Origin theories of Christopher Columbus

Personal writings In a 1498 deed of primogeniture, Columbus writes: Many historians affirm the document's authenticity; others believe it apocryphal. Some believe that the fact that it was produced in court, during a lawsuit among the heirs of Columbus, in 1578, does not strengthen the case for its authenticity. A letter from Columbus, dated 2 April 1502, to the Bank of Saint George, the oldest and most reputable of Genoa's financial institutions, begins with the words: Though some people consider this letter unreliable, the majority of scholars believe it genuine. Examination by graphologists testifies in favour of authenticity. The life of Admiral Christopher Columbus by his son Ferdinand A biography written by Columbus's son Ferdinand (in Spanish and translated into Italian), The life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by his son Ferdinand, exists. In it, Ferdinand claimed that his father was of Italian aristocracy. He describes Columbus to be a descendant of a Count Columbo of the Castle Cuccaro (Montferrat). Columbo was in turn said to be descended from a legendary Roman General Colonius. It is now widely believed that Christopher Columbus used this persona to ingratiate himself with the aristocracy, an elaborate illusion to mask a humble merchant background. Ferdinand dismissed the fanciful story that the Admiral descended from the Colonus mentioned by Tacitus. However, he refers to "those two illustrious Coloni, his relatives." According to Note 1, on page 287, these two "were corsairs not related to each other or to Christopher Columbus, one being Guillame de Casenove, nicknamed Colombo, Admiral of France in the reign of Louis XI". At the top of page 4, Ferdinand listed Nervi, Cogoleto, Bogliasco, Savona, Genoa and Piacenza (all inside the former Republic of Genoa) as possible places of origin. He also stated: In chapter ii, Ferdinand accuses Agostino Giustiniani of telling lies about the discoverer: In chapter v, he writes: Ferdinand also says (chapter XI) that before he was declared admiral, his father used to sign himself "Columbus de Terra rubra," that is to say, Columbus of Terrarossa, a village or hamlet near Genoa. In another passage, Ferdinand says that his father went to Lisbon and taught his brother Bartholomew to construct sea charts, globes and nautical instruments; and sent this brother to England to make proposals to Henry VII of his desired voyage. Finally, Ferdinand says incidentally (chapter LXXII) that Christopher's brother, Bartholomew Columbus named the new settlement Santo Domingo in memory of their father, Domenico. The publication of The life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus has been used by historians as providing indirect evidence about the Genoese origin of Columbus. The testimony of the ambassadors In April 1501, in the feverish atmosphere of the discovery, Nicolò Oderico, ambassador of the Genoese Republic, after praising the Catholic Sovereigns, went on to say that they "discovered with great expenditure hidden and inaccessible places under the command of Columbus, our fellow-citizen, and having tamed wild barbarians and unknown peoples, they educated them in religion, manners and laws". Furthermore, two diplomats from Venice added the appellation "Genoese" to Columbus's name: the first, Angelo Trevisan, in 1501, the second, Gasparo Contarini, in 1525. In 1498, Pedro de Ayala, Spanish ambassador to the English court, mentioned John Cabot, "the discoverer, another Genoese, like Columbus". Contemporary European witnesses and writers The historian Bartolomé de las Casas, whose father traveled with Columbus on his second journey and who personally knew Columbus's sons, writes in chapter 2 of his Historia de las Indias: The historian Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, writes that Domenico Colombo was the Admiral's father; and in chapter 2, book 3 of his Historia general y natural de las Indias: Many other contemporary writers agree that the discoverer was Genoese: it says: "This land with the adjacent islands was discovered by the Genoese Columbus, sent by the King of Castile." • The Turkish geographer Piri Ibn Haji Mehmed, known as Piri Reis, in his map of 1513, writes: "These coasts are called the coasts of the