cities of Kinsay, Khanbalyk, Zaiton, and, reading through the “Book” of Marco Polo, the Genoese, Venetians, Catalans, Portuguese and Castilians tried to find guiding instructions. Not those that Marco Polo gave, those that could no longer be used, but others that would make it possible to build roundabout routes to India and Cathay.

There were no such instructions, but it was not for nothing that it was said: “Push and it will be opened.” And Columbus reread “The Book” of Marco Polo dozens of times.

And in the margins he noted: “cinnamon”, “rhubarb”, “precious stones”, “gold”. And with a compass he measured on the map how large the possessions of the Great Khan were and how far the country of Sipango lay from them.

225 + 28 + 30 = 283. The number is the key to the treasures of the East. After all, if you subtract 283 degrees from 360 degrees, it turns out that Sipango is just a stone's throw from Lisbon and the Canary Islands...

The 366 marginalia in Marco Polo's Book are applications for future discoveries.

Perhaps no less important for Columbus was the work of Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini. The work of an all-knowing man, whom heaven itself elevated to the papal throne. The 1477 Venetian edition of this book was used by Columbus.

In a rather dry, detailed manner, with references to old authorities and travelers of modern times, he described the peoples and countries of the earthly ecumene. Not very accurate, but what can you do, the information in the far eastern and northern lands that we had to use was vague and inconsistent.

With pen in hand, Columbus read this short geographical encyclopedia and noted in the margins the names of rivers, mountains, lakes, and seas of Europe and Asia.

In terms of the number of marginalia, “Historia Rerum” is almost as good as “Imago Mundi”. There are 861 notes in this book.

Obviously, even in the Italian edition of Pliny, Columbus did not feel any particular need. Everything he needed, he took from Pierre d'Ailly, Marco Polo, Aeneas Silvius. Therefore, the fields of “Natural History” are quite clean - there are only 23 notes on them.

It is not known exactly when, but probably quite late, a palimpsest (a parchment from which the original text was scraped out to make a new entry) with poems by Seneca came to Columbus quite late.

This Roman poet and philosopher in his “Medea” predicted the future discovery of the land beyond the Ocean.

The years will fly by, and through many centuries

The ocean will loosen the shackles of things,

And the vast earth will appear before our eyes,

And new Tifis will open the seas,

And Fula will not be the limit of the earth

Columbus, with his penchant for mystical insights and belief in all kinds of prophecies, undoubtedly likened himself to Jason's helmsman Tiphis. He translated these poems into Spanish (though in prose), and this translation was preserved in the margins of an old palimpsest:

“There will come a time in the world when the Ocean will loosen the bonds of things, and a large land will open up, and a new navigator, like the one who led Jason and bore the name Tithys, will open a new world, and then the island of Thile will not be the last of the lands.”

Columbus's translation is somewhat free, and the prophetic words “new world” are included in it. Columbus did not call the lands he discovered that way, although after his third voyage the term “otro mundo” - another world - entered his nomenclature.

The “New World” does not sound here as a geographical reality, it is an abstract symbol, but it was not by chance that Seneca interested the author of the Western Route project.

Seneca was a pagan and, of course, in terms of prophecies, he could not be compared with the psalmist David, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Isaiah and Ezra.

This is what the biblical kings and prophets said:

1. Psalm XVIII, art. 2-5: “The heavens proclaim the glory of God, and the firmament speaks of the work of his hands.

Day imparts speech to day, and night reveals knowledge to night.

There is no language and no dialect where their voice is not heard.

Their sound goes throughout the whole earth, and their words to the ends of the world.”

2. Ezekiel, ch. XXVI, art. 18:

“The islands of the sea are in turmoil because of your destruction.”

3. Zechariah, chapter VI, page 10:

“And he will proclaim peace to the nations, and his dominion will be from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth.”

4. Isaiah, ch. XLI, page 5:

“They saw the islands and were horrified, the ends of the earth trembled. They became close and grew apart.”

5. The third book of Ezra, ch. VI, page 42:

“On the third day you ordered the waters to gather on the seventh part of the earth, and dried up six parts so that they would serve before you for seeding and cultivation.”

It would seem that these biblical sayings had no direct (or even indirect) relation to Columbus’s plan.

But his age was not like our time.

In his declining years, having girdled his loins with a rope, he will begin to read the “Book of Prophecies” - and he will value every line in it above the diaries of his great voyages. Then he will plunge into the dark abyss of astrology, sharpen his mind by reading medieval empty saints - interpreters of Old Testament prophecies, devote hours of sleep to the search for unsolved revelations in the works of Blessed Augustine, St. Ambrose, "The Venerable Bede, Josidore of Seville.

This will happen in 1501, when he will have only a few years left to live in this world. In 1480 he was still young and prophetic visions did not disturb his Soul.

