Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/280

PROOF THAT COLUMBUS WAS BORN IN 145 1 : A NEW DOCUMENT It is well known that neither Columbus nor his first two biog- raphers, his son Ferdinand and Las Casas, have mentioned the date of his birth, though all three speak of his studies, his voy- ages, and his nautical experiences in a manner which- leaves it to be supposed that his life was a long one and that he had spent much time in preparing himself for the discovery he was to make. It is on this account that particular interest attaches to the date of the birth of Columbus, and this explains why so much ink has been shed to clear up this obscure point. Columbus having left us only contradictory statements respecting his age at different periods of his life,^ while his two biographers have said nothing to enlighten us on the subject, criticism has been compelled to seek elsewhere for information, and has fortunately discovered in the notarial archives of Genoa and Savona, towns where Columbus spent his youth, documents which make up for the reticence of those from whom we had the right to expect authentic information on so im- portant a fact. These documents, dated from 1470 to 1473, supply indeed the material required for solving this problem. Unfortunately those who first studied them did so from a point of view which obscured rather than cleared up the question. Inasmuch as these papers — with one exception, and that was only discovered later than the others — do not mention in precise terms the age of Columbus, it was thought possible to fix it ap- proximatively from the nature of the deed in which mention was made of the future Admiral. Thus, after having ascertained that the Genoese legal code of the period recognized four different ma- jorities (those of sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, and twenty-five years, each one of which limited the minor's legal rights within certain defined restrictions), the deduction was drawn that, according to the purport of the deed to which Columbus was a party, he must neces- sarily have one or the other of the majorities admitted by the law. For instance, on August 26, 1472, Columbus, with the authorization of his parents, signs a deed whereby he renders himself responsible ' They have all been quoted in our essay. The Real Birth-Dale of Ccilumhiis (London, 1903), and in the third of our Etudes Criliqucs stir la ('if dc Colmnb avant scs Dccouvcrtcs (Paris, 1905). (270)