Antilles. They were discovered in the year 896 of the Arabic calendar. It is said that a Genoese infidel, Columbus by name, discovered the place." • Hernando Alonso de Herrera, in his anti-Aristotelian dissertation, completed in Salamanca in 1516, and published in Latin and Spanish, wrote: "Xristoval Colon ginoves." • In a Portuguese map of 1520, it is said: "Land of the Antipodes of the King of Castile, discovered by Christopher Columbus Genoese." • The German Peter von Bennewitz writes, in 1520, in the Typus Orbis Universalis: "In the year 1497 (sic) this land (America) with the adjacent islands was discovered by Columbus, a Genoese by mandate of the King of Castile." • The German Johannes Schöner states in the Globus of 1520: "This (island) produces gold, mastic, aloes, porcelain, etc. and ginger — Latitude of the island 440 miles — Longitude 880 — discovered by Christopher Columbus Genoese, captain of the King of Castile in the year of Our Lord 1492." • The Spaniard Francisco López de Gómara writes: "Christopher Columbus was originally from Cogurreo or Nervi, a village of Genoa, a very famous Italian city." • The Portuguese Garcia de Resende, poet and editor, writes: "Christouao Colombo, italiano." • The Swiss Heinrich Glarean (Loriti) writes: "To the west there is a land they call America. Two islands, Hispaniola and Isabella: which regions were travelled, along the coast, by the Spaniards, by the Genoese Columbus and by Amerigo Vespuzio." • The Spaniard Hieronymo Girava, who lived in the first half of the 16th century, writes: "Christoval Colon Genoese, great seaman and mediocre cosmographer." • The Portuguese João de Barros writes: "As all men declare, Christovão Colom was of Genoese nation, a man expert, eloquent and good Latinist, and very boastful in his affairs"; and: "As in this kingdom came Christopher Columbus Genoese, who had just discovered the western islands that now we call Antilles." • The German known as Giovanni Boemo Aubano, of the first half of the 16th century, writes: "Christoforo Palombo, Genoese, the year 1492." • The Flemish Abraham Ortelius, writes: "It seems to surpass the bounds of human wonder that all this hemisphere (that today is called America and, because of its immense extent, the New World) remained unknown to the ancients until the Christian year 1492, in which it was first discovered by Christopher Columbus, Genoese." • The Portuguese Damião de Góis, writes: "The Genoese Columbus, a man expert in nautical arts"; and, in the index: "Columbi genuen- sis, alias Coloni commendatio." • The Spaniard Nicolás Monardes, writes: "In the year 1492 our Spaniards were led by don Christoval Colon, native of Genoa, to discover the West Indies." • The German Laurentius Surius, writes: "There was at the court of the King of Spain a certain Christopher Columbus whose homeland was Genoa." • In 1579, for the Cristoph Pantin's edition, the yearbooks of the Genoese Senate were published, in Antwerp, edited by Petro Bizaro: Senatus Populique Genuensis rerum domi forisque gestarum historiae atque annales. Among what is written to celebrate many industrious Genoese men, you can read that: "cum Christophoro Columbo navalis scientiae absolutissima peritia apud omnem venturam posteritatem, juro optima aliqua ex parte conferri vel comparari possit." • The Portuguese Fernão Vaz Dourado in the Atlante of 1580, notes: "Land of the Antipodes of the King of Castile discovered by Christopher Columbus Genoese." • The Spaniard Alvaro Gomez, writes: "Thanks to the eager industry of Christopher Columbus Genoese, word was brought to our Sovereigns of an unknown world." • The Frenchman Gilbert Génebrard, writes: "Ferdinand, at the urging of his wife Isabella, Queen of Castile, Leòn and Aragon, sent Christopher Columbus Genoese to seek new land." • The Swiss Theodor Zwinger, who died in 1588, was the author of the Theatrum Humanae Vitae, Basle 1604. In the index we read: "Cristoforo Colono, or Colombo Genoese." • On an unspecified date, certainly prior to 1591, the Turk Basmagi Ibrahim published a book, written by a Turkish author who has remained anonymous, entitled Turich-i-Hind-i garbi iachod hadis-i-nev (History of the West Indies, in other words the New Story). The third chapter of this book dedicated to the discoverer of the "New