But even in the Lisbon years, he looked for guidance in the Bible and believed that the spirit of Isaiah and Ezra was hovering over him.

She was captivated by the frantic power of the Old Testament, books of precise calculations and heavenly insights. In cubits, shekels, talents, minas, human deeds, the walls of Solomon's temple and the grain in the Hillile granaries were weighed and measured.

On July 7, 1503, on the island of Jamaica, in a letter to Isabella and Ferdinand, Columbus gave some biblical calculations: “One day they brought Solomon 166 quintals of gold from one trip... from this gold he ordered to make 200 spears and 300 shields, and cover the back of the thorn with gold , and decorate it with precious stones... David, in his will, refused three thousand quintals of gold from India to Solomon for the construction of the temple...” The count is based on Spanish quintals, it’s more convenient, but the numbers are named with biblical (or Genoese?) accuracy. What about human destinies?

Kings and generals, shepherds and publicans went to glory and shame, prosperity and poverty in unspeakable ways, led by the will of God, and their destinies were in the right hand of the Lord.

His command, gentlemen, is not given to the blind, for whom the path of true revelation is closed. But let him who has eyes see, and the paths reserved for other mortals will be opened to him. And you outline them in short miles, in short ones, and not in long ones, for it is not without reason that Isaiah says: “they came close and came together,” and it is not without reason that Ezra says that the waters gathered only in the seventh part of the world, that is, in the “small sea.”

These were the book sources of Columbus at the time when his project was created.

There were also epistolary sources. Quite dubious. These are letters from the famous Florentine scientist Paolo Toscanelli.

Two letters. The first Toscanelli addressed to the Portuguese canon Fernand Martins, the second to Columbus. Letter No. 2 was a response to a request from Columbus, who, having read letter No. 1, turned to the Florentine cosmographer for additional clarification and asked him to approve his project.

These letters were reproduced in his book by Fernando Colon, and after him Las Casas introduced them into the text of his History of the Indies.

Both authors translated, with considerable discrepancies, letters from the original language (Latin) into Spanish, and the text given in the first edition of Fernando Colon’s book was subjected to a secondary translation into Italian. The original letters are unknown. In 1860, X. Fernandez y Velasco, librarian of the Biblioteca Colombiana in Seville, found in Silvius Piccolomini's Columbus copy of Aeneas a copy of Letter No. 2, taken, he claimed, by the great navigator himself.

Fernando Colon considered Toscanelli the godfather of the great project. “Maestro Paolo... a Florentine, a contemporary of the Admiral himself,” wrote Fernando Colon, “was largely the reason that the Admiral undertook his journey with great inspiration. For it happened this way: the said Maestro Paolo was a friend of a certain Fernando Martinez, a Lisbon canon, and they corresponded with each other regarding the voyages made to the country of Guinea in the time of King Don Alfonso of Portugal, and about what should be done when sailing to the West. News of this reached the Admiral, and he showed the greatest curiosity about such things, and the Admiral hastened through a certain Lorenzo Gerardi, a Florentine who was in Lisbon, to write to the said Maestro Paolo regarding these matters and sent him a small globe, revealing his plan. Maestro Paolo sent an answer in Latin, which I translate into our vulgar dialect” (58, 46).

So, Toscanelli. Paolo del Pozzo Toscanelli. One of those Toscanellis who from time immemorial lived in Florence in Piazza de San Felice, near the old “pozzo” - a well with very tasty water.

Paolo Toscanelli was very old in the 70s of the 15th century. He was born in 1397. He was an anchorite scientist, selflessly devoted to science. He had no family; he devoted all his leisure time to mathematics, astronomy, and cosmography. In his youth, he received an excellent education at three Italian universities - Bologna, Padua and Pavia.

Geography was his favorite science. He knew the “Book” of Marco Polo by heart; all Italian travelers returning from the distant countries of the East came to him in Florence.

But, collecting various geographical information with antlike diligence, Toscanelli did not often pick up a pen. He did not write any books; only one single, undoubtedly Tuscanelli manuscript, drafts of astronomical tables and many sketches of various maps have survived.

However, all of Italy spoke about his great learning, the name of Toscanelli was known in all university centers of Europe, German, Portuguese and French cosmographers and cartographers made a pilgrimage to Florence to Piazza San Felice.

His brother was the head of a trading house that went bankrupt immediately after the fall of Constantinople. It is no coincidence that Paolo Toscanelli, in the 60s and 70s, showed great interest in finding a western route to India!

He was a close friend of the famous humanist scientist Nicholas of Cusa, and he was patronized by the enlightened ruler of Florence, Cosimo de' Medici.

