Columbus' First Voyage: Latin Selections from Peter Martyr's De Orbe Novo

by Pietro Martire d'Anghiera

Five selections in Latin from Peter Martyr of Angleria's De Orbe Novo are presented with vocabulary help on the facing page. After each Latin selection, background notes including information from other primary sources (Columbus' own 1493 letter, the abstraction of Columbus' journal by Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, and Oviedo's Natural History of the West Indies) are included along with the pertinent Latin selection from Peter Martyr. When Peter Martyr was writing in the fifteenth century, it was agreed upon by scholars and men of literature at the time that the proper Latin to use was that of Marcus Tullius Cicero. Hence Martyr's Latinity is quite classical and, in fact, the simplicity of his literary style resembles that of Julius Caesar.

56 pages, Paperback

First published February 2, 2006

About the author

1457-1526