World or New Land," states: "From the village of Nervi, which is among the Genoese possessions, a man who was born who had the name Christopher and the surname Columbus. Since he had completed journeys by land and by sea [...] he stayed on an island by the name of Madeira [...] under the domain of the wretched (sic) Portugal." • The Flemish Theodor De Bry, writes: "From everything it can be stated with certainty that it was first discovered by Christopher Columbus Genoese." • The Portuguese Gaspar Frutuoso, in a sixteenth-century manuscript entitled As Saudades da terra, printed by Alvaro Rodriguez Azevedo in 1873 in Funchal (Madeira), writes in the Anales of Porto Santo: "On this island the great Christovao Colombo, the Genoese, resided for some time." • The German David Chytraeus writes: "Primum Novum Orbem in occidente, omnibus antea ignotum et inaccessam... pervestigare et aperire... Christophorus Columbus Genesis, admirand ad omnen posteritatem ausu et industria coeperat." • In the volume published by the City of Genoa the testimony is cited of the historian Andres Bernaldez, who died in 1513. He was the author of a Historia de los Reyes Catolicos don Fernando y dona Isabel. In this work, belatedly published in Seville in 1869, it is written: "In the name of Almighty God, a man of the land of Genoa, a merchant of printed books who was called Christopher Columbus." Actually, in the original text of Bernaldez, it says "land of Milan". However, this is merely lack of precision. In the 15th century, the Republic of Genoa was alternately fully and legally dependent on the Duchy of Milan and the latter's satellite. The editor rightly interpreted the Milanese reference in the sense of Genoese origin. • A reference, dated 1492, by a court scribe Galindez, referred to Columbus as "Cristóbal Colón, genovés." • The historian Peter Martyr d'Anghiera was the earliest of Columbus's chroniclers and was in Barcelona when Columbus returned from his first voyage. In his letter of May 14, 1493, addressed to Giovanni Borromeo, he referred to Columbus as Ligurian, Liguria being the Region where Genoa is located. • Michele da Cuneo from Savona, a friend of Columbus's (possibly from childhood), sailed with Columbus during the second voyage and wrote: "In my opinion, since Genoa was Genoa, there was never born a man so well equipped and expert in the art of navigation as the said lord Admiral." • Giambattista Strozzi, a Florentine merchant, reported in a letter sent from Cadiz on March 19, 1494: "On the 7th of this month there arrived here in safety twelve caravels which came from the new islands found by Columbus Savonese, Admiral of the Ocean, for the king of Castile, having come in twenty-five days from the said islands of the Antilles." • Cesáreo Fernández Duro, in his book Colón y la Historia postuma, mentions the chronicler Alonso Estanquez, who has composed a Crónica de los reyes don Fernando y doña Isabel, before 1506, where he writes: "Cristobal Colón, genovés." • Witnesses in the 1511 and 1532 hearings in the Pleitos agreed that Columbus was from the Ligur. Another witness at the same hearing placed it more precisely, testifying, "I heard it said that [he] was from the seigneury of Genoa, from the city of Savona." • Father Antonio de Aspa, a Hieronymite from the convent of Mejorada, between 1512 and 1524, wrote a report on Columbus's first voyage, drawn largely from the Decades of Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, in which he claimed that Columbus was Genoese. "Christophorus natione Italicus, patria Genuensis, gente Columba." • D. Diego, a grandson of the admiral, was knight of the Order of Santiago, in the genealogy section, of 1535, says: "Paternal Grandparents / Christopher Columbus, a native of Saona near Genoa, / and Filipa Moniz, a native of Libon." • In his Commentarius de Ophyra regione apud Divinam Scripturam Commemorata of 1561, the Portuguese geographer Gaspar Barreiros, reported that Columbus was "Ligurian." • The Spaniard Jerónimo Zurita y Castro, writes: "Christopher Columbus, man, as he said, whose company had always been for the sea and its predecessors, so that was foreign born and raised in poverty and the banks of Genoa." • The Portuguese António Galvão, writes: "In the yeere 1492, in the time of Don Ferdinando