Background
Christopher Columbus, a Genoese captain in the service of the Crown of Castile, set out on his first voyage in August 1492 with the objective of reaching the East Indies by sailing west across the Atlantic Ocean. As is well known, instead of reaching Asia, Columbus stumbled upon the Caribbean islands of the Americas. Convinced nonetheless he had discovered the edges of Asia, Columbus set sail back to Spain on January 15, 1493, aboard the caravel, Niña. According the journal of his voyage, on February 14, Columbus was caught in a storm off the Azores islands. The resulting poor condition of his ship forced him to put in at Lisbon (Portugal) on March 4, 1493. Columbus finally arrived at Palos de la Frontera in Spain eleven days later, on March 15, 1493.
During the return journey, while aboard the ship, Columbus wrote a letter reporting the results of his voyage and announcing his discovery of the "islands of the Indies". He sent that letter to the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile upon his arrival. Columbus sent a second copy of the letter to Luis de Santangel, the principal supporter and financial backer of Columbus' expedition. He may have even sent a third copy to Gabriel Sanchez, an Aragonese royal official (although this is more uncertain.)
Copies of Columbus' letter were somehow picked up by publishers, and printed editions of his letter began to appear throughout Europe within weeks of Columbus' return. A Spanish version of the letter (based on the letter he sent to Luis de Santangel) was printed in Barcelona probably in late March or early April 1493. A Latin translation of the letter (addressed to Gabriel Sanchez) was printed in Rome about a month later. Within the first year of his arrival, eight more editions of the Latin version were printed in various European cities - two in Basel, three in Paris, another two in Rome and another in Antwerp. Already by June 1493, the letter had been translated by a poet into Italian verse and that went through multiple editions in a couple of years. A German translation appeared in 1497. The rapid dissemination of Columbus' letter was enabled by the printing press, a new invention that had established itself only recently.
The letter of Columbus (particularly the Latin edition) forged the initial public perception of the newly-discovered lands. Indeed, until the discovery of Historia de las Indias of Bartolomé de las Casas (written in the 16th C., but only published in the 19th C., containing what it purported to be an abridged version of Columbus' on-board journal), this letter was the only direct testimony by Columbus of his experiences on the first voyage of 1492. It is estimated that, on the whole, between 1493 and 1500, some 3,000 copies of the Columbus letter were published, half of them in Italy, making it something of a best-seller for the times. By contrast, Columbus' 1495 letter of his second voyage and his 1505 letter of his fourth voyage had only one printing each, probably not exceeding 200 copies.
Read more about this topic: Columbus Letter On The First Voyage
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