Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/285

Proof that Columbus was Born in i^^i 275 that the notary, in recording the fully nineteen years of Columbus, wished only to indicate thereby that he had already passed the legal majority of eighteen years, without, however, having yet attained the majority of twenty-five. To-day the position is altered. An- other document has been discovered which also gives the age of Columbus ; but this later discovery no longer lends itself to the sup- port of the meaning it was sought to give to the deed of October 31, 1470. This deed, which M. Assereto had the good fortune to find among the notarial archives of Genoa, and which he made public in February, 1904, ' is dated August 25, 1479, ^'^d contains a deposi- tion made by Columbus (who was then fixed at Lisbon but was passing through Genoa) in which he states that he was at that time aged about twenty-seven years. ^ Here, at any rate, there can be no misunderstanding. It is the notary himself who asks Colum- bus what his age may be and who writes down his reply, wherein the word major, the origin of so many difficulties, does not occur, thus closing the door to all ambiguity that might have arisen from the expression " major of twenty-seven years " ; which in itself, how- ever, could scarcely have led to confusion, inasmuch as the legisla- tion of the period nowhere recognizes a later majority than that of twenty-five. • When therefore Columbus said he was twenty-seven years of age or thereabouts, he could have meant to say only what the phrase itself indicates, that he was either a little more or a little less than the age indicated ; and this in the first case would fix his birth toward the end of 145 1, and in the second toward the beginning of 1452. But the point which is here left in doubt is fortunately cleared up by the deed of 1470, which demonstrates that it is in the first sense that we must interpret the declaration of Columbus; for according to the wording of that document he was over nineteen years of age on October 31, 1470, which would have been impossible if on August 25, 1479, he had not passed his twenty-seventh year.^ The two deeds thus complete one another and enable us to cir- ' Ugo Assereto, " La Data della Nascita di Colombo accertata da un Docu- mento Nuevo ", Giornale Slorico e Leiterario dclla Liguna. January-February, 1904. 2 " Interrogatus quottannis est . . . Respondit quod est etatis annorum viginti septem vel circa." (" Being asked what was his age ... he replied that he was twenty-seven or thereabouts ".) See the deed in the appendix. ' M. Assereto remarks, on this point, that according to custom the witness mentioned the number of years he had accomplished already, so that when Colum- bus declares he is twenty-seven or thereabouts he intends to convey that he was over twenty-seven but not yet twenty-eight years of age. Op. cit., p. 8.