Towards the unknown, following dreams Colombo opens the route of the future – Corriere.it

Imagine a small world. A world in which not only did Netflix and mobile phones, social media and Disney series not exist, nor tomatoes and chocolate, in short, there was not everything that came and is from America; there was no America at all. Or better, America was already there; but no one knew it was there. Many thought – some still think today – that the Earth was flat; and that by dint of navigating sooner or later one would have fallen on deaf ears. The boundaries of the world had been set by Hercules, who raised his pillars at the end of Europe, on either side of the Strait of Gibraltar; further it was better not to venture, because there were waves tens of meters high and sea monsters lurking. In reality, for some decades Portuguese, Spanish and Italian sailors had gone beyond the Pillars of Hercules, and they knew that beyond the borders of the known world there was a gigantic sea, which they called not by chance Sea Ocean; but they had no idea what was in between, nor what was on the other side.

The wise men already knew that the Earth is round, it’s a sphere: Dante knew it too. Yet Dante himself imagines that Ulysses, devoured by the desire to become an expert in the world, had gone beyond Gibraltar and had sailed west until he arrived in front of an enormous mountain, the mountain of Purgatory; but at that point God himself unleashes a storm, and Ulysses’ ship is wrecked.

Christopher Columbus probably knew Dante’s tale; but he was not impressed. Of course he had heard the legends of the old sailors about the dangers of the Ocean Sea. But Christopher Columbus is no longer a man of the Middle Ages. He is the first modern man. He only believes what he sees, what he can experience for himself. He is devoted to God; but he thinks that man is at the center of the world, that each of us is the architect of his own destiny.

Columbus is a man of the sea. For a long time they tried to argue that he wasn’t Italian. The Spaniards especially thought of him as one of their own; and in fact he also signed himself Cristobal Colon. But now even Spanish scholars accept that Columbus was Italian, Ligurian, Genoese.

In the second half of the fifteenth century, Genoa was one of the richest cities in the world. He did not have the ambition to found a great state, like the Venetian one. But Genoese merchants and navigators were everywhere; and everywhere, from Istanbul to Seville, they had their neighborhood. The pope, Innocent VIII, was Genoese; and his predecessor, Sixtus IV, was also Ligurian, from Savona. Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa and grew up in Savona.

He is not the son of rich people. His dad has a small textile business, but it’s not doing well. In Savona he opens a tavern. Cristoforo takes to the sea at the age of 14. We know the year of his birth – 1451 – but not the day. The real particular day in the life of Christopher Columbus is August 3, 1492: the one in which he realizes his dream, to leave with three caravels towards the unknown, to set sail towards the West to arrive in the East.

But let’s go in order. The young Christopher gains experience in the Mediterranean. He sails to Chios, Greece. It passes the Pillars of Hercules and arrives in Portugal, then in England, then further and further north, in Ireland and also in Iceland, the island of ice. In Lisbon he found a wife, Filipa, and a son was born, Diego. But he’s not the type to keep quiet in the family. He is restless. He reads a lot, especially the books of great travellers, including the Million by Marco Polo. He dreams of a business to leave a mark of himself. And his feat will be to arrive by sea in the countries reached by land by Marco Polo: Cipango, Japan, and Catai, China.

Europe already trades with the Far East: but the roads are unsafe, and the route of the ships is still mysterious. Colombo is convinced that the Indies can be reached not starting towards the east, as would be natural, but towards the west: since the Earth is round, sooner or later we will reach the other side.

Obviously, they think he’s crazy. Why throw money, ships, men into an undertaking never attempted before? Everyone says no to him: the king of Portugal, the king of Spain, even the king of England and the king of France. Commissions of experts meet and decree that the enterprise is impossible: the distance is excessive. And the best part is that they are right. Today we know that there are twenty thousand kilometers between Spain and Japan: Columbus would never have made it. But at the time, no one knew that between Spain and Japan there is a continent, which we now call America.

Through his Franciscan friends, Columbus comes into contact with the Queen of Castile, Isabella, who after marrying King Ferdinand of Aragon became the first sovereign of Spain. Isabella is intrigued by that dreamy Italian. She trusts him. She signs a contract with him: half of the expenses will be borne by the crown, the other half by Colombo, who is financed by a bank in Genoa. The expedition that is about to change the history of humanity costs two million maravedis.

In the bookstore

Aldo Cazzullo’s book A particular day. Small and big stories of the history of Italy, edited by Solferino in the Young series, pp. 204, 19.50 euros, is in bookshops from Tuesday 22 November. The in-depth information sheets are edited by Massimo Birattari. The illustrations were created by: Elisabetta Bianchi, Federica Bordoni, Serena Gramaglia, Giorgia Grasso, Elisa Macellari, Virginia Mori, Sofia Paravicini, Paola Rollo, Marta Signori, Sara Stefanini, Fortuna Todisco, Marianna Tomaselli