king of Castile, he being at the siege of Granada, dispatched one Christopher Columbus a Genoway with three ships to goe and discouer Noua Spagna." • The Spaniard Gonzalo de Illescas, writes: "Christopher Columbus Genoese, was born at Nervi, a village near to Genoa." • The Spaniard Esteban de Garibay, humanist and historian, writes: "A man of the Italian nation, named Christopher Columbus, native of Cugurco (Cogoleto), or Nervi, village of Genoa." • The Portuguese João Matalio Metelo Sequano in 1580, writes that Columbus was born in the city of Genoa. • The Frenchman Lancelot Voisin de La Popelinière, writes: "La plupart des princes chretiens, le nostre sur tous, l'Anglais, le Portugais, l'Espagnol mémes, n'avaient daigné préster sculement l'ouíe a l'ouverture que ''l'ltalien'' leur faisait." • The Spaniard Julián del Castillo, writes: "Christopher Columbus, an Italian, was originally from Cogurio (Cogoleto) or Nervi, village near to the famous city of Genoa." • The German Michael Neander, writes: "Christophoro Colombo Genuensi." • The Spaniard Gonzalo Argote de Molina clearly identified Albissola Marina as Columbus's birthplace. • Friar Juan de la Victoria, author of the 16th century, wrote a Catálogo de los Reyes godos de España extracted from Fernández Duro in his Colón y La Historia Postuma; says the friar: "In the year 1488, the Italian Christopher Columbus, native of Cugureo (Cogoleto) or Nervi, village of Genoa, sailor." • The Spaniard Juan de Mariana, writes: "Christopher Columbus, Genoese of nation." • The Portuguese Pedro de Mariz, historian and librarian, says that Columbus was Genoese. Columbus's Genoese birth is further confirmed by the works of the English Hakluyt (1601), of the Spaniard Antonio de Herrera (1612), the great Spanish dramatist Lope de Vega (1614), a paper manuscript dated 1626, conserved in Madrid's National Library, the works of the German Filioop Cluwer (1677), the German Giovanni Enrico Alsted (1649), the French Dionisio Petau (1724), and the Spaniard Luigi de Marmol (1667). This list represents the early writings of non-Italians. In addition, there were sixty-two Italian testimonies between 1502 and 1600. Of these, fourteen are from Ligurian writers. Legal and notarial documents Conformable to the testament in Seville (3 July 1539) is the evidence of Ferdinand Columbus, who states that his father was conterraneo (of the same country) with Mons. Agostino Giustiniani, who was, beyond all doubt, born at Genoa: There is a document dated 22 September 1470 in which the criminal judge convicts Domenico Colombo. The conviction is tied to the debt of Domenico — together with his son Christopher (explicitly stated in the document) — toward a certain Girolamo del Porto. In the will dictated by Admiral Christopher Columbus in Valladolid before he died, the authentic and indisputable document which we have today, the dying navigator remembers this old debt, which had evidently not been paid. There is, in addition, the act drawn in Genoa on 25 August 1479 by a notary, Girolamo Ventimiglia. This act is known as the Assereto document, after the scholar who found it in the State Archives in Genoa in 1904. It involves a lawsuit over a sugar transaction on the Atlantic island Madeira. In it, young Christopher swore that he was a 27-year-old Genoese citizen resident in Portugal and had been hired to represent the Genoese merchants in that transaction. Here was proof that he had relocated to Portugal. It is important to bear in mind that at the time when Assereto traced the document, it would have been impossible to make an acceptable facsimile. In addition to the two documents cited, there are others that confirm the identification of the Genoese Christopher Columbus, son of Domenico, with the admiral of Spain. An act dated 11 October 1496 says: In a fourth notarial act, drawn in Savona on 8 April 1500, Sebastiano Cuneo, heir by half to his father Corrado, requested that Christopher and Giacomo (called Diego), the sons and heirs of Domenico Colombo, be summoned to court and sentenced to pay the price for two lands located in Legine. This document confirms Christoforo and Diego's absence from the Republic of Genoa with these exact words: "dicti conventi sunt absentes ultra Pisas et Niciam." A fifth notarial act, drawn in Savona on 