Skip to main content

The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books by Edward Wilson-Lee: book review

 


The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books: Young Columbus and the Quest for a Universal Library (2018) is set in Spain and begins in 1539 with the death of Hernando, the illegitimate son of Christopher Columbus. 

 

Hernando Columbus (1488-1539), also known as Ferdinand, born in Argentina, collected books, and on his death he left his worldly possessions and wealth, not to a person, but to his library collection. The novel goes back to the beginning of Hernando’s life, to the age of five, and how he acquired his amazing collection of 15,000 books. It is his personal destiny.

 

He spent a year of his youth with his father, shipwrecked off Jamaica. He also travelled around Europe. But mostly he was in Seville where, with his printing press, he helped to create maps of the world, a dictionary, and a geographical encyclopaedia of Spain. Unlike his father who travelled the world, Hernando wanted to bring the world, and knowledge, to one place, in his library in Seville, Spain. 

 

Hernando wrote a book called Life and Deeds of the Admiral, a biography of his father, from which modern historians learned of Christopher Columbus and his travels. He also inherited his father’s library. 

 

No matter how many books a person has, ‘even fifty thousand books without order is not a library, any more than a crowd of thirty thousand undisciplined men is an army.’ So, around the turn of the 16th century, Hernando set about cataloguing his books, meticulously. How does one order a library – chronologically? Is literature linear? 


The house and his library of shipwrecked books, no longer exists. The Epilogue provides the reasons why. 

 

This is a fascinating account of a dry subject – the establishment and ordering of a library – made interesting through the extensive travels, the biography of Christopher Columbus, and the love of literature.

 






As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

 


MARTINA NICOLLS

Website

Martinasblogs

Publications

Facebook

Paris Website

Animal Website

SUBSCRIBE TO MARTINA NICOLLS FOR NEWS AND UPDATES 

 

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author  of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce  (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh  (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. ...
1 comment
Read more

Apes go to the movies - and remember the scenes

Apes remember major events in movies, even after a single viewing. That’s the findings of primate research in Japan (New Scientist, September 17, 2015). Researchers at the Kyoto University in Japan conducted experiments with two species of apes – chimpanzees and bonobo primates – to test their memory and recall. Instead of using food to test memory, they used films. The researchers made two short movies to show to the apes. Fumihiro Kano and his colleague, Satoshi Hirata, starred in the films with another person dressed as an ape. They wanted to have strong dramatic scenes to see if the apes remembered them. In the first 30-second movie the character ape bursts through a door on the right hand side (there is also a door on the left hand side) and attacks the two researchers (characters) 18 seconds after the start. After 24 seconds a human character choses one of two weapons next to each other and launched a revenge attack on the ape. In the second 30-second movie t...
Post a Comment
Read more

The acacia thorn trees of Kenya

There are nearly 800 species of acacia trees in the world, and most don’t have thorns. The famous "whistling thorn tree" and the Umbrella Thorn tree of Kenya are species of acacia that do have thorns, or spines. Giraffes and other herbivores normally eat thorny acacia foliage, but leave the whistling thorn alone. Usually spines are no deterrent to giraffes. Their long tongues are adapted to strip the leaves from the branches despite the thorns. The thorny acacia like dry and hot conditions. The thorns typically occur in pairs and are 5-8 centimetres (2-3 inches) long. Spines can be straight or curved depending on the species. MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Suda...
1 comment
Read more