2023-11-13 05:33:27
Only at the end of his eventful life did Christopher Columbus record who was, according to him, the true architect of the discovery of America, one of the most important events in the history of humanity, although he only did so in the private sphere. It was not a public statement nor did he record it in a book, but in five letters sent to his son Diego three years before dying. «He was the cause that their highnesses [los Reyes Católicos] had the Indies,” he acknowledged in the last one, dated December 21, 1505, in reference to Diego Deza.
Columbus died in Valladolid on May 20, 1506, it is believed that due to complications derived from gout or arthritis suffered for years. After his death, his body was treated with a process called decarnation, whereby all the flesh was removed from his bones so that his corpse would be better preserved. In his will, in which he proclaimed himself admiral, viceroy and governor of the islands and mainland of the Indies discovered and yet to be discovered, he left everything to Diego himself and to his other son. Hernandonothing for Deza even though, according to him, he would not have been successful or enriched as such.
He had discovered America 13 years ago and it was at that moment when he wanted to do justice, even if only in the shadows, with the supposed architect of that feat, whose role was ignored and ignored by the majority of historians of his time. We are talking about a Deza, born in Toro (Zamora) in 1444, who was not only his friend, but also his protector, the person without whom the navigator would never have been able to set sail and cross the Atlantic.
“Deza was the reason that I stayed in Castile, when I was already on my way out,” Columbus insisted in the same message, about one of the key moments in the organization of the trip, when he saw his project was rejected for the second time. and he thought that everything was lost, that he would never be able to begin his expedition. Historians of the late 15th and early 16th centuries ignored these confessions – it is not known for sure when the letters were made public – and when glossing Deza’s career they focused on his religious work and as a teacher to Prince Juan of Aragon.
The chroniclers
An oblivion into which the chroniclers of the Catholic Monarchs and all their former biographers also fell. The silence, for example, of Andrés Bernáldez, historian and chaplain to Diego de Deza in Seville, was flagrant. In his ‘History of the Catholic Monarchs’ he made no mention of this work, which, without a doubt, he knew about. Neither Pedro Mártir de Anglería –humanist in the service of Isabel and Ferdinand, famous for his writings about the discovery of America– nor Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo –first chronicler of the newly discovered Indies– recorded the role played by Deza in the enterprise of Colon. And the latter knew our protagonist, despite which he decided to omit his participation in his ‘General History of the Indies’ or in the bibliographies that he wrote.
Diego de Deza was born eight years before the navigator, although their paths did not cross until 1486. When the happy meeting took place in Salamanca, Columbus had already been mulling over the idea of reaching the Indies by a new route for six years. He actually he wasn’t alone in this. In Portugal, the country where he had resided since 1479, there were quite a few sailors immersed in the race to circumnavigate Africa to reach the same destination in the East. The difference is that the Genoese believed that he had to cross the Atlantic.
He had arrived at this idea by studying the numerous maps and maritime charts that he had inherited from his father-in-law – after marrying that same year in Lisbon with Felipa Moniz de Perestrelo, daughter of a former governor of Porto Santo -, as well as all the information that this he had collected during his years as a navigator in the Atlantic. After analyzing all this documentation, Columbus read the texts of travelers such as Marco Polo, Pliny the Elder, Silvio Piccolomini and Pierre d’Ailly. He then learned in detail the map left by the mathematician and sailor Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli, who had died shortly before, and finally devised his project.
Diego de Deza
For his part, in 1479, Deza succeeded Pedro de Osma as head of the Prima Chair of Theology at the University of Salamanca. He had arrived there nine years after entering the Dominican monastery in San Ildefonso, in his hometown, and finishing his studies in Salamanca as a disciple of intellectuals such as Antonio de Nebrija and Alfonso de Madrigal. He soon became a leading figure in the city, as a result of which he had the opportunity to begin his relationship with the Catholic Monarchs, specifically, after their visit to those lands in 1480. The impression he made on them was so good that, six years later, he was named teacher of the crown prince Don Juan, the only male of the monarchs.
In 1482 and 1483, Columbus tried to negotiate with King John II the financing of a fleet to search for the Indies in the Atlantic, but neither the Portuguese nor his advisors believed that trip was feasible. Then, disappointed and angry, he sought the support of the Catholic Monarchs. It was at the beginning of 1486 when Columbus managed to present his project to them. «He came to court and told the Kings about his imagination, to which they did not give much credit. He talked to them, he told them that what he told them was true. And he showed them the map of the world, so that he generated in them the desire to know about those lands,” Bernáldez said in the aforementioned ‘History of the Catholic Monarchs’, although without citing Deza.
