to another," etc. This
friend, Martinez, had evidently been a gentleman of the
household of Alfonso V. since before the civil wars of Castile,
which in 1474 had been going on intermittently for nine years
under the feeble Henry IV., who did not die until December 12,
1474. Toscanelli apparently means to say "a friend of mine who
has for ten years or more been a gentleman of the royal
household," etc.; only instead of mentioning the number of
years, he alludes less precisely (as most people, and perhaps
especially old people, are apt to do) to the most notable,
mentionable, and glaring fact in the history of the Peninsula
for that decade,--namely, the civil wars of Castile. As if an
American writer in 1864 had said, "a friend of mine, who has
been secretary to A. B. since before the war," instead of
saying "for four years or more." This is the only reasonable
interpretation of the phrase as it stands above, and it was
long ago suggested by Humboldt (_Examen critique_, tom. i. p.
225). Italian and Spanish writers of that day, however, were
lavish with their commas and sprinkled them in pretty much at
haphazard. In this case Ferdinand's translator, Ulloa,
sprinkled in one comma too many, and it fell just in front of
the clause "before the wars of Castile;" so that Toscanelli's
sentence was made to read as follows: "I send you a copy of
another letter, which I wrote a few days ago to a friend of
mine, a gentleman of the household of the king of Portugal,
before the wars of Castile, in reply to another," etc. Now this
unhappy comma, coming after the word "Portugal," has caused
ream after ream of good paper to be inked up in discussion, for
it has led some critics to understand the sentence as follows:
"I send you a copy of another letter, which I wrote a few days
ago, before the wars of Castile, to a friend of mine," etc.
This reading brought things to a pretty pass. Evidently a
letter dated June 25, 1474, could not have been written before
the civil wars of Castile, which began in 1465. It was
therefore assumed that the phrase must refer to the "War of
Succession" between Castile and Portugal (in some ways an