4235

Unità di misura: cm; Altezza: 30; Larghezza: 20

carta- inchiostro

Announced in a letter to the Protectors, the ‘Code’ arrived in Genoa via Francesco Rivarolo, a shipowner and merchant residing in Seville, who delivered it to Ambassador Oderico with instructions to keep it for the Navigator's children, should they need it for their legal disputes. In 1670, Oderico's heirs donated the code to the Republic.

Written by one or more Spanish copyists, it contains a comprehensive collection of all the notarial deeds and documents proving the discovery and the rights attributed to him by the Spanish. The document was drawn up in four copies: one was entrusted to Father Gorricio, of the convent of Las Cuevas in Seville, perhaps Columbus's best friend; another was sent to the Indies with Columbus's attorney, Carvajal, who needed it to defend the admiral's interests, and two copies were entrusted, at different times, to Nicolò Oderico to keep in Genoa and entrust to the Banco di San Giorgio.

The first two volumes were lost over the centuries: only an extract from the Codex remains in Providence (USA, Rhode Island), probably written later by Columbus' descendants. The two manuscripts sent to Genoa, on the other hand, remained for decades in the Oderico family archives and then passed to the archives of the Republic: here they were removed by French Napoleonic emissaries and only the copy presented here returned to the city, the other remaining in Paris.

The Codex, rich in decorations and small exotic miniatures, was completed on 22 March 1502 and also contains a letter received just a week earlier from Valencia de la Torre. It can be identified by the “red cordovan bag” in which it was originally sent and which still accompanies the document today. Manuscript codex with leather cover.