cerning the life of Columbus before 1492 is far from
being as satisfactory as one could wish. Unquestionably he is to be
deemed fortunate in having had for his biographers two such men as his
friend Las Casas, one of the noblest characters and most faithful
historians of that or any age, and his own son Ferdinand Columbus, a
most accomplished scholar and bibliographer. The later years of
Ferdinand's life were devoted, with loving care, to the preparation of a
biography of his father; and his book--which unfortunately survives only
in the Italian translation of Alfonso Ulloa,[392] published in Venice in
1571--is of priceless value. As Washington Irving long ago wrote, it is
"an invaluable document, entitled to great faith, and is the cornerstone
of the history of the American continent."[393] After Ferdinand's
death, in 1539, his papers seem to have passed into the hands of Las
Casas, who, from 1552 to 1561, in the seclusion of the college of San
Gregorio at Valladolid, was engaged in writing his great "History of the
Indies."[394] Ferdinand's superb library, one of the finest in Europe,
was bequeathed to the cathedral at Seville.[395] It contained some
twenty thousand volumes in print and manuscript, four fifths of which,
through shameful neglect or vandalism, have perished or been scattered.
Four thousand volumes, however, are still preserved, and this library
(known as the "Biblioteca Colombina") is full of interest for the
historian. Book-buying was to Ferdinand Columbus one of the most
important occupations in life. His books were not only carefully
numbered, but on the last leaf of each one he wrote a memorandum of the
time and place of its purchase and the sum of money paid for it.[396]
This habit of Ferdinand's has furnished us with clues to the solution
of some interesting questions. Besides this, he was much given to making
marginal notes and comments, which are sometimes of immense value, and,
more than all, there are still to be seen in this library a few books
that belonged to Christopher Columbus himself, with very important notes
in his own handwriting and in that of his brother Bartholomew. Las Casas
was familiar with this grand collection in the days of its completeness,
he was well acquainted with all the members of the Columbus family, and
he had evidently read the manuscript sources of Ferdinand's book; for a
comparison with Ulloa's version shows that considerable portions of the
original Spanish text--