The Italian Carabinieri recovered the letter, dating 1493, through which Christopher Columbus announced the discovery of the America and the ‘new world’.
The letter had been stolen in Florence from Riccardiana library and was found in the United States Library of Congress in Washington D.C. The Congress library had bought it for around $400,000, although experts believe the document’s real value is closer to $1 million.
The United States have agreed on returning the letter as US Ambassador John R. Phillips stated that the precious document’s return to Italy “is a symbolic fact that marks the friendship and total collaboration between our two countries.”
Columbus expressed his first impressions of people and the landscape in the so-called New World, to his sponsors King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain upon returning to Europe in 1493. Between then and 1501 the letter was translated into Latin and 14 to 16 printed copies were made and distributed.
Donate