Paolo Toscanell died in the spring of 1482, leaving his nephews a large library with valuable manuscripts." Among them was the work of the great Avicenna,

Let us now turn to two messages from Toscanelli. In the first, in a letter to Canon Fernand Martins dated June 25, 1474, Toscanelli responded to Martins' request. The Lisbon canon addressed the Florentine scholar on behalf of the Portuguese king Alfonso V.

The king wanted to know what the shortest routes to Guinea were. In response, Toscanelli sent “a map drawn with his own hand,” on which “your shores and islands, from which the path goes west all the time,” and the path to the land of spices are depicted. The shortest. West. The letter itself was a brief explanation of this map.

Toscanelli gave the following instructions in it: “From Lisbon to the west are mapped, in a straight line, 26 sections, each 250 miles long, to the great and magnificent city of Quinsay.” Kinsai, or Huangzhou, at one time fascinated Marco Polo, and Toscanelli described this richest Chinese harbor in the words of the Venetian.

Then Toscanelli reported “From the also famous island of Antilia, which you call the island of the Seven Cities, to the very famous island of Chippangu - Japan - 10 segments.”

Consequently, according to Toscanelli, from Lisbon to the country of Manzi (South China) with its magnificent harbor of Kinsay was:

26X250 = 5250 miles.

And before Japan, from some land lying in the center of the Sea-Ocean, there were:

10 X 250 = 2500 miles.

The second letter (undated), addressed to Columbus, contained absolutely no specific information. Toscanelli condescendingly approved of “the bold and grandiose plan to sail to the eastern countries by the western route. He considered this plan correct and reliable.

In conclusion, Toscanelli expressed the hope that “you, overwhelmed by the same high feelings as the entire Portuguese people, who always at the right time put forward men capable of outstanding deeds, are burning with the desire to carry out this voyage.”

Neither the first nor, especially, the second letter contains any new information about the western route. It is quite possible that King Alfonso V was indeed concerned about the shortest routes to India. In the mid-70s of the 15th century, Portuguese captains reported that the Guinean coast, along which ships had previously always sailed east, suddenly deviated sharply to the south. This was bad news; the eastern route to India now had to be found further south than previously thought.

Under such circumstances, the wise advice of the famous Florentine could not have been more appropriate, but for some reason Toscanelli limited himself to two or three figures and a description of the city of Quinsaya, borrowed from Marco Polo.

Toscanelli is a subtle stylist, but both letters do not justify his reputation.

In short, it seems that Toscanelli was not the author of these messages.

And yet, the version about his correspondence with Portuguese correspondents was not created out of nowhere.

Canon Fernão Martins Roriz actually lived in Lisbon at that time. Moreover, he knew Toscanelli and his friend Nicholas of Cusa well. In 1461, in Rome, Toscanelli and Martins simultaneously affixed their signatures to the will of Nicholas of Cusa as witnesses.

Real figure and Lorenzo Gerardi. This is a merchant from the Florentine Geraldi family. The House of Geraldi conducted business in Portugal and Castile, and one of its representatives, Janoto (the Spaniards called him Juanoto Berardi), a Seville banker, played a significant role in the further destinies of Columbus.

In addition, there is one very interesting document that suggests that Toscanelli was indeed involved, if not in the Columbus project, then in the Portuguese and Spanish voyages in the Atlantic.

On June 26, 1494, soon after the news of Columbus's amazing discoveries spread in Europe, the Duke of Ferrara, Ercole d'Este, a very inquisitive man, wrote to his ambassador Manfredo di Manfredi in Florence and instructed him to obtain maps of “certain islands” from the nephew of the late Toscanelli. discovered by Spain" (31, 222).

It was obviously about Tuscanelli's maps of the Atlantic and, possibly, about the routes of the western route outlined by the Florentine scientist.

Toscanelli's correspondence has long been of concern to Columbus scholars. Objective researchers did not understand why Fernando Colon, who was so eager to increase the glory of his father, attributed Toscanelli the role of guide to the great navigator. It is equally inexplicable why the example of Fernando Colon was followed by Las Casas, who always defended the priority of Columbus in the discovery of the New World.

It is not clear why the Spanish chronicler of the late 16th - early 17th centuries, Antonio Herrera (73, I), who had access to all the archives of the Spanish kingdom, did not mention Toscanelli and his letters at all in his work dedicated to the discovery of America.

As a result, the “Tuscanelli” question remains open to this day, and it is unlikely to be “closed” in the foreseeable future.

Whether Toscanelli's letters existed or not is not that important in general. Columbus had no need for Florentine prompters. Everything he put into his project was borrowed from other sources, more thorough, although equally deceptive.

Columbus was not an armchair recluse, and while paying tribute to useful books, he at the same time supported his plan with survey information.

