Galego | English

Non fiction

Colón, galego. O almirante das mil facianas

By Alfonso Philippot Abeledo

About this book

During the past hundred years there were many findings emphasizing the thesis that Columbus was of Galician origin. First there are over 300 Galician words used by the Admiral in his autobiographical writings. Secondly a collection of 30 original documents were gathered and they all show that the Colón (Columbus) family from the Pontevedra villages of Moureira and Portosanto are the rood for the Duchs of Veragua. This the work by Alfonso Philippot is a suggestive work flooding with documents for the curious reader.

Book fragment

Opposite to what happens with the Columbus of Geneva, wool carders and wine makers, the Pontevedra branch of the Colons was very much linked to maritime trade. In this genealogy, organised with great accuracy by researcher Enrique Zás, Bartolomeu Colón is the eldest member of this family. Mr. Zas argues in this way not just because of the age of the document in which the name of Bartolomeu is mentioned, dated in 1428, but also on the fact that this man was the vicar of the brotherhood of Saint John the Baptist, who brought the carpenters of Ribeira together, and this position was usually given to those men who had more experience.

Alfonso de Colón is included in a list of 1500 in an accounts book and visit book to the brotherhood of San Miguel, as creditor of the traffic tax for his vessel used for the salt trade between Aveiro (Portugal) and Pontevedra. In 1960, researcher Antonio Fernández found in the archive of the Fathers Dominicus of Padrón (currently in the general archives of this religious order) a book of foros and grants of houses in the town of Pontevedra of 1796, which includes a document dated on 6th August 1512 in which the mariner Alfonso de Colón gives witness.