Call number
010.92 WIL
Collection
Publication
Scribner (2019), Edition: Illustrated, 416 pages
Description
"The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books tells the story of the first and greatest visionary of the print age, a man who saw how the explosive expansion of knowledge and information generated by the advent of the printing press would entirely change the landscape of thought and society. He also happened to be Christopher Columbus's illegitimate son. At the peak of the Age of Exploration, while his father sailed across the ocean to explore the boundaries of the known world, Hernando Colón sought to surpass Columbus's achievements by building a library that would encompass the world and include "all books, in all languages and on all subjects." In service of this vision, he spent his life travelling--first to the New World with his father in 1502, surviving through shipwreck and a bloody mutiny off the coast of Jamaica, and later, throughout Europe, scouring the bookstores of the day at the epicenter of printing. The very model of a Renaissance man, Hernando restlessly and obsessively bought thousands and thousands of books, amassing a collection based on the modern conviction that a truly great library should include the kind of material dismissed as ephemeral trash: ballads, pornography, newsletters, popular images, romances, fables. Using an invented system of hieroglyphs, he meticulously catalogued every item in his library, devising the first ever search engine for his rich profusion of books and images and music. A major setback in 1522 gave way to the creation of Hernando's Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books and inspired further refinements to his library, including a design for the first modern bookshelves. In this illuminating and brilliantly researched biography, Edward Wilson-Lee tells an enthralling story of the life and times of the first genius of the print age, a tale with striking lessons for our own modern experiences of information revolution and globalization."-- Amazon.com.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member hadden
As a retired librarian, I really enjoyed this book. Sometimes a bit slow to read, it is both a biography and an introduction to early librarianship. Hernando Colon, illegitimate son of Christopher Columbus, went with his father on later voyages to the New World. During his life, he began collecting
An interesting book on the early days of exploration and printing, showing how libraries began to form and to become useful repositories of learning.
The final interesting point is the this collection, of possibly 20,000 books, still exists, although only about 4,000 of the early works remain today. They are victims of times, insects, the Inquisition and looting.
A good book for librarians, book collectors and bibliophiles. And for the history of the Columbus family.
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early printed books and flyers. He began a dictionary, and dealt with early problems of librarianship with large collections of over 10,000 items. Cataloges for library collections had not been invented yet, nor had the erection of upright shelves holding books upright on the shelves. Hernando did it first, and some of his efforts were good, and others were blind alleys. One item he worked with was a system to annotate the printed works. In addition to the titles and authors in the catalogue, the annotations included basic points and subjects of the work, which were often not indicated in the titles. An interesting book on the early days of exploration and printing, showing how libraries began to form and to become useful repositories of learning.
The final interesting point is the this collection, of possibly 20,000 books, still exists, although only about 4,000 of the early works remain today. They are victims of times, insects, the Inquisition and looting.
A good book for librarians, book collectors and bibliophiles. And for the history of the Columbus family.
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LibraryThing member nancyadair
I was intrigued--Columbus had a son who created the world's greatest library? Why hadn't we heard about him? What happened to all the books? How did he even embark on such a quest? I had to read this book.
Hernando may have been an illegitimate son but in 1502 his father Christopher Columbus took
The book recounts Columbus's discoveries and his struggle to maintain his status and share of New World wealth for his heirs.
The Admiral of the Ocean reigned as the greatest explorer for only a short time before he was dethroned. He became old news as successive explorers stole attention and acclaim. Spain sought to discredit Columbus as the first to discover the New World, desirous of keeping all the New World wealth. Hernando determined to return and solidify his father's status by writing a book about his father's life--essentially the first biography.
The other part of the book is Hernando's thirst for knowledge, his obsession with collecting books of every kind, in every language--even if he couldn't read them. He collected prints and maps and art and ephemera gleaned from small booksellers.
He kept lists of his books and when he lost over a thousand books in a shipwreck he knew which ones he needed to replace. He developed methods to catalog and organize the books and to retrieve the information in the books.
Hernando was called upon to create a definitive map of the New World so that Spain and Portugal could finalize their territorial rights. He began an exhaustive dictionary but abandoned it knowing he could never finish it.
As he traveled across Europe, Hernando came into contact with all the great thinkers whose ideas were rocking the world: Erasmus, Luther, Rabelais, Thomas More. During Hernando's lifetime, Henry was looking to divorce Catherine, Suleiman was conquering the Eastern reaches of Europe, and the Holy Roman Emperor was crowned as the head of church and state. Luther's teaching had fueled the Peasant's Revolt and the anti-authoritarian Anabaptist movement arose.
In his later life, Hernando settled down and built his house and perfected his library. His garden was an arboretum containing plants and trees from across the world.
Hernando's achievement was remarkable. His goal to order all human knowledge for accessible retrieval was monumental. But after his death, most of his work and library were lost to neglect and time.
Through the life of one man, The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books gave me a panoramic view of the 16th c., an overview of the life and achievements of Christopher Columbus, and a biography of his son Hernando.
I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
Hernando may have been an illegitimate son but in 1502 his father Christopher Columbus took
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the thirteen-year-old along on his fourth voyage to the New World. Hernando started his life familiar with lands and cultures that most of the world didn't even know existed.The book recounts Columbus's discoveries and his struggle to maintain his status and share of New World wealth for his heirs.
The Admiral of the Ocean reigned as the greatest explorer for only a short time before he was dethroned. He became old news as successive explorers stole attention and acclaim. Spain sought to discredit Columbus as the first to discover the New World, desirous of keeping all the New World wealth. Hernando determined to return and solidify his father's status by writing a book about his father's life--essentially the first biography.
The other part of the book is Hernando's thirst for knowledge, his obsession with collecting books of every kind, in every language--even if he couldn't read them. He collected prints and maps and art and ephemera gleaned from small booksellers.
He kept lists of his books and when he lost over a thousand books in a shipwreck he knew which ones he needed to replace. He developed methods to catalog and organize the books and to retrieve the information in the books.
Hernando was called upon to create a definitive map