There was a certain logic in this: in fact, if the eastern tip of Asia lay somewhere beyond the “small sea”, then certain ships could accidentally sail to it or some lands near the coast of Cathay and India. Equally important were the physical signs of the desired part of Asia. The “Small Sea” brought them quite often, as Columbus became convinced of during his stay on the islands of Porto Santo and Madeira. Information about these signs of an overseas land complemented the picture that he created by studying the works of Pierre d'Ailly, Aeneas Silvius and Marco Polo.

The result was a very attractive concept, and its author, stroke by stroke, sketched out a picture of the earth’s ecumene with a huge landmass and a “small sea.”

All that remained was to find a generous patron of the arts and, with his help, begin to implement the intended plan. .

The modern Genoese historian P. Revelli tried to trace Columbus’s connections with the Genoese cartographers of the 15th century. Unfortunately, he did not suffer from a lack of imagination and, without sufficient evidence, attributed to the Ligurian cartographic school a decisive role in the formation of the geographical views of the great navigator (108, 109).

In 1534, a collection dedicated to the newly discovered lands was published in Venice. Its compiler was the famous collector of materials about all kinds of travels, Giovanni Battista Ramusio. In the brief summary of Pietro Martira's work on the New World, which opened this collection, there was one phrase that was missing from all other works of this author. It sounded like this: “At the age of 40... Columbus first proposed to the Genoese signoria to equip ships so that they would leave Gibraltar, and, heading west, circumnavigate the globe and reach the land where spices are born” (71, I, 338, 339).

In 1708, the Genoese chronicler Casoni mentioned a similar proposal (50, 25-31). Both of these reports are doubtful; it is not clear why other Genoese authors were silent about them and for what reasons the Genoese signory could have rejected Columbus’s project. But this information deserves careful verification.

“Since I proceeded from the fact that the Earth is a sphere,” Cabot wrote, “I had to, sailing to the northwest, find a shorter route to India.”

Marginalia of the five books that Columbus used (“Historia Rerum Gestarum”, “Aenea Silvia Piccolomini”, “Imago Mundi” by Pierre d'Ailly, “Natural History” by Pliny the Elder in the Italian translation, the Latin edition of Marco Polo and “Parallel Lives” by Plutarch) , were published by C. Lollis in 1894 (78, 292-522). The ownership of most marginalia by Columbus was disputed in the 20s and 30s of our century by the German Jesuit paleographer F. Streicher (118). His arguments, however, were not recognized by Columbus scholars.

Translation by S. Solovyov. Tithis is the helmsman of the Argonauts' ship. Fula, or Thule, is the northernmost land of the ecumene.

No Toscanelli map survives. Various books dedicated to Columbus contain reconstructions made in the 19th century by the German scientists Kretschmer and Peschel and the French historian and geographer Vivien de San Martin (124).

In 1872, G. Harris doubted the authenticity of Toscanelli's letters. 29 years later, his compatriot G. Vigneault, who, like a torpedo, blew up all traditional versions in Columbus studies, declared these letters to be fakes and laid the blame for the forgery on Fernando Colon. Vigneault gave many convincing arguments in favor of his hypothesis, but disdained all opinions and facts that did not fit into his scheme (129).

In the 30s of our century, the attack on Toscanelli's correspondence was resumed by the Argentine historian R. Carbia. He accused Las Casas of the forgery. Carbia proceeded from the completely absurd assumption that Las Casas was the author of the work of Fernando Colon, and this technique allowed him to develop all sorts of fantastic conjectures (49).

The Soviet historian D. Ya. Tsoukernik went even further (33, 35, 36). In his opinion, Columbus himself forged Toscanelli's letters. Meanwhile, the great navigator did not mention Toscanelli at all in his messages and notes. The name of the Florentine scientist, however, appears in the diary of Columbus’s first voyage, but this diary has come to us in a revision and retelling by Las Casas, and Columbus bears no responsibility for references to Toscanelli, and Tsoukernik himself denied the authenticity of this source. But if Columbus composed the Toscanelli letters to support his project with the authoritative judgments of the Florentine cosmographer, then why did he not refer to these judgments, although he often cited in his letters references to Marco Polo, Pierre d'Ailly, Aeneas Silvius and various commentators on the Holy Scriptures?

The hypotheses of Carbia and Tsoukernik are built on obviously incorrect premises, but Vigneault’s arguments should be taken into account.

Although in recent years, Columbus scholars are inclined to believe that Fernand Martins, and possibly Columbus, corresponded with the Florentine geographer [these opinions are supported by the Spanish historian F. Morales Padron (91, 68-70), the Belgian researcher S. Verlinden (127 , 10-15) and the Italian geographer R. Almaggia (39)], the author of these lines joins them with great reservations. It seems that Columbus did not have direct epistolary contacts with Toscanelli, although it is possible that he could have become acquainted with Toscanelli’s opinions in the 80s of the 15th century without attaching much importance to them.

