"Columbus the Man:  Modern Psychology on a Medieval Basis"
 
by:  Paolo Emilio Taviani
 
in:  Five Hundred Magazine, Volume 1/No. 2; Oct/Nov 1989,
     Coral Gables, FL  33146
     U.S. Christopher Columbus Quincentenary Jubilee Commission
 
     During the last five centuries, thousands of books, essays
and articles have been written on Christopher Columbus and his
life, as well as novels, plays and even operas.  Two works stand
out from among the former that, because they are not tied to
historiography, depend exclusively on poetic inspiration.  These
are Le livre de Christophe Colombo, by Paul Claudel, and El Harpa
y la Sombra, by Alejo Carpentier.
     The authors interpret truth in a completely distorted
fashion, altering historical data, that at other times they
respect thoroughly.  Both Claudel's and Carpentier's books are
unparalleled works of art, artistically speaking, so they stand
as jewels of world literature.
     Each describes his own version of the "truth".  Claudel
depicts Columbus as though he were Saint Joan of Arc, hearing
voices; Carpentier depicts Columbus as a swindler, a thief and a
rogue.  The knowledge of Columbus' true personality is irrelevant
in the reading of these two artistic interpretations of events.
Could we say historically that Columbus was a saint?  The answer
is no.  His mishaps cannot possibly be blamed on ill luck, on his
enemy's spite, or on those who envied him because a low-born
foreigner was able to achieve such honor and privileges.  As we
have often pointed out, Columbus' life is fraught with errors and
contradictions.  Although at times he did act properly and with
timely cunning, we cannot say we judge positively Columbus'
political qualities on the whole.
     He was neither a stupid nor an inefficient person, but he
lacked the two qualities that make a man into a true politician:
the capacity to make firm decisions for the long run, and a
profound knowledge of the psyche of his fellows, which is indis-
pensable to appoint the right man to the right position.
     Some have said that Columbus was a man come from the Middle
Ages.  Others claimed that his soul was superior to that of the
century in which he lived, maintaining that he was a child of the
Renaissance.
     In reality, he stood astride two ages.  His theoretical
approach to philosophy, theology and even his scientific concepts
were medieval.  His eagerness for scientific investigation and
keen interest in nature, his capacity for accepting facts and
phenomena so far unknown, were peculiar to the Renaissance.
     Psychologically, he was a modern man, practical and concrete
to the point of becoming over-meticulous.  His projects were
carried out only after he had acquired direct experience, and his
great design was born along those lines.
 
Not a saint, but a defender of the Faith
     The same can be said about his spirituality.  He was a
Christian and a Catholic in the modern sense, influenced by
medieval teachings.  His faith was strong, sincere, inex-
haustible, free from superstition and hypocrisy, whatever might
befall him.
     Having deceived some recalcitrant Indian tribes that a
natural event such as an eclipse was instead a sign from God
represents the sole exception in the complex and incredible
string of adventures that accompanied Columbus' life.  Columbus
received a rigorous modern and profound by religious education,
demonstrated by his frequent references to God.
     Sometimes, he gave in to fanaticism, or, as they say today,
he was a "fundamentalist."  However, his fanaticism never tram-
pled over the principles of the Christian "Weltanshaung" that
Columbus always held in high consideration.  He was never par-
ticularly fond of the clergy.  He did not hesitate to fight
against priests, friars and bishops in defense of true
Christianity, although throughout his life a few friars and
bishops gave him their friendship.  The Franciscan Father Antonio
Marchena was one of his friends among the clergy.  Marchena can
certainly be considered, after Columbus, another outstanding
leading figure in the history of the discoverer.
     Unlike Dante Alighieri, when Columbus was faced with the
incredible mystery of a fourth continent, he thought better than
placing the transcendent Purgatory into the Southern Hemisphere.
He resorted to his idea of an earthly Paradise.  Even Amerigo
Vespucci, who was very much inclined to skepticism, had to admit
that "if it ever existed, it must have been in those places."
     Columbus was particularly devoted to the Virgin Mary and to
Saint Francis.  He knew by heart all of the New Testament and
long passages from the Old.  In his never-ending struggle against
the Ocean, Columbus never asked for miracles of Jesus Christ, but
he would look to the Original Source of Christian Truth:  "In the
beginning there was the Word, and the Word was with God and the
Word was God."
     This is important in that it proves that Columbus' devotion
to the Virgin Mary, due to his Genoese background, and to Saint
Francis, because he was Italian, was not a result of super-
stition, but fits in well with his systematic and rigorous
spirituality.
     We shall point out that Columbus' continuous and obsessive
search for gold and riches had to him a precise purpose:  to set
up a crusade in order to recover the Holy Land.  Such a crusading
spirit had nothing to do with that prevailing during the Middle
Ages.  It had been renewed and revived by the psychological
effects of the fall of Constantinople that, with Rome, was the
other great capital of Christendom.  A renewed urge for a crusade
did not just underlie an aspiration for the recovery of the Holy
Land.  It aimed at uniting again what had been split, at bringing
the world back to unity.  It had been united under the legions of
Rome and stayed so, rather consolidated, under the Cross of Jesus
Christ.  All the Barbarians, Germans, Slavs, even Vikings and
Tartars, had found a place in Christianity, but Islam had dis-
rupted the world by splitting Christianity.
     During Columbus' wanderings under the entourage of the
Spanish king, an event occurred that could help to demonstrate
the existing link between the war waged against the Moors and the
destiny of the Holy Land.
     In July 1489, two Franciscan friars arrived at the Catholic
Royal Court from Jerusalem.  They acted as envoys of the Great
Sultan of Egypt to the Pope who in turn sent them to the King and
Queen of Spain.  The friars were bearers of a threatening
message.  The Sultan demanded that the war against the Moors in
Spain be interrupted, that all the Muslims of Andalusia be given
back their property and freedom; otherwise, he would retaliate
against the Christians living in Palestine.  Columbus, who was at
Court, must have learned of the message and may even have met the
two envoys, one of whom was Italian.
     Some historians note that Columbus probably began to plan a
recovery of the Holy Land on that occasion.  That idea would
never fade from his mind.
     We believe that episode certainly affected Columbus, but the
link between his projects and his religious plan for a crusade
must have had far deeper roots.
     His profound religiousness, which developed in Genoa,
explains those roots.  The feeling for a necessity of a new
crusade originated in Genoa around the 1450s, in particular when
Genoa came into contact with Christians who had escaped from
Islam's oppression.
     To conclude our analysis of Columbus's religious sentiments,
we could say that his personality was primarily based on the
Christian-Catholic conception of the world.  There is no contra-
diction between such a statement and the other unequivocal
statement that he was not a saint.  To be one, faith, humility
and generosity are not enough.  We have sufficient proof that
indicates he was proud and attached to money and privileges.  He
was partial to his family and relatives and showed indifference
to slavery.  The stronger Columbus' "faith" was, the weaker his
"charity".  Therefore, he was neither a great nor a small saint.
He always defended the faith in a convinced, tenacious and
profound manner that is not to be overlooked.  He was a "defensor
fidei".
 
