By: Emma Xing
You surely know Christopher Columbus, the man that discovered America. But did you know one of his multi-million dollars letter was stolen?!
A 15th-century Christopher Columbus letter is now back in Italy decades after it it disappeared from a Venice library and resurfaced in Delaware.
Columbus wrote this letter in 1493 to his patrons, Spain’s King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, writing about his findings in America. The letter was sent to Rome and reprinted in Latin, which became a pamphlet in libraries around Europe.
This letter was worth quite a lot. ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) put its value $1.3 million when it was discovered in 2020.
The U.S. recently met with Italian officials in Rome to return the lost letter which took form in a slender hardcover booklet.
In tweets, Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano thanked everyone who was involved in solving the crime, including, U.S. Embassy in Italy and the cultural heritage protection branch of Italy’s Carabinieri police.
Sangiuliano described Columbus as a fundamental figure in Italy’s history and said the document will be enhanced with a traveling exhibition. But you might be asking yourself, has this crime been solved yet?
The newly discovered letter will be on display soon to help people remember Columbus. He is famous for discovering the New World (America) in 1492 and uncovering all the American continents and their indigenous inhabitants.
Columbus set sail from Spain in August, 1492, looking for an ocean route to Asia. He sailed it to the Caribbean where he spent several months exploring many different islands. including Juana and Hispaniol. He brought gold, native birds, and plants back to Spain.
But Columbus wasn’t all good. Along with bringing diseases to the new world, he kidnapped 25 Native Americans, of which only eight survived!
When he arrived back in Spain, Columbus wrote a letter in Spanish to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, who had helped fund his voyage on the seas, informing them of what he discovered in America.
After the letter was read by the royals, it was sent to Rome, where a prominent printer named Stephan Plannck reprinted it in Latin and distributed it across the continent.
But, Plannck accidentally left Queen Isabella’s name out of the pamphlet’s introduction, but quickly realized his mistake and reprinted the pamphlet a few days later. That’s why there are two different pamphlets known now as Plannck I and Plannck II.
Therefore, HSI (Homeland Security Investigators) Wilmington received information in 2011 regarding alleged forgeries of several Latin editions of the Columbus letter, according to ICE.
This information led HSI to find where the letters that had been stolen from the European libraries were. They returned one to Florence in 2016, and the new 2nd and 3rd letter to Barcelona and Vatican City in 2018.
So the letters did get found after all, and they solved the crime! It now is returned to Italy and safely stored again.