From the mid-16th century to the present day, Columbus's true goals and intentions have been periodically questioned. Critics of the “traditional” version of Columbus’s plan either accuse him of plagiarism, believing that he took advantage of the fruits of other people’s discoveries, or prove that he was not looking for India and Cathay, but for some Atlantic islands lying at the end of the great western route (35 , 36, 129). The authors of these critical hypotheses come to the conclusion that Columbus and his first biographers deliberately misled their contemporaries by concealing the “genuine” sources of information about the Western lands or hiding the “real” goals of the voyage to the West. The plan of the great navigator is so closely connected with his first voyage, committed in 1492, that we will return to the analysis of various critical versions on pp. 144-146.

Correspondence with Toscanelli

By the end of 1479, Columbus, his wife and one-year-old son Diego moved to the Portuguese capital. Columbus took up the cake business again. However, trade became a heavy burden for Columbus. Old creditors pursued him everywhere, and new debts grew. He was forced to put up with his position as a merchant - until the western voyage, which he expected to carry out in the near future.

One of Columbus's friends, Lorenzo Girardi, an Italian merchant who lived in Lisbon in those years, once told him about a conversation he had several years ago in Florence with the famous Florentine cosmographer Paolo Toscanelli. This scientist told Girardi about his correspondence with the Portuguese court, that he sent Alfonso V a map of the project he had developed for the western route to India, accompanied by detailed instructions.

According to Girardi, Toscanelli not only knew about the possibility of the western route, but also strongly recommended it to the Portuguese king. But the king did not take advantage of Toscanelli's advice.

This was not the first time Columbus had heard the name Toscanelli. Begaim also mentioned this scientist. Columbus decided to write to Toscanelli and find out his project from his enlightened fellow countryman. In 1480, through Girardi, he sent a letter to Toscanelli, asking the Florentine to give his opinion on the route that should be followed to reach the countries where the spices originate. At the same time, Columbus resorted to a naive mystification, introducing himself in writing to Toscanelli as a Portuguese sailor.

Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli was a typical scientist of the era, the Renaissance, who devoted his strength to the most diverse branches of knowledge. In his youth he studied medicine and natural history. Then, influenced by his passion for navigation, he devoted himself to astronomy, cosmography, and geographical issues. The Florentine scientist was eighty-three years old when he received a letter from Columbus. For decades now he had been studying the possibilities of the Western route to Asia. He was an ardent supporter of this “shortest route” and tirelessly argued for its advantages over the route that Prince Henry’s students were laying around Africa.

Toscanelli was the first European geographer to draw a map of the Atlantic Ocean. Asia served as the western shore of the ocean. To compile his map, Toscanelli used the calculations of Marin of Tire and the stories of Marco Polo. Toscanelli's map clearly “proved” the advantages of the western route to India. The Florentine should therefore rightly be revered as the spiritual father of the project of western navigation.

The old scientist very readily shared all his knowledge with Columbus.

It is interesting to get acquainted with Toscanelli’s letter, since it played an exceptional role in the further behavior of Columbus. Written in Latin, Toscanelli's reply read:

“Pavel physician Hristoval Kolomo, hello. I received news of your noble desire to go to where the spices grow. In response to your letter, I am sending a copy of another letter written long ago to my friend, the courtier of the King of Portugal, in response to his request written to me by order of His Majesty. I am also sending you a nautical chart similar to the one sent to him. In it you will find the answer to your questions. At the same time, a copy of the letter I mentioned.”

Florentine geographer and astronomer Paol Dal Pozzo Toscanelli

Estimated view of the map sent by Toscanelli to Christopher Columbus

The letter to Canon Martins, enclosed in a copy with the map, is dated June 25, 1474, and is written in the following terms:

“Paul the physician Fermamo Martins, canon in Lisbon, greetings. I was pleased to learn that you are in the favor of your king. I have already spoken more than once about the shortest route from here to India, to the countries where spices grow. This route is shorter than the one you take past Guinea. But you told me. that His Majesty wishes to receive clarification from me, as well as a visual representation of this road.

Although I think it would be best to show it on a globe, for the sake of simplicity and better understanding I have depicted it on a flat map, similar to an ordinary sea chart. I am sending a similar card to His Majesty. It depicts the entire west of the inhabited world from Ireland to Guinea and almost all the islands lying along this route. Directly to the west of these are the outskirts of India with islands and localities where you can travel towards the equator. The map also shows in miles how great the distance is to these places, which abound in spices, precious stones and gold.

Do not be surprised that I call the west of the country where spices come from, while they are usually called the east. The one who sails all the time to the west will reach these countries in a western direction, and the one who goes overland to the east will reach the same lands in the east. Plumb longitudinal lines drawn on the map show the distance from east to west, while other horizontal lines running across the map show the distance from south to north. I also depicted a large number of places in India, where sailors can go against their will if a storm breaks out, or if the winds are contrary. In addition, I considered it necessary for those sailing to thoroughly study all Indian territories.

