This definitive edition of Columbus's account of the voyage presents the most accurate printed version of his journal available to date. Unfortunately both Columbus's original manuscript, presented to Ferdinand and Isabella along with other evidence of his discoveries, and a single complete copy have been lost for centuries. The primary surviving record of the voyage-part quotation, part summary of the complete copy-is a transcription made by Bartolome de las Casas in the 1530s. This new edition of the Las Casas manuscript presents its entire contents-including notes, insertions, and canceled text-more accurately, completely, and graphically than any other Spanish text published so far. In addition, the new translation, which strives for readability and accuracy, appears on pages facing the Spanish, encouraging on-the- spot comparisons of the translation with the original. Study of the work is further facilitated by extensive notes, documenting differences between the editors' transcription and translation and those of other transcribers and translators and summarizing current research and debates on unanswered current research and debates on unanswered questions concerning the voyage. In addition to being the only edition in which Spanish and English are presented side by side, this edition includes the only concordance ever prepared for the Diario. Awaited by scholars, this new edition will help reduce the guesswork that has long plagued the study of Columbus's voyage. It may shed light on a number of issues related to Columbus's navigational methods and the identity of his landing places, issues whose resolution depend, at least in part, on an accurate transcription of the Diario. Containing day-by-day accounts of the voyage and the first sighting of land, of the first encounters with the native populations and the first appraisals of his islands explored, and of a suspenseful return voyage to Spain, the Diario provides a fascinating and useful account to historians, geographers, anthropologists, sailors, students, and anyone else interested in the discovery-or in a very good sea story. Oliver Dunn received the PH.D. degree from Cornell University. He is Professor Emeritus in Purdue University and a longtime student of Spanish and early history of Spanish America. James E. Kelley, Jr., received the M.A. degree from American University. A mathematician and computer and management consultant by vocation, for the past twenty years he has studied the history of European cartography and navigation in late-medieval times. Both are members of the Society for the History of Discoveries and have written extensively on the history of navigation and on Columbus's first voyage, Although they remain unconvinced of its conclusions, both were consultants to the National geographic Society's 1986 effort to establish Samana Cay as the site of Columbus's first landing.

This volume brings together, translated and edited by R.H. Major, five letters by Columbus describing his first, third, and fourth voyages; another by Dr Chanca, physician, descriptive of the second voyage; and an extract from the will of Diego Mendez, one of Columbus's officers on the fourth voyage. Includes Spanish texts at the foot of the page. Two copies of this edition were printed in vellum and one presented to the British Museum. For a second edition see First Series 43; for a third edition see Second Series 65 and 70. This is a new print-on-demand hardback edition of the volume first published in 1847.

A revised translation of the documents in First Series 2, with the editor's reply to J. A. Froude's strictures on the earlier edition in the Westminster Review (1852) and in his Short Studies on Great Subjects, vol. 2. Contains the following: Introduction.--Dati, G. La lettera dellisole che ha trovato nuovamente il re dispagna. [At end] a di XXVI. doctobre. 14.93. Florentie.--Bibliography [of the Incunabula of Columbus' first letter]--First voyage: A letter sent by Columbus to Luis de Santangel chancellor of the exchequer. [Ambrosian text]--Second voyage: A letter addressed to the Chapter of Seville by Dr. Chanca.--Memorial of the results of the second voyage. 30th of January 1494.--Third voyage: Narrative of the voyage which Don Christopher Columbus made ... as he sent it to their Majesties.--Letter ... to the (quondam) nurse of the prince John, 1500.--Letter ... to the most Christian and mighty sovereigns. Jamaica, July 7, 1503.--A narrative given by Diego Mendez. This is a new print-on-demand hardback edition of the volume first published in 1870.

DIVFascinating historical document includes Columbus' own words documenting voyage, discouraged crew, landfall in the Bahamas, natives, more. 44 illustrations, some from rare sources. Publisher's note. /div