The monarchs created a commission of expert mathematicians, cosmographers, astronomers and philosophers to determine whether it was possible to carry out the navigator’s idea. Among these was precisely Diego de Deza, who was practically the only one who believed in the viability of Colón’s project and the only one who supported it in principle. That support, however, was not enough and Isabel and Ferdinand rejected it. The Monarchs were more concerned at that time with ending the last Nasrid strongholds in Granada and ending the Reconquest. There was no time or money for fanciful undertakings. “All of them agreed that what the admiral said was impossible,” Rodrigo Maldonado then reported.
Portrait of Diego de Deza made by Zurbarán, which is in the Prado Museum
Your great friendship
Despite the setback, the Genoese did not give up on his idea and won Deza over to his cause. From that very moment he became one of his main supporters, starting a friendship that would not break until the day of his death. “Always, since I came to Castile, he has favored me and desired my honor,” Columbus added in another of those letters. So much so that, in November 1486, his friend managed to introduce him to the court so that he could accompany the Kings on their trip to Salamanca and persist in his arguments. There the Genoese settled in the shelter of the friar, who found him a room in the convent of San Esteban and covered all his expenses during the years of indecision that followed his first rejection.
In this convent, in which Diego de Deza was actively immersed, not only Theology or Canon Law was taught, but also other sciences. The rest of the friars knew and studied the work ‘Sphoera’, by Leonardo Dati, in which it was argued that the Earth was round. This facilitated the understanding of Columbus’s ideas, which excited his new friend, who did not hesitate to begin making representations to Isabella and Ferdinand to convince them of the viability of the Genoese’s proposal.
In the ‘History of the Indies’ that Bartolomé de las Casas (1474-1566) began writing in 1527, the first reference is made to what was previously said by the Genoese, in a first attempt to bring to light that first-hand testimony. hand: “In a letter from Columbus addressed to the Kings he says that Prince Juan’s teacher – that is, Deza – had been the cause of the Kings having the Indies.” The idea that Columbus had was confirmed that without the defense of his project by the famous friar, the expedition probably would not have taken place.
Ten against all
The friendship professed by Deza was, therefore, decisive at the court of Castile for it to finally be accepted for him to undertake his journey. Most of the navigation experts who advised the Catholic Monarchs continued to reject the plan, while the navigator’s friend resisted against all odds in his defense during the most difficult moments. He even managed to grant the navigator his first salary at Court: 10,950 maravedíes. Columbus was able to continue visiting Salamanca, with the aim of facilitating the understanding of his idea with the support of the bishop as the main mediator before his opponents in the scientific field.
This is how Brother Fernando de Anaya described it in his book ‘History of the Salamanca Convent’: «When he was in Salamanca, not only the Dominican religious of San Esteban favored him. Deza hosted him and kept him at court, and was his main protector with the Kings to carry out his company. That is why Columbus said that it was the reason that his majesties had the Indies.
After the initial omission, between the 16th century and the beginning of the 20th century, some authors began to accept as true the conversations that Deza and Colón had in Salamanca regarding the project and the impetus that the former gave to it. He is highlighted by both Spanish historians (Antonio Sánchez Moguel, Antonio de Remesal, Consuelo Varela, Bernardo Dorado) and foreign historians (WH Prescott, Pierre Mandonnet, Washington Irving), who begin to point out his decisive role as a mediator before the Catholic Monarchs and the Columbus’s continued gratitude to his friend.
The testimonies
Remesal’s testimony in his ‘General History of the West Indies’, published in 1619, said: «To persuade the Kings of Castile of his attempt, Columbus came to Salamanca to communicate his reasons with the teachers of astrology and cosmology of said University. He began to propose the speeches and foundations of it, and only found attention and reception in the friars of San Esteban […]. Among all these, it was the teacher Fray Diego de Deza who was most determined to favor him and credit him before the Kings. […]. All the time that Columbus stayed in Salamanca, the convent gave him room and board and covered the expenses of his journey. For this and for the efforts that he made with the Kings so that they would believe him and help him in what he asked for, he attributed himself [a Deza], as an instrument, the discovery of the Indies. And in this same line appears the testimony of De Las Casas in his ‘History of the Indies’: «Many years before I saw the letters of Admiral Columbus written, I had heard that the archbishop of Seville – that is, Deza – “He boasted of having been the cause of the Kings accepting this enterprise and the discovery of the Indies.”
In January 1492, when Granada fell, the Genoese appeared again before the Catholic Monarchs and his project was rejected again. At that time Deza was bishop of Zamora and had already left the seed planted with other supporters that the navigator had won for his cause. This network of friendships and the financial support obtained from some Italians, together with the political and commercial interest that the friend had generated in the heads of Isabel and Fernando, brought about the change that allowed the famous capitulations of Santa Fe to be signed, on April 17, that same year. According to this treaty, the monarchs reserved ownership of all the discovered lands and a percentage of the wealth found, in exchange for allowing and financing the expedition. Columbus would be named viceroy and governor of the new territories, as well as 10% of the treasures and one eighth of the trade that would be generated in the future.
And Diego de Deza, nothing.
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