Know that all the islands surrounding India are inhabited only by merchants. They say that you can find as many ships, sailors, merchants and goods there as you will not find in the rest of the world. Among the ports, Zaiton is famous there. One hundred large ships are loaded with pepper every year, not to mention many other ships carrying other spices. All areas there are densely populated. Many provinces, kingdoms and countless cities are under the rule of the Great Khan. In our language this is equivalent to the title of King of Kings.

The Great Khan resides mainly in the province of Cathay. His predecessors strenuously sought to establish relations with Christians. Two hundred years ago they sent an ambassador to the pope with a request to send learned and wise people to them to teach them our faith. The people sent to them did not reach the destination of their journey due to many difficulties along the way. An ambassador from the Great Khan also arrived to Pope Eugene. He told the pope about his great favor towards Christians. I talked a lot with this man about various things, about the size of the khan's palaces, about the size of their rivers, about their exceptional length and width, about the large number of cities lying along the banks of these rivers. On one of them alone there are two hundred cities with marble, decorated with columns, very long and wide bridges.

This country deserves a visit more than any other. There you can not only make big profits and buy a lot of goods, but you can find gold, silver, precious stones and all kinds of spices in an abundance unknown in our region. This country is governed and its military operations are directed by sages and scientists, philosophers and astrologers and other people skilled in all arts.

From the city of Lisbon due west there are 26 divisions on the map (each equal to 250 miles, making a total of about one-third of the earth's circumference) to the great and brilliant city of Quinsay, which has a radius of 100 miles or 25 leagues. There are 10 marble bridges in Quinsay. The name of this city in our language means: “Heavenly City.” Many amazing things are told about him, about the great skill of his artisans and about their enormous income. The city is located in the province of Mangi, next door to Cathay, where Khan lives.

From the island of Antillia, which you call the island of the Seven Cities and which you know well, to the glorious island of Chipango the distance is 10 divisions or 2,500 miles. This island abounds in gold, pearls and precious stones. The temples and royal palaces of Chipango are covered with pure gold.

The part of the sea that needs to be sailed along an unknown path is insignificant. I could tell you a lot more, but since I have already spoken to you about all this orally and you are well privy to the details, I will not dwell on them. I hope that what I have told you will satisfy you. Anyone who properly considers what I have said will be able to work out the rest for himself. Moreover, I place myself at His Majesty’s disposal at any time.”

Why was Toscanelli’s plan put into the archives of the Portuguese Admiralty, and soon completely forgotten? Why, despite the high authority of the Florentine cosmographer, did this message not make the proper impression on the king's learned advisers? There can only be one answer. When familiarizing themselves with Toscanelli’s project, Alfonso V’s assistants, experienced in matters of geography, had doubts about determining the size of the route to India.

Toscanelli based his constructions on the estimate of the extent of the inhabited world (Europe - Asia) at 225 degrees of longitude, given by Marinus of Tire, while Ptolemy's calculations determined this extent only at 177 degrees. The whole structure was thus built on an arbitrary assumption and could not therefore be used for such a risky undertaking as sailing into the depths of the ocean. Even the colorful pictures of oriental riches, naively copied by an enthusiastic scientist from Marco Polo, could not seduce the sober Portuguese. They preferred to go to the wonders of the East along the same, more reliable path.

Toscanelli's letter and map made a completely different impression on Columbus. With great joy and satisfaction, he saw in them confirmation of his ideas. Toscanelli's message contained something more. The Florentine's map filled in the least developed part of Columbus's project, provided an answer to questions that he was powerless to resolve - about the exact direction in which to sail to reach the coveted countries of the East, and about the distance to each of them.

But even after correspondence with Toscanelli, Columbus’s plans were far from being realized. Six years have passed since Toscanelli's correspondence with the Portuguese king. There is no doubt that the advice and instructions of the cosmographer were rejected. Columbus was powerless to unravel the reason for this. He decided, however, to keep his correspondence with Toscanelli secret. It is interesting that Columbus never mentioned his name, although the Florentine’s map could be the strongest argument to prove to the king’s learned assistants the correctness and reality of his plan.

From the book by Korney Chukovsky author Lukyanova Irina

Correspondence “Ah, every person should have his own Lomonosova...” Selected letters from K.I. Chukovsky to R.N. Lomonosova. 1925–1926 / Publ. R. Davis; Preface E. Ts. Chukovskaya, R. Davis // In Memoriam, Historical collection in memory of A. I. Dobkin, Phoenix-Atheneum. St. Petersburg; Paris, 2000.E. V. Tarle and K.I.

