Page 62 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

the gold to be derived from his voyage on "the N O T E S 11. Letter of 12 August 1490 cited in Luis Suarez Fer-
conquest of Holy Places/ 7 The text reads: "I -L. Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus, ed. Cecil nandez, Los Reyes Catolicos: La Expansion de la Fe
urged Your Highnesses to spend all the profits James (New York, 1988), 2:2. (Madrid, 1990), 75.
of this my enterprise on the conquest of Jeru- 2. In Andres Bernaldez, Historia de los reyes catolicos f 12. For the complete Spanish text of the edict, see Luis
acerca de la
de autores
Suarez Fernandez, Documentos
expul-
Lopez, Biblioteca
Cayetano Resell y
ed.
salem, and Your Highnesses laughed and said espanoles 70 (Madrid, 1931), ch. 13. The original sion de los judios (Valladolid, 1964), 391-395.
that it would please them, and that even with- reads: "lo que mas grave se siente en los reales, es 13. Bernaldez 1931, 653.
out this profit they had that desire/' 20 mengua estrema de las cosas necesarias." The trans- 14. Journal of Christopher Columbus, ed. Oliver Dunn
Historians have traditionally explained Ferdi- lation is that of Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Ferdi- and James E. Riley, Jr. (Norman, 1989), 17.
nand and Isabella's support for Columbus as the 3. nand and Isabella (New York, 1975), preface. 15. Dunn and Riley 1989,19. the
Fernando de Pulgar, Cronica de los Reyes
Catolicos,
16.
The full
text of Columbus' capitulations with
logical outcome of their interests in exploration ed. Juan de Mata Carriazo (Madrid, 1943), 1:78. monarchs may be consulted in The Spanish Tradition
and colonization. Competition with the Portu- 4. Alonso Fernandez de Palencia, Cronica de Enrique in America, ed. Charles Gibson (New York, 1968),
guese, and specifically the desire to profit from iv, ed. A. Paz y Melia (Madrid, 1975), 2:154. 27-34. The monarchs agreed to name Columbus
the spice trade of India and South Asia, are 5. Cited in Fernandez-Armesto 1975, 187. 'Admiral in all those islands and mainlands which
viewed as an additional rationale. Yet if Colum- 6. Popular legend asserts that Queen Isabella was so by his hand and industry shall be discovered or
she was will-
committed
to Columbus' voyage that
acquired." He was also appointed perpetual viceroy
bus is to be believed, royal support for his ing to sell her jewels to pay for it, but the truth is and governor general with full authority over "all
voyage was also predicated upon the monarchs' that the monarchy contributed only a little more the said islands and mainlands," although the mon-
image of themselves as messianic rulers with than one half the expedition's cost, with the balance archs later revoked this particular privilege as the
a divine mission to conquer Jerusalem, release coming from various Sevillian merchants as well as full extent of Columbus' discoveries became known.
Asia and Africa from the grip of Islam, and Columbus himself. Juan de la Cosa provided the 17. For Columbus' spirituality, see Pauline Moffitt
while the caravels
Maria,
flagship, the
nao Santa
establish universal Christendom as a prelude Nina and Pinta belonged to the port of Palos. Watts, "Prophecy and Discovery: On the Spiritual
of Christopher
Origins
Columbus's
'Enterprise of
to the millennium. The adventure undertaken 7. Jose Garcia Mercadal, Viajes de extranjeros por the Indies,'" American Historical Review 90 (1985),
by Columbus led to what one of the monarchs' Espana y Portugal (Madrid, 1959), 1:405. 73-102. For his connection to the Franciscans, John
chroniclers would later describe as a New 8. Henry Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition (New York, L. Phelan, The Millennial Kingdom of the Francis-
World. For Ferdinand and Isabella, however, 1965), 189. cans in the New World (Berkeley, 1970), 17-28.
1:319.
2:48.
9.
Columbus' "enterprise of the Indies" heralded 10. Nicolas de Popielovo in Garcia Mercadal 1959, Society 18. Voyages of Columbus 1988, 2:104.
Kamen, Spain
1469—1514: A
Cited in Henry
1988,
Columbus
Voyages
19.
of
something even more momentous, the end of in Conflict (New York, 1983), 41. 20. Dunn and Riley 1989, 291.
time itself.

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