One of the nine surviving copies of Columbus' letter of discovery to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, printed in Rome in 1493, will be sold at Christie's auction house Nov. 20, it was announced Wednesday.
The rare example of Columbiana is expected to bring $300,000 to $400,000, according to Liete Kidd, a Christie's spokeswoman. It is considered a fine example of a pamphlet produced by the new technology of movable type, barely a generation old, as well as one of the world's most important documents, she said.Kidd said the Columbus letter was one of only a few in private hands but would not identify the consignor at his request.
The letter was composed by Columbus at sea on the return voyage from the New World in 1492 and delivered to his royal patrons when he reached Spain. The letter was printed in Spain but only one copy of this Spanish edition survives and is in the collection of the New York Public Library.
The Rome edition in Latin, printed by Stephen Plannck and known as Americanum Number One, was widely circulated throughout Europe and helped change the course of Western history by spurring an age of exploration and discovery that resulted in the European colonization of both North and South America.
"It is an interesting coincidence that Christie's has finally succeeded in bringing to auction one of the few remaining examples of the Columbus letter during the quincentennial of his historic encounter with the New World," said Stephen Massey, head of Christie's department of books and manuscipts.