"Europeans were less interested by the New World than their Classical Heritage"

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“Europeans were less interested by the New World than their Classical Heritage”

The discovery of the Americas in 1492 was a massive challenge to the accepted notions of the world; a world which was still viewed by many in Ptolemaic terms, and laid claims against the accepted wisdom concerning geography, theology, history and the very nature of man. However, despite the momentous implications of a new land and, more importantly, its heathen peoples, there was an apparent slowness to take any real notice of the New World from within the Old World.

This lag cannot be explained either by slow dissemination of the news, nor by a lack of understanding of the importance of the discovery. Peter Martyr wrote to the Count of Tendilla and the Archbishop of Grenada in September 1493 to spread the news, opening with the words “Raise your spirits… Hear about the new discovery!” He talked of the gold Columbus found as well as the important news of the men they found, who were naked yet fought with bows and staves; men who had kings competing for power and yet worshipped celestial bodies. The excitement of the initial news was tremendous, and this was reflected in the demand for literature concerning the new discovery. Columbus’s first letter concerning his discovery was reprinted 9 times by the end of 1493 and at least 20 times by 1500. Montalboddo’s voyages went into print 15 times by 1507 and even in the mid sixteenth century, Ramusi’s voyages were being republished. Yet the excitement of discovery was not the only reason for the excitement. The scale of the discovery was well-recognised. Guicciardini praises the Spanish and Portuguese for the “great and unexpected” discovery. Juan Luis Vires wrote that “the globe has been opened up to the human race” and in 1539 the Paduan philosopher Buonamico claimed that the Americas and the printing press were the two great historical events that “could be compared not only to antiquity, but to immortality.” With the obvious exceptions of the Incarnation, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, Gomara viewed the event as the greatest “since the creation of the world.” Although Gomara was writing a half-century after the discovery, and apparently with great enthusiasm, the fad for Americana soon passed.

Although Guicciardini praised the Spanish and Portuguese for their discovery, he did not seem aware of Columbus’ Italian nationality. When the world’s most famous sailor died in Vallidolid, the local chronicle did not even mention the event. Whilst Ramusio and Oviedo reckoned that his discovery’s conversionary potential would give him almost saintly status, it was some time before Columbus could even have been sure that his Christian name would be recorded correctly by writers. Benzoni noted that their classical forebears would have erected a statue in his honour suggesting a lack of appropriate monuments to his memory (although Francis Bacon kept a statue of him) and giving us a hint at a preoccupation with comparing contemporary society to the classical civilisations. The situation became so bad that in 1571 his son Hernando was forced to publish a biography simply in order to keep his name alive for another generation. There was certainly many difficulties for Europeans wanting to learn about America; difficulties which seem to have fostered apathy.

Difficulties existed because of the sheer distance between the Americas and Europe and the time it took to cross the Atlantic, the problems of preconceptions and the difficulties of language and environment. These made any information at all difficult to obtain but these were all overcome simply by exposure to America and by using large fleets to maintain an American presence, which would explain initial apathy about America. The news of discovery apart, people would not have been interested by reports with no further developments. Hernando Columbus was fighting a truly difficult battle, as “the European reading public displayed no overwhelming interest in the newly-discovered world of America. and it would take generations to overcome such barriers as the problems of observation, description, dissemination and comprehension. As Humboldt said, “to see is not to observe; that is to compare and clarify.” Unfortunately, the difficulty of comparing and clarifying a land totally separate in form, ecology, culture and humanity from one’s own in words is incalculable. The problems of disseminating new ideas and images until they became the stock-and-trade furnishings of the mental images of the peoples of Europe concerning the Americas were enormous. Yet more difficult was the problem of shifting the mental barriers of both the author, who needed to try and work to portray a world entirely different from his own, and the reader, who needed to change their perceptions without seeing the landscapes of which the author had the benefit when writing.

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So great was the problem that most authors chose to wrote of “experiences” as opposed to scenery. De Guzman specifically said in his prologue that he would not try to relate the sights that he had seen. Some people found themselves able to describe individual aspects of the American landscape; Verrazeno described the forests of North America, de Lery described the flora and fauna that he saw whilst Barlowe described the trees of North America is some detail.

However, the greatest problem lay in describing the peoples of North America. The problem of the weightiness of the classical ideals often ...

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