6 CONCEPTIONS OF COLUMBUS 



Any critical consideration of the problem must 

 begin with the fact that the value of 56^ miles for 

 the degree is erroneous and hence could not have 

 been verified by Columbus if there had not been 

 some special factors or elements involved in his mode 

 of procedure. What is of the first importance to 

 observe here is that the information upon which Co- 

 lumbus was forced to rely and the methods followed 

 in his day constitute elements which have hitherto 

 been ignored in the discussion of the problem but 

 which place his claim to have verified the length of a 

 degree in an entirely new light. 



The Statements of Columbus 

 The more important statements of Columbus with 

 reference to the length of a degree are mainly in the 

 form of marginal notes which he had written in his 

 own copies of a universal history and a cosmography 

 current at that time. They are as follows: 



I 



.... quod . . . rex Portugalie misit in Guinea 

 anno Domini .1485. magister Ihosepius, fixicus eius & 

 astrologus, [ad com]piendum altitudinem solis in totta 

 Guinea; qui omnia adinplevit, & renunciavit dito sere- 

 nissimo regi, me presente, quod . . . alliis in die .xi. mar- 

 cii invenit se distare ab equinoxiali gradus .v. minute in 

 insula vocata "de los Ydolos," que est prope [sierr]a 

 Lioa. & hoc cum maxima diligencia procuravit. postea 

 vero sepe ditus serenissimus rex misit in Guinea in alliis 

 locis. postea ... & semper Invenit concordari com ipso 



