Columbus' First Voyage: Latin Selections from Peter Martyr's De Orbo Novo

Five selections in Latin from Peter Martyr of Angleria?’s De Orbe Novo are presented with vocabulary help on the facing page. After each Latin selection, background notes including information from other primary sources (Columbus?’ own 1493 letter, the abstraction of Columbus?’ journal by Fray Bartolom?? de las Casas, the biography of Columbus by his son Ferdinand, and Oviedo?’s Natural History of the West Indies) are included along with the pertinent Latin selection from Peter Martyr. When Peter Martyr was writing in the fifteenth century, it was agreed upon by scholars and men of literature at the time that the proper Latin to use was that of Marcus Tullius Cicero. Hence Martyr?’s Latinity is quite classical and, in fact, the simplicity of his literary style resembles that of Julius Caesar.

Also available:

Millennium: A Latin Reader (A.D. 374-1374) - ISBN 0865161917
Medieval Mosaic: A Book of Medieval Latin Readings - ISBN 0865165432