He was no adventurer
     The image of Columbus depicted as an adventurer is false.
He never refused to embark on an adventure. He lived through
adventures with courage and indifference to dangers, which is
peculiar to those who are aware of their own abilities and the
helping hand of God.
     His first crossing that saw him through the tortuously hot
and becalmed waters of the tropics was an adventure.  However,
his fourth voyage was certainly his greatest and most daring
feat.  He undertook it, when his fame was already waning, with
the precise intention of circumnavigating the globe.  It ended
with just two vessels left, all but devoured by ship-worms and
caught in the shallow waters of Santa Maria in Jamaica, for one
whole year, on the most open shores found in the entire world's
numerous coasts.
     However, his adventures did not just take place on the seas.
Was it not an adventure the flight from Portugal to reach Spain
where for seven years he incessantly pursued his great design?
Even the foundation of Santo Tom s, during his land expedition in
the Vega Real, a land as unknown as the ocean was, had been a
daring feat.
     Columbus' whole life was an adventure, albeit a sorrowful
one at times.  But those who accuse him of adventurism do that to
belittle his merits, trying to credit sheer luck and chance for
the success of a man.  In this sense of the word, Columbus was
other than an adventurer.  Columbus' merits are certainly in
relation to his success, but they are its cause, not its effect.
 
He was a great sailor
     History would be distorted if we were to deny one particular
aspect of Columbus' character.  He was an exceptionally gifted
sailor.  We have already demonstrated that in previous work (The
Genesis of the Great Discovery); however, we felt it should be
pointed out again also in our second work, The Great Discovery,
throughout which we have often reported facts and episodes to
support our assertion.  Not only has Columbus discovered America,
he also discovered the route from Europe to the Gulf of Mexico
and vice-versa.  Until the invention of motor propelled vessels,
any ship sailing from Spain, Portugal, France or Italy, headed
for Mexico, for the mouth of the Mississippi, the Caribbean,
Colombia or Venezuela, followed Columbus' routes.  On the voyage
back, they passed through the Sargasso Sea on the Azores
parallel.  Even today, those who want to sail through the
Atlantic pick the same route as Columbus laid out in his second
voyage--that from the Canary Islands to Guadeloupe.
     The discovery of routes is connected to that of the trade
winds.  We have already noted that Columbus was the first man who
crossed the Sargasso Sea, who perceived the existence of the Gulf
Stream, who discovered the westerly magnetic declination.  But,
above all, he was the initiator of open sea navigation in the
modern era--the first man who had enough courage to navigate with
no sight of the coastline.
     He had the exceptional physical fitness of a sailor.  His
sight and hearing were perfect, his sense of smell was unparal-
leled.  That is easily deduced from all the writings.  Many of
those who personally knew him praised his sense of smell and
noted his ability to distinguish various perfumes.  Some viewed
this as an indication of affectation--it was, instead, an un-
common inborn gift that represented the fundamental component of
his sixth sense--the seafaring sense.
     Michele da Cuneo wrote:  "By a simple look at the night sky,
he would know what route to follow or what weather to expect; he
took the helm and once the storm was over, he would hoist the
sails, while the other were asleep."
     The most renowned experts on Columbus (Thacher, Harrisse,
Caddeo, Revelli, Morison, Madariaga, Nunn, Bradford) fully
confirmed Las Casas' judgement:  "Christopher Columbus surpassed
all of his contemporaries on the art of navigation."  Contrasting
opinions are very scarce as to this issue.  Vignaud was the most
drastic critic of Columbus' sailing skills, but it seems that his
experiences on a body of water were limited to sight seeing tours
on the river Seine.
     The great French explorer Charcot defined Columbus as a
sailor who had "la sens marin", that mysterious and inborn gift
that allows you to pick the right route in the middle of the
ocean.
 