From the book My Friend Varlam Shalamov author Sirotinskaya Irina Pavlovna

Correspondence Unfortunately, not all letters from V.T. I saved. When I was leaving, he wrote to me every day, he believed that this was the only way to correspond, so that the subtle heartfelt, spiritual ties would not be torn and would not grow cold during a month and a half of separation. Meeting with me after such a separation,

From the book Correspondence author Shalamov Varlam

Correspondence with F.E. Loskutov Loskutov - V.T. Shalamov October 7, 1956 Dear Varlam Tikhonovich! I received your letter and was always going to write, but somehow everything was “to do.” There was no time for everything due to the draft board. Visited some areas of Magadan

From the book Correspondence author Durova Nadezhda Andreevna

Correspondence with S.A. Snegov Snegov - V.T. Shalamov 2-Sh-62 Dear Varlam Tikhonovich! I recently arrived and therefore answer late. Our destinies seem to be similar in many ways. I was pleased with your assessment of my novel. Unfortunately, only nature and characters are true in it,

From the book Visiting Stalin. 14 years in Soviet concentration camps author Nazarenko Pavel E.

Correspondence with A.I. Solzhenitsyn

From the book Telegram Beria author Troitskaya Valeria Alekseevna

Correspondence with Slutsky B.A. V.T. Shalamov - B.A. To Slutsky Moscow, December 28, 1962 Boris Abramovich. You recommended S.S. to me. Vilensky, compiler of the almanac “In the Far North”. I am very familiar with the institution he represents. We met behind Vilensky's back

From the book Not Just Dolls by Hort Alexander

Correspondence with L.I. Skorino

From the book Travel to India by Gama Vasco yes

Correspondence with Ya.D. Grodzensky V.T. Shalamov - Ya.D. Grodzensky Moscow, May 14, 1962 Dear Yakov. Thank you for your letter. I am glad, of course, to have the opportunity to speak - on behalf of the dead of Kolyma and Vorkuta and the living who returned from there. I will continue on the 16th, after the broadcast. Broadcast

From the book Notes on the Life of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. Volume 1 author Kulish Panteleimon Alexandrovich

Correspondence with Lesnyak B.N. B.N. Lesnyak - V.T. To Shalamov Magadan, 11/18/63 Hello, Varlamushka! Your letter has been circulating for almost a month. We haven’t lived on Proletarskaya since 1959. It’s a pity, but we can’t help you. The kaleidoscope dried out and the pieces of glass got mixed up. Memory tears out

From the author's book

Correspondence with Vigdorova F. A. V. T. Shalamov - F.A. Vigdorova Moscow, June 16, 1964 F. Vigdorova. I was touched to the depths of my soul by your letter. Thank you for your interest in my work, for your sympathy, understanding, and finally just for the tone of your sweet letter. For your wishes. All this after all

From the author's book

Excerpts from a letter from the cosmographer Toscanelli to Fernando Martinez, courtier of King Alfonso V of Portugal. The most gracious King (Alfonso V of Portugal) wishes me to expound on this subject, or rather to clearly understand it, so that even persons of little education can

From the author's book

VII. Continuation of correspondence with M.A. Maksimovich: about the “History of Little Russia”; - about Little Russian songs; - about Kyiv; - about "Arabesques" and "History of the Middle Ages"; - about "Mirgorod". - Correspondence with M.P. Pogodin: about general history, about modern literature, about the history of Little Russia. - Correspondence with

He respected Christopher Columbus, and he was accused of taking his credit for himself. He was not a discoverer, but he was the first to suggest that unexplored lands were a new part of the world. He had a literary gift, but his epistolary legacy takes up only 32 pages. Nevertheless, this was enough for the new continent to be named after Amerigo Vespucci.

The biography of Amerigo Vespucci is full of blank spots, starting from the date of his birth - 1451 or 1454. It is known that he was the son of a poor Florentine notary and was educated at home. The calm and assiduous boy did not show himself to be anything special - neither in science nor in hobbies. Except that he enjoyed studying astronomy and mathematics under the guidance of his priest uncle.

From the age of 16, the young man worked conscientiously in the banking house of Lorenzo Medici. The life of a small employee drags on boringly and monotonously. Two decades passed before Amerigo's exceptional honesty was appreciated. When embezzlement occurred in a Spanish bank owned by the Medici, Vespucci was sent to check the affairs. In 1490, he traveled to Seville, a city in southern Spain, which financed maritime expeditions to distant lands. On the way to Pisi, Vespucci will dig up an old navigational map of the Mediterranean Sea for 130 ducats. Then he himself will learn cartography, master navigation and the construction of sailing ships.