26 January 1501, is more explicit. A group of Genoese citizens, under oath, said and say, together and separately and in every more valid manner and guise, that Christopher, Bartholomew and Giacomo Columbus, sons and heirs of the aforementioned Domenico, their father, have for a long time been absent from the city and the jurisdiction of Savona, as well as Pisa and Nice in Provence, and that they reside in the area of Spain, as was and is well known. Finally, there is a sixth document from the notary of Bartolomeo Oddino, drawn in Savona on 30 March 1515. With this notarial act, Leon Pancaldo, the well-known Savonese who would become one of the pilots for Magellan's voyage, sends his own father-in-law in his place as procurator for Diego Columbus, son of Admiral Christopher Columbus. The document demonstrates how the ties, in part economic, of the discoverer's family with Savona survived even his death. Language The spoken language of Genoa and the Ligurian coast would primarily have been Ligurian. The Italian language was originally based on the fourteenth century vernacular of Florence in the adjacent region of Tuscany, and would not have been the main spoken language of Genoa in the fifteenth century. Although Columbus wrote almost exclusively in Spanish, there is a small handwritten Genoese gloss in a 1498 Italian (from Venice) edition of ''Pliny's Natural History that he read after his second voyage to America: this shows Columbus was able to write in Genoese and read Italian. There is also a note in Italian in his own Book of Prophecies exhibiting, according to historian August Kling, "characteristics of northern Italian humanism in its calligraphy, syntax, and spelling". Phillips and Phillips point out that 500 years ago, the Romance languages had not distanced themselves to the degree they have today. Bartolomé de las Casas in his Historia de las Indias'' claimed that Columbus did not know Spanish well and that he was not born in Castile. Scholars have dedicated themselves to the subject of Christopher Columbus's language. They have conducted in-depth research both on the ship's log and on other writings of his that have come down to the modern day. They have analyzed the words, the terms, and the vocabulary, as well as rather frequent variations often bizarre in style, handwriting, grammar, and syntax. Christopher Columbus's language is Castilian punctuated by noteworthy and frequent Portuguese, Italian, and Genoese influences and elements. == Modern views ==

Contemporary historians Most scholars today agree that Columbus was Genoese. Samuel Eliot Morison, in his book Christopher Columbus: Admiral of the Ocean Sea, notes that many existing legal documents demonstrate the Genoese origin of Columbus, his father Domenico, and his brothers Bartolomeo and Giacomo (Diego). These documents, written in Latin by notaries, were legally valid in Genoese courts. The documents, uncovered in the 19th century when Italian historians examined the Genoese archives, form part of the Raccolta Colombiana. On page 14, Morison writes:Besides these documents from which we may glean facts about Christopher's early life, there are others which identify the Discoverer as the son of Domenico the wool weaver, beyond the possibility of doubt. For instance, Domenico had a brother Antonio, like him a respectable member of the lower middle class in Genoa. Antonio had three sons: Matteo, Amigeto and Giovanni, who was generally known as Giannetto (the Genoese equivalent of "Johnny"). Giannetto, like Christopher, gave up a humdrum occupation to follow the sea. In 1496 the three brothers met in a notary's office at Genoa and agreed that Johnny should go to Spain and seek out his first cousin "Don Cristoforo de Colombo, Admiral of the King of Spain," each contributing one third of the traveling expenses. This quest for a job was highly successful. The Admiral gave Johnny command of a caravel on the Third Voyage to America, and entrusted him with confidential matters as well. On the topic of Columbus's being born somewhere besides Genoa, Morison states: Every contemporary Spaniard or Portuguese who wrote about Columbus and his discoveries calls him Genoese. Four contemporary Genoese chroniclers claim him as a compatriot. Every early map on which his nationality is