Italian Reports on America, 1493–1522. Letters, Dispatches, and Papal Bulls ed. by Geoffrey Symcox (review)

REVIEWS 235 Geoffrey Symcox, ed., Italian Reports on America, 1493–1522. Letters, Dispatches , and Papal Bulls, Giovanna Rabitti, textual ed., Italian texts, Peter D. Diehl, trans., Repertorium Columbianum 10 (Turnhout: Brepols Publishers 2001) 161 pp. Nearly a decade before the Columbus quincentenary, the late historian Fredi Chiappelli conceived of a project that he hoped would become his contribution to this momentous event. Chiappelli set himself an ambitious task, for he planned to produce a new edition of the Raccolta Colombiana of 1892. The Raccolta, which was edited by the renowned Venetian archivist Guglielmo Berchet, contained editions of most of the documents pertaining to the Columbian voyages that we have to date. While Berchet’s Raccolta was a significant achievement for its time, Chiappelli hoped to utilize the latest philological and historical tools to create an updated edition that would focus specifically upon the voyages of Columbus and early European contacts with the Americas. As a result, the Repertorium Columbianum—as Chiappelli named the new project— was born. From the beginning, Chiappelli had two goals for the Repertorium: to provide accurate editions of the texts in their original languages for the benefit of specialists, and to provide parallel English translations that would make them available to a wide range of students and scholars. Unfortunately, Chiappelli did not live long enough to see his plan come to fruition. In 1989, Geoffrey Symcox inherited Chiappelli’s project and became the Repertorium’s general editor. Under his guidance, and with the assistance of UCLA’s Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, the series has produced ten volumes to date, and two more are in preparation. The significance of the Repertorium’s contribution to both the specialist and non-specialist alike is evinced in the series’ most recent volume—volume 10— which contains letters, dispatches and papal bulls written between 1493 and 1522. Symcox is the general editor of this volume, Giovanna Rabitti the textual editor, and Peter D. Diehl the translator. In total, sixty texts are presented in their original languages (91–139) and in English translation (27–87). As is to be expected, most of the texts are bulls and correspondence by popes Alexander VI, Julius II, Leo X, and Hadrian VI (including the famous 1493 papal bull of Alexander VI that divided the non-Christian world between Spain and Portugal ), and reports from ambassadors such as Giacomo Trotti, Gaspare Contarini , and Francesco Guicciardini. Because these documents provide much information about the cycle of Columbian voyages, and also shed light on the nature of the impact these explorations had upon Italy, their translation was of special interest to Chiappelli. Although the documents contained in this volume were first published in part 3 volume 1 of the Raccolta, several important changes have been made. Perhaps most significantly, while texts in the Raccolta are divided according to the individual states from which they originated, Symcox has rearranged the documents in chronological order. The new organizational structure succeeds in obtaining the editor’s objective of creating a narrative “through which the reader can study ... how the first contacts with America and its people were perceived in Italy” (3). Some of the later documents contained in the Raccolta have also been omitted from the work; in keeping with the editorial policy of REVIEWS 236 the Repertorium, the year 1522—which follows Cortés’s conquests in Mexico and Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe—closes the volume. As these events mark the end of the cycle of exploration initiated by Columbus, they present a fitting termination point. Symcox provides a thorough preface to the material that includes an introduction , conclusion, and six sections that address various aspects of the Columbian voyages upon which the texts shed light (1–24). He clarifies the importance of the various documents and indicates how they prove useful in considering historiographical debates. The reader learns, for instance, that the texts may assist in illuminating the role of diplomacy in the late middle ages and early modern period (4–8)—an issue that has been debated since Garrett Mattingly first raised it in 1964.35 Debates surrounding the texts are also discussed , such as the difficulties in dating and interpreting the first papal...