Harrisse, H: Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima

Excerpt from Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima: A Description of Works Relating to America Published Between the Years 1492 and 1551; AdditionsHowever paradoxical, the opinion can even be ad vanced that Christopher Columbus had long been aware of the existence, and spurned the idea of visiting, what is called the American Continent; that at no time did he suspect he had found a new world} that had he known before starting in 1492 he/was to discover it, the pro bability is that he would not have gone; and finally that no news could have been more unpalatable to him than to be informed on his death-bed, that he had actually discovered what we call America.I, The change which we have noticed in the public appreciation of the achievements of Columbus, can easily be traced to the publication made at Venice in 1571 of a history of the Admiral, ascribed to Fernando Columbus and considered by all historians (none of whom ever questioned the authenticity of the work) as the Corner stone of the History of the American Continent. Unfortunately, the Historic at zxem relatz'ofze del/a vim.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.