- Andalucia
- Almeria
- Cadiz
- Cordoba
- Granada
- Huelva
- Jaen
- Malaga
- Sevilla
- National
- Gibraltar
- Features
- Business & Finance
- Crime
- Food & Drink
- Entertainment
- Environment
- Health
- Nature
- News Features
- Property
- Sport
- Travel
- Blogs
- Caitlyn Slivinski
- Carolyn Emmett
- Charlotte Hanson
- Craig Scott
- Hannah's España
- John Woodhead
- Paul Whitelock
- Andalucia Property Search
- Almeria
- Cadiz
- Cordoba
- Granada
- Malaga
- Murcia
- Sevilla
- Advertise
- News Archives
Green Guide-
Malaga
4°C, Fair
H: 14°C | L: 2°C -
Granada
0°C, Partly Cloudy
H: 8°C | L: -4°C -
Almeria
6°C, Partly Cloudy
H: 12°C | L: 4°C -
Seville
1°C, Fair
H: 13°C | L: -2°C
You must be Jocking
March 23, 2009 • National News • 6 Comments
(1 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
Loading ...
|
Spanish historian claims Columbus was Scottish
SPAIN’S most famous explorer Christopher Columbus was actually Scottish, claims a controversial historian.
The 15th century discoverer of the New World heralded from Scotland, and adoped his surname from an Italian pirate.
The explorer, who sailed from Sevilla, after raising money from his expedition around Spain, was actually called Pedro Scotto.
Baptised
Scotching assumptions that Columbus was the son of a weaver from Genoa, in Italy, or from Catalonia or Galicia, historian Alfonso Ensenat de Villalonga, claims he was actually the son of shopkeepers.
“He was baptised Pedro not Christopher,” Mr Villalonga told ABC newspaper.
He added that his family name was Scotto, and he was of Scottish origin.
“He had light-coloured eyes and freckles. He also had blond hair even though it quickly turned white. That’s how his contemporaries described him. Nothing like the traditional images (of him), which are totally invented,” the historian said.
Mr Villalonga cited a chronicle of Catholic kings written by Lucio Marineo Siculo, who referred in his writings to “Pedro Columbus”, not Christopher.
The historian has also claimed that the navigator once worked for a pirate called Vincenzo Columbus, and adopted that family name in order not to “expose” his relations.
Mr Villalonga said his research involved combing the archives in the Genoa region along with those in the Spanish history academy and national library.
Reader Comments »
Messages will be moderated or deleted if they:
• Are considered likely to disrupt, provoke, attack or offend others
• Are racist, sexist, homophobic, sexually explicit, abusive or otherwise objectionable
• Contain swear words or other language likely to offend
• Break the law or condone or encourage unlawful activity. This includes breach of copyright, defamation and contempt of court
• Advertise products or services for profit or gain
• Are seen to impersonate someone else
• Include contact details such as phone numbers, postal or email addresses
• Describe or encourage activities which could endanger the safety or well-being of others
LATEST NEWS FROM THE OLIVE PRESS
- Unemployment to get even worse, says Rajoy
- Where justice meets farce: Garzon, the Spanish ‘superjudge’
- Euro strengthens across the board
- Sevilla stars in Super Bowl
- Dangerous prescription-only drug available over the counter in Spain
- Talking shop
- Mona Lisa’s Spanish twin
- Age of consent
- Free handouts at Iceland Puerto Banus
- Spanish princess in the dock
LATEST COMMENTS FROM OUR READERS
- stefanjo on A smashing deal in southern Spain
- stefanjo on Free handouts at Iceland Puerto Banus
- Web Manager on Free handouts at Iceland Puerto Banus
- stefanjo on Free handouts at Iceland Puerto Banus
- stefanjo on Age of consent
- peter long on A golden exhibit for Spain
- AA on Tony Blair agreed to give Gibraltar to Spain
- Gresham on A smashing deal in southern Spain
- Gresham on Insurance heartache in Spain
- Gresham on Talking shop
Related Articles »
Spanish Franco fallout
June 21, 2011 | Andalucia National News
A new 6.5m euro state-funded biography of the former dictator stokes fury as it paints him in a good light
Franco had one testicle
June 2, 2009 | National News
Like Hitler, Spain’s dictator might have been ‘monorchid’, claims new book
They keep coming
January 27, 2009 | National News
Despite the credit crunch, thousands of Britons are still relocating to Spain while the country is still tops for Scottish and British holidaymakers. The number of people seeking a new life in Spain has surged by 12 per cent.
Bogus insurance claims on the rise
June 23, 2011 | Lead2 National News
Premiums could be set to rise due to the huge increase in false claims in Spain
Spanish duchess for richer or poorer
August 10, 2011 | National News
Duchess of Alba – Spain’s richest woman – divides up personal fortune to marry
Just because his surname was Scotto doesn’t mean he was scottish. It still sounds a very italian surname. And this is the first time anyone reading any kind of source on Columbus has read the name “Pedro”. I think something like this would have been noticed by the THOUSANDS of scholars who have combed the archives over the years. Also, Siculo was Italian: i’d quite like to see his writtings on Columbus, see what sort of context they’re in. Considering the quality of 15th century spanish peleography, Pedro could easily be an abreviation malinterpreted: Villalonga needs his research cross-examined (but if he’s anything like Cesar Vidal, he won’t let anyone)
The writer of this article could at least take the trouble to read his source properly. I’d be very surprised if the print version of the ABC article differed much from the online version, which does not cite Enseñat as saying that Columbus was Scottish, but that his family was originally from Scotland, moved to Lombardy in the 8th century, and from there to Portugal in the 15th. This is not particularly important or controversial. Where Enseñat is radical (or as radical as an elderly upper-class Spanish engineer is likely to get) is in saying that Colon’s family was the Colonnes, and that this surname became confused with the name Columbus. I know Enseñat personally, he’s a serious and extremely dedicated scholar, who may or may not be right, but if he isn’t it isn’t because he hasn’t done his research properly. The online version of the ABC article can be read here: http://www.abc.es/hemeroteca/historico-14-03-2009/sevilla/Cultura/colon-viene-de-familia-escocesa-y-fue-corsario_913766326766.html
I think i know where the Pedro comes from: when one reads 15th century paleography, a lot of words are abreviated, so xto (cristo) can also be read pdo (pedro) because of deterioration of the ink and support, humidity, etc. The X would have curled at the bottom towards the left, and the top might have joind up = x – p; t – d aren’t too dificult to do either. John, thanks for the ABC article, it really clears things up. It also means that Columbus was genoese by birth, and only descended from scots (i was born in England but my family name is french, does this make me french?) Also, in Spanish and italian he is Colon, but it is only us anglo-saxons who call him columbus (colombo), so maybe scrap the taking-name-from-corsair theory, he wouldn’t have needed to, colonna and colombo are too similar
Sorry, Craig, I’m not very convinced by your paleographic explanation, either. I’ll drop you an e-mail about it via your history blog, though – I don’t want to be a bore about this to people who aren’t particularly interested.
I love the idea of a boat reaching the ameicas and the first man off saying”see you jimmy” to the natives. Imagine the whole of south america being populated by red haired glaswegian accented indians. Only Monty Python could come up with such a scene.
aye, it’s fish suppers al-roond