Columbus Biography Written by His Son

Exploring the Early Americas The Jay I. Kislak Collection

Pre-Contact America | Explorations and Encounters | Aftermath of the Encounter

Fernando Colón (1488–1539).
Historie del sig. don Fernando Colombo, nelle quali s’hà particolare, & vera relatione della vita, & de’ fatti dell’ammiraglio don Christoforo Colombo suo padre [History by Don Fernando Columbus . . . Don Christopher Columbus, his father].
Milan: Girolamo Bordoni, [1614].
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (51)

Fernando Colón was born in Córdoba, Spain, in 1488 and spent his early years there with his mother. As a youth, he traveled to the New World with his father on Columbus’s fourth voyage. As an adult, Fernando became a scholar and built a large personal library using the income from his father’s legacy. Fernando wrote this biography in defense of his father in about 1538.