Columbus, an experienced Genoese merchant sailor with a penchant for learned books, had conceived a plan to sail to the East by heading West. This idea was based on an old assumption dating as far back as the Greek geographer Ptolemy, who believed that the world was round and that the distance between Europe’s far west and the Orient’s far east was small.  Columbus’s plan to sail directly westward was offered to the king of Portugal, but neither he nor the French and English monarchs, whom he also approached, were convinced of its feasibility. Only Queen Isabella listened and, after some hesitation, agreed to sponsor Columbus’s enterprise.

The discovery of new lands on October 12th provided the Catholic Kings, Ferdinand and Isabella, with an opportunity for territorial expansion overseas. Furthermore, following a belief well established in the Europe of that time--also shared by the pilgrims of the Mayflower-- Spaniards thought that their enterprise obeyed a providential design, a belief that the Pope sanctioned at the highest level by conferring upon it the character of a Christian crusade.

The earliest historiography of the New World is mostly descriptive and consists largely of reports of sea travels by witnesses. Landscapes are only vaguely described, although with awe, and are often connected by allusion to Paradise or mythical places. As for the islanders, authors can only reflect on their observations of brief encounters with them marred by a frustrating language problem. Still, in just a few years an image of the New World as a distinct geographical entity slowly emerged.

I. 1.  Christopher Columbus. Epistola. [Rome, 1493].

This is the first imprint about the New World. Columbus (1451-1506) presumably wrote this letter to Luis de Santángel aboard the Santa Maria on his return trip to officially proclaim his discovery. In summarizing what he saw, Columbus displayed a characteristic mixture of accurate observation and fantastic hypothesis. Although the original purpose of the trip had not been realized, since neither gold nor spices were found, the founding of Navidad, the first European colony in the New World, is described as a promising start.
Columbus’s letter was published in its original Spanish in Barcelona, in April of 1493. Nine editions of a Latin translation entitled, Epistola, quickly appeared in Rome, Paris, Antwerp, and Basle. Although it was just a brief document, Columbus’s letter had a major influence on the early European concept of the New World.

I. 2.  Amerigo Vespucci. Mundus Novus. [Paris, 1503].

Vespucci (1451-1512) was a merchant from Florence who moved to Seville in 1492. He quickly became interested in the early discoveries and apparently participated in some of them, since he eventually received the royal appointment of piloto mayor. The exact details of his travels are the subject of a long controversy among scholars, who have argued bitterly about the authenticity of his writings. However, it seems undisputable that Mundus Novus is a remake in Latin of a letter written in Italian by Vespucci, with a few spicy comments added to an original text already full of exaggerations and inconsistencies. Although very little precise geographic information is given, Mundus Novus is credited with being the first printed text that identifies the New World as a new distinct continent, which by a strange train of circumstances was later named after him instead of Columbus.  The popularity of the book outside of Spain was immense. In the five years following the first printing, twenty editions appeared in Europe, seven in Germany alone.

I. 3. Pietro Martire d’Anghiera. De orbe novo decades. Alcalá de Henares, 1516.

Peter Martyr (1457-1526), a learned Humanist, was appointed by emperor Charles V as the first official chronicler of the lndies. Although Martyr never set foot on the New World, he used his privileged position as a courtier to gather a great wealth of information from documents and personal interviews. Following the model of the Latin historian Titus Livius, the Decades are written in Latin and organized into ten books that cover all aspects of the New World. Martyr was the first to establish a connection between the New World and Classical antiquity, comparing the peaceful Caribbean islanders with the happy inhabitants of the Golden Age.
Martyr went on to write five more Decades. The complete set of eight was published posthumously in 1530.  An English translation of the first four, published under the title The decades of the Newe Worlde or West India (London, 1555), was part of the first English book dealing with the New World.

I. 4. Martín Fernández de Enciso. Suma de geographia que trata de todas las partidas y provincias del mundo: en especial de las Indias. Seville, 1519.

Fernández de Enciso (ca.1470-ca.1528) was one of the earliest settlers in Santo Domingo, the capital of Hispaniola, where he practiced law and participated actively in sea expeditions. The Suma attempts to cover the world’s geography, but its most valuable information is the chapter on the West Indies. The word “America” was here used for the first time in a Spanish printed text, a denomination that in Spain remained rare until the nineteenth-century, the word “Indies” being the preferred term. Using a great variety of oral and written sources plus his own experience, Enciso compiled a practical book with useful information, especially for pilots. In his descriptions of the natives he gives details about the distinct physical characteristics of each tribe as well as their particular attitude towards the Spanish.

I. 5  Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés. De la natural hystoria de las Indias. Toledo, 1526.

Oviedo (1478-1557) was descended from a noble family and received a formal education. In 1512 he traveled to the New World, where he spent most of his life serving as a representative of the crown in various cities. Upon Oviedo’s return to Spain, in 1523, Emperor Charles V asked him to write a report on the Indies. Although he had taken extensive notes on all aspects of the European “discoveries,” this work, known as the Sumario, is only a report quickly written from memory. Oviedo provides new botanical, zoological, and ethnographical information, but reference is also made to administrative matters, the Indians, the gold mines, and the recently found route to the Pacific Spice Islands. Oviedo’s down-to-earth and almost journalistic style is in sharp contrast with the enthusiastic tone of astonishment and awe so typical of the early humanists.
The Sumario quickly earned Oviedo a solid reputation as the best informed person on the New World, who had direct knowledge of his subject. He later elaborated most of this material in his voluminous Historia general.