recorded describes him as Genoese or Ligur, a citizen of the Ligurian Republic. Nobody in the Admiral's lifetime, or for three centuries after, had any doubt about his birthplace. Paolo Emilio Taviani, in his book Cristoforo Colombo: Genius of the Sea discusses "the public and notarial acts – original copies of which are conserved in the archives of Genoa and Savona – regarding Columbus's father, Columbus himself, his grandfather, and his relatives." In Columbus the Great Adventure he further claims that Columbus named the small island of Saona "to honor Michele da Cuneo, his friend from Savona." This is fully accepted by Consuelo Varela Bueno, "Spain's leading authority on the texts, documents, and handwriting of Columbus." She devotes several pages to the question of Columbus native land, and concludes that "all chroniclers of that period wrote that he was from Liguria in northern Italy." The evidence supporting the Genoese origin of Columbus is also discussed by Miles H. Davidson. In his book Columbus Then and Now: A Life Reexamined, he writes: The first was Rabbi Mayer (Moritz) Keyzerling's 1844 book Christopher Columbus and the Participation of the Jews in the Spanish and Portuguese Discoveries. The articles were commissioned by Lazar Strauss for the 1892 celebrations, and published as a book two years later. Mentioned were Luis de Santangel, Columbus's supporter, and Joseph Vizinha, translator of Abraham Zakkuto's Almanach. Keyzerling never claimed that Columbus himself was of Jewish descent. Four years later, in 1898, Garcia de la Riega's published an assertion that Columbus was of Spanish origin and a hidden Jew. This was based on original research he had done on the Colon family name in Genoa, Spain. In 1913 all these claims were bluntly refuted by American historian Henry Vignaud, based on facts where he clearly stated his Genoese origins, and where a vast amount of documents showed that La Riega's claims were false., and several documents which are now believed to be a forgery. Among his proofs where the claims that Columbus referred to the Spanish expulsion in his first accounts, and used the Hebraic term "Second House" for the destruction of the 2nd temple of Jerusalem, a term not used by Christians. Roth also claimed that the insignia at the head of all but one letter to his son, was actually the Hebrew letters Bet-Hei, usually used by religious Jews to mean Be'ezrat Hashem (with God's help), and that the abbreviations under his signature were referring to the Kaddish prayer. In 1933, Maurice David, an American Antiquitist wrote a book (with the word sensation in its long title) that included images of the documents used by Roth to prove his claims, along with their translation and an explanation of their significance. In 1940 Salvador de Madariaga published his book "Christopher Columbus", in which he repeated Roth's claims and proofs, weighing them against opposing views and siding with Roth, claiming that Columbus was a marrano forced to leave Spain for Genoa. Some of his proofs were based on the racial traits that he perceived are Jewish, and which he declared Columbus to share. Similar themes are taken with Columbus' sexual activity, having an illegitimate child with Beatrice Enriquez who according to him was Jewish too. Jane Francis Amler shared those views in 1977. Sepharadic Jews in America continued to promote Madariaga's arguments. In 1992, 500 years after the expedition, the Sepharadic Jewish Organization set up a traveling exhibition about Colon and his Jewish ties, first shown at the Maritime museum in Haifa, Israel, and then traveled to several countries including Spain and the US. In 2009, Estelle Irizarry a professor of Hispanic literature from Georgetown University, concluded from Columbus' writings that he spoke Catalan, with some hints to Ladino (Jewish Spanish language), and that hiding his identity could explain several linguistic properties of his. The inscriptions and annotations surrounding the text in books from his library are reminiscent to the Jewish books of the time. Irizarry was referring to the Talmud and Humash editions with a typical gloss (annotation) layout, but these were not special to Jewish texts of the time, and annotations surrounding main text were common for many years. She claimed (with