Columbus mystery nearly solved 500 years after death

[Nerthus]

Columbus mystery nearly solved 500 years after death

Source: Yahoo News (3-10-06)

Nearly 500 years after the death of Christopher Columbus, a team of genetic researchers are using DNA to solve two nagging mysteries: Where was the explorer really born? And where the devil are his bones?

[...]

Full story

[Nerthus]

[...]researchers led by Spanish forensic pathologist José Antonio Lorente Acosta are comparing the DNA of Columbus's illegitimate son, Fernando, with DNA from hundreds of possible Columbus descendants in at least three countries.

The goal is to determine once and for all whether Columbus, as traditionalists hold, was the son of Genoese wool weaver Domenico Colombo, or was instead a Spaniard named Colon; or a Catalan Colom, from Barcelona; or a French Coulom or Colomb; or perhaps Corsican or Mallorcan.

"We'll get something, but it will be complicated," Lorente said in a telephone interview from his University of Granada office. "The trick is to differentiate between the Columbuses from different places -- and there's no guarantee."

In full:
http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/25120.html

[Menydh]

Interesting..

The Italian story fails to explain why there is no record of Columbus ever communicating with the Genoa Colombos or having written anything in Italian. Instead, copious notes in the margins of books he owned, as well as logs, letters and other documents are all in Latin or Castilian Spanish, the language of his benefactress, Queen Isabella.

"The Latin is always awkward, but the Castilian is very fluent and even elegant in places," said foreign-language historian Charles Merrill of Mount St. Mary's University. "But it shows signs of not being his native language."

Merrill said Columbus made consistent errors in his prose, "but they weren't Italian errors." Instead "a lot of them seemed to be Portuguese, but they were the same mistakes that a Catalan would have made."

... whatever the outcome, I am convinced that he will remain in the Peninsula.

[kyashan]

"The Latin is always awkward, but the Castilian is very fluent and even elegant in places," said foreign-language historian Charles Merrill of Mount St. Mary's University. "But it shows signs of not being his native language."

Merrill said Columbus made consistent errors in his prose, "but they weren't Italian errors." Instead "a lot of them seemed to be Portuguese, but they were the same mistakes that a Catalan would have made."

anyone ever noticed that Portuguese and Genoan share quite a few similarities?

[Menydh]

Uh.. you mean Genoan dialect (assuming there is one, which I don't know) and Portuguese language? Which would this be?

[Gil]

Originally Posted by kyashan

anyone ever noticed that Portuguese and Genoan share quite a few similarities?

Huh? Etnically, linguistically or other?

On the issue of Columbus "nationality", i've read some articles stating that he was portuguese (and namely that the island of Cuba was named after the portuguese town of the same name), italian, catalan, etc... what I do know (and is historical fact) is that he first tried to gather support from the King of Portugal for his discovery voyage and failed and then chose the Spanish crown.

[kyashan]

Uh.. you mean Genoan dialect (assuming there is one, which I don't know) and Portuguese language? Which would this be?

Huh? Etnically, linguistically or other?

Genoan dialect and generally ligurian dialects share a very similar singsong accent with Portuguese.
plus they have a recurrent tendency in palatization of vowels and combination of vowels which resembles Portuguese.
Someone suggested that Ligurians were originally from Iberian Peninsula and were someway related to the Gallegos or other people living in Portugal at that time.
Prof. Merril's hypothesis of his mistakes being not from italian is kind of naive to me because standard italian is based on tuscanian dialect and Colombus (assuming he was from Genoa or has lived there) wasn't most likely able to speak it or write it in a proper way.

[Menydh]

Adolf Schulten, a German Archaelogist, identified Celto-Ligurian elements in Cantabria.



However his theses are old, dating back to the early XXth century.

[Gil]

I thought the whole "ligurians from Iberia" theory had been discredited long ago (i've read something, can't recall where right now). Anyway, I seriously think "who cares!"; sure, he was a important historical figure but fighting to claim he was of this or that nationality is just petty bickering over nothing.

[Menydh]

Manji, I found this: The Ligurian Conection and Tartessos, in Castilian language (Spanish).

Most interesting..