The Ships of Christopher Columbus

Author: Gay, Franco and Cesare CianoYear: 1997Publisher: Instituto Poligrafico e Zecca Dello Stato Liberia dello StatpPlace: RomeDescription:309 pages with plates which many are folding, illustrations and appendices. Quarto (11 3/4" x 8 1/4") in pictorial covers with black lettering to spine and cover. Bibliographic references compiled by Maria Grazia Borrelli. Translated by Lucio Bertolazzi and Luciano F Farina. 1st edition into English. Curiosity about the distinctive nature and features of the vessels which Christopher Columbus sailed from Palos on August 3, 1492, with the aim of discovering a new way to the Indies, is rather recent. Up till last century the interest of historians did not go beyond the fact that the Genoese sailor used three little ships whose picture could be vaguely found in ancient naval representations. During the last century the first studies on this subject began and, as a result, numerous acceptable reconstructions of the Santa Maria and of the two other car