After Berardi's death, Amerigo enters the Spanish naval service. In 1493, Vespucci met Columbus and helped equip his second and third expeditions, and 6 years later Amerigo himself unexpectedly set sail with Columbus’s former comrade-in-arms Alonso de Ojeda. What made Amerigo change his measured life for a risky journey is unknown. According to one version, lack of money. He was unable to accumulate a fortune in an honest way, and he did not dare to take other people’s money that passed through his hands. According to another version, after 30 years of dedicated service, Amerigo became a rich and respected financier, but the success of Columbus's enterprises awakened the adventurous streak in him. Having invested a considerable part of his own savings in the expedition, he is going to discover new lands. In any case, in 1499 Amerigo Vespucci sets off on his first voyage. Most likely, he serves as a navigator on board the ship, although according to other sources he commands it. Amerigo explores the ocean and the nature of the land, observes the life of the peoples of the coast of South America, and although the campaign did not bring Amerigo Vespucci money, he gained invaluable experience.

Fifty-year-old Amerigo Vespucci set sail twice more, in 1501 and 1503, this time under the Portuguese flag. In 1502, sailors named a convenient bay on the Brazilian coast Rio de Janeiro, which means river of January, since they discovered it on January 1. The expedition explored the coast of Brazil and became convinced that the land extended far to the south. Then Amerigo Vespucci correctly assumed that this was not an island in Asia, as he believed, but not an explored continent. In 1503, in a letter to his homeland addressed to his former master Lorenzo de' Medici, Vespucci first called this continent the New World. Possessing literary talent, Amerigo Vespucci, in letters to his homeland, vividly described the nature of the continent he saw, the appearance and life of the Indians of the Southern Hemisphere.

Later, an unknown Italian publisher included the letters in a collection with the catchy title “The New World and New Countries Discovered by Amerigo Vespucci of Florence.” The book was translated into many languages ​​and in 1507 a map was published in France indicating the contours of the new continent. The author of the map, cartographer Martin Waldseemüller, proposed calling the new part of the world Amerigo Land or America. According to another version, the author of the first map of America was Vespucci’s friend, the famous Leonardo da Vinci. Having received an Indian smoking pipe and overseas tobacco from Amerigo as a gift, he became the first smoker in Europe. As a token of gratitude, Leonardo depicted the Southern Continent on paper and wrote “Amerigo” on it. Whether Vespucci knew about his fame as a discoverer is unknown. Tired of tedious sailing, Amerigo moved to Spain again in 1505 and finally got married. Three years later he was appointed chief navigator of the country. He becomes a respected royal official, compiles maps based on materials from Spanish expeditions, and reports to the government on new geographical discoveries.

Amerigo Vespucci died on February 22, 1512. Quiet and unnoticeable. Only a few people followed his coffin. Later, the remains of Columbus will be transferred to Seville. In the eyes of several generations they will become enemies. Vespucci will be called a liar who sought to appropriate the glory of Columbus, while he himself considered him an honest and reliable person and shortly before his death he wrote about this to his son.

Columbus discovered America, but did not know it. Vespucci did not discover it, but he was the first to understand that America is an unexplored continent. As the German geographer Alexander Humboldt wrote, “ The name "America" ​​appeared due to a confluence of circumstances that eliminated any suspicion against Amerigo Vespucci. Fame weighed heavily on his memory, denigrated his character and became a monument to human injustice" The name of the Florentine traveler remained forever on geographical maps of the world, although some scientists still argue about who discovered America.

Florentine artist Sandro...

First letter "b"

Second letter "o"

Third letter "t"

The last letter of the letter is "i"

Answer for the question "Florentine artist Sandro...", 10 letters:
Botticelli

Alternative crossword questions for the word Botticelli

Poem by V. Bryusov

The real name of this artist is Alessandro Filipepi

The name of this painter means “barrel” in Italian.

Italian painter, painting "The Birth of Venus"

Definition of the word Botticelli in dictionaries

Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1998 The meaning of the word in the dictionary Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1998
BOTTICELLI Sandro (real name Alessandro Filipepi, Filipepi) (1445-1510) Italian painter. Representative of the Early Renaissance. He was close to the Medici court and the humanist circles of Florence. Works on religious and mythological...

Examples of the use of the word Botticelli in literature.

All the other students of Master Verrocchio - and Sandrik Botticelli, and Petrik Perugino - they will confirm to you that I am the best of them.

Botticelli was a student of Philippe Lippi and Mantegna, who were both protégés of Repe of Anjou, as well as the alchemist and hermeticist Verrocchio, teacher of Leonardo da Vinci.

Botticelli, partly due to their common apprenticeship with Verrocchio, and had the same patrons, to which was added Ludovico Sforza, son of Francesco Sforza, a close friend of René of Anjou and one of the first members of the Order of the Crescent.

That is why alchemy does not tell us anything, just like the Olympian gods or paintings. Botticelli.

He spoke about the beauty of the sculptures of Ghiberti, Orcagna, Donatello, Mino da Fiesole, about the paintings of Masaccio, Ghirlandaio, Botticelli.