He was a self-taught geographer
     Columbus was also a great geographer, and he had in part
taught himself to be one.  The fact that he was born in Genoa is
not irrelevant, as some say quite superficially.  As a child in
Genoa and later in Savona, he had got to know, and familiarize
with, the problems of navigation and its skills, which were
traditionally at home in Genoa.  Not only was Genoa's sea su-
premacy unquestioned in the Mediterranean and in the whole of
Christendom.  Later, with the beginning of voyages and the long
crossings of the Ocean, geography became very important to good
navigation and geographical problems came to be tackled for the
first time.  Columbus demonstrated in his writings how inclined
he was toward geography and how cleverly he often solved problems
related to it.
     Among Columbus' various traits and personality features,
Humboldt points out the cleverness with which Columbus would
observe the surrounding environment.  Once in a new world and
under a new sky, he began to study the land, the local vege-
tation, the behavior of animals, the variations in temperature
and in earth's magnetism.  The entries logged on his journal
touch upon the whole range of scientific research that was
carried out during the last part of the 15th and throughout the
16th centuries.  Although he lacked a solid preparation in
natural history, Columbus became a great geographer.
 
He was a genius
     To consider Columbus just a great sailor and geographer
would be reductive.  He was a genius in the true and full meaning
of the term.  Not only did he have a seafaring sense and an acute
sensitivity for geography, but also his faith was indestructible
and his hunger for fame bottomless.  He was strong-willed,
tenacious and almost mulish, as often is typical of people from
Liguria.  He was courageous, patient, imaginative and had an
excellent memory.  In the decisive moments of his countless
adventures, he nearly always managed to mould his intuitions and
manifold qualities into effective action, which only geniuses can
eventually carry out.
     This explains how he could conceive of his great design with
the aim of "buscar el Levante por el Poniente."  This explains
how he could give up on his family, his money, and his most
cherished dream, the sea, for his best years, from the age of 34
to 42.  This explains how he could manage to fulfill his four
Atlantic feats:  to lead, order, resist, keep a lucid mind both
before the force of the elements and his mutinous men.
     Firmly determined and with unshakable convictions, Columbus
had dealt, almost as a peer, with the King of Portugal, the King
and Queen of Spain, with Genoese, Florentine and Jewish bankers.
He was not conceited.  He was perfectly aware of his valor and
merits, of the strength of his ideas.  With conceit, he would
never have won either Father Antonio Marchena's nor Father Juan
Prez's friendship.  With conceit, he would never have had so
many friends, protectors and supporters within the Spanish Court.
Queen Isabella, an exceptionally intelligent woman, would never
have given him her sympathy and her trust.  With conceit, he
would never have convinced that skilled and shrewd captain Mart!n
Alonso Pinzon, the man who shared the merit and glory of the
great voyage.  It was thanks to this man that Columbus managed to
enlist the majority of the crew.  And, if he had shown conceit,
he would never have had the prestige and respect from even the
most cunning and difficult sailors.
     Columbus' intellectual insight has been confirmed despite
his footnotes on Milione being ingenuous.  By way of contrast,
the footnotes on Imago Mundi portray how much the seaman had
learned in a few years, perhaps even months.  Even if his Latin
had a few mistakes, it is important to recognize all the same the
talent of his quasi classical style of writing, at times remini-
scent of Seneca.  His skillful memory emerges in the metric
faults of Seneca's transcription.  It's important to deduct that
he chose those topics which interested him the most and wrote by
sheer memory.
     All these aspects confirm the man was an indisputable
genius.  Christopher Columbus was not a fortunate traveller who
became a discoverer overnight.  He was a discoverer because he
was an inventor with his own idea of a new horizon.
 
Permission to reprint this article was given by Five Hundred
magazine.
 
 
                                                       TAVIANI1.ART