The ground floor of the home was his fathers workshop and the upper floor were the living quarters. Son of a wool merchant, the family lived in a 2 floor house on Via di Porta Soprana. The most common theory up to now is based on documents stating that he was born in Autumn 1451 in Genova, Italy. Who was Christopher Columbus?Īlthough there are uncertanties in the nationality of Columbus. Or Colon as he´s known as in Spanish language. Using photos from my travels around Spain, I take a look at what is understood about Christopher Columbus. I wanted to try to piece together information about this famous navigator. As you often hear controversy surrounding his nationality. Some scientists believe that Columbus deliberately distorted the distance, but it has not yet been possible to find out.Travelling around Spain (and sometimes further afield) I´ve seen lots of monuments to Christopher Columbus. Columbus was a bad mathematicianĪt the time when Columbus made his famous journey, the exact size of the planet Earth was unknown, and there were two main ways to measure degrees of latitude - the method developed by the Greek philosopher Poseidonius, and the method developed by the medieval Arabs.ĭoing his own calculations, Columbus claimed that the circumference obtained by both methods was the same… ignoring or forgetting that Arab miles were longer than Roman ones. Using this data, which eventually reduced the planet by about 25 percent, Columbus assured his sponsors that his small wooden ships would be able to get from Spain to Japan in 30 days.

But he also swam it in 1493, 14. Although many people may have the idea that Columbus planted the flag in the lower half of Florida, in fact he explored only a small part of the Caribbean, which included the Bahamas, Cuba and Jamaica, and parts of Central America. In 1492, Columbus actually sailed across the ocean. “La Ni?a” was probably the nickname of the ship called “Santa Clara”. It is believed that the nickname came from the name of the owner of the ship, Juan Ni?o. It is unknown what the original name of “Pint” could have been. Santa Maria is the official name of the third ship, which the sailors called “La Gallega”. Many believe that Columbus’ ships were called “La Ni?a”, “Pinta” and “Santa Maria”. However, at least two of them were most likely colloquial nicknames rather than official names. At the time of Columbus in Spain, it was customary to name ships after saints. In Italian, he is known as Cristoforo Colombo, which for a long time was considered his birth name, and in Spanish - as Cristobal Colon. But he and others also called him Christual, Christovam, Christoferus de Colombo and even Espual de Colon. There is even a theory that he adopted this name from a pirate named Columbo. Many scientists agree that he was born in Genoa, which is now part of Italy, although there are theories that he could have been born in Spain or even in Poland or Greece. Here are a few facts about Columbus that you probably didn’t know. But few people know the details of his life as a person.Ĭhristopher Columbus was an extraordinary person, but in modern biographies of the great traveler there are also annoying inaccuracies. Christopher Columbus is best known for discovering and exploring the New World.

Christopher columbus ships names