no evidence) that Columbus referred to the Jewish High Holidays in his journal during the first voyage. The support by the American Sephardi Federation continues even in recent times. A 2024 documentary produced by Spanish public broadcaster RTVE argues that DNA evidence conclusively proves Columbus's Sephardic Jewish origin. The documentary focuses on the work of José Antonio Lorente, a professor at the University of Granada, who performed DNA analyses on samples of bone fragments collected from the tombs of Columbus, his son Ferdinand Columbus and his brother Diego, in the Seville Cathedral in 2003. In the documentary, Lorente states that Ferdinand's Y chromosome and his mitochondrial DNA "show traits consistent with a Jewish ancestry." In response, forensic genetecists and historians dismissed the claim, making reference to the abundance of available sources showing Columbus was from Genoa, Italy. Perhaps it is correct to repeat Davidson's words quoted in the previous section: ::"What is the reason behind so much futile speculation? ... Each of the nations and cities mentioned wants to claim him for its own. ...at that time not all of the archives had been adequately researched... To do so today is to fulfill Montaigne's maxim, "No one is exempt from talking non-sense; the misfortune is to do it solemnly." Antonio Ballesteros Beretta, University of Madrid historian of America, said that Ulloa's "fiery imagination" had placed abstruse interpretations on court documents to support his thesis, had found no positive proof, and had dismissed as false any evidence supporting a Genoese origin. Throughout Columbus's life, he referred to himself as Christobal Colom; his contemporaries and family also referred to him as such. This is opposed to the Genoese translation "Cristoffa Corombo", or even the Italian "Cristoforo Colombo". It is possible that Colom is the shortened form of the Italian surname Colombo (which means "dove"), although his surname in Genoese would have been Corombo. Colom can also be a Portuguese, French, or Catalan name, and in the latter means "dove". Some more recent studies also state Columbus had Catalan origins, based on his handwriting, though these have been disputed. Charles J. Merrill, a specialist in medieval Catalan literature at Mount St. Mary's University, claims Columbus's handwriting is typical of a native Catalan, and his mistakes in Castilian are "most likely" transfer errors from Catalan, with examples such as "a todo arreo" (a tot arreu), "todo de un golpe" (tot d'un cop), "setcentas" (set-centes), "nombre" (instead of número), "al sol puesto" (el sol post). Merrill states that the Genoese Cristoforo Colombo was a modest wool carder and cheese merchant with no maritime training and whose age does not match the one of Columbus. Portuguese hypothesis , a town in Southern Portugal Patrocínio Ribeiro claimed that Columbus was Portuguese in 1916, and Moisés Bensabat Amzalak hypothesized on Columbus's signature with the Kabbalah. Based on those theories, José Mascarenhas Barreto argued in 1988, that Columbus was a Portuguese agent who hatched up an elaborate diversion to keep the Spanish from the lucrative trade routes, and suggested he was born in Cuba, Portugal, while his real name was supposedly Salvador Fernandes Zarco. The Portuguese hypothesis of Zarco from Cuba was further expanded upon in 2008 by Manuel Luciano daSilva and Sylvia Jorge daSilva who included an analysis of Columbus's signature on documents in the Vatican archives. However, the Zarco genealogy as presented by these authors has been disputed. In his latest book as of 2023, Professor João Paulo Oliveira e Costa, the Chair of the Department of History at NOVA University Lisbon, wrote that it is now "clear the impossibility of Colón having been born into a family of Genoese weavers." Proponents of the Portuguese hypothesis also point to a court document which stated that Columbus's nationality was "Portuguese" and in another, Columbus uses the words "my homeland" in relation to Portugal. Other theories Other theories claim that Columbus was a Byzantine Greek nobleman and the nephew of George Paléologos de Bissipat, a Sardinian nobleman, a Norwegian of Swedish descent, a Scot, or that he was the son of King Władysław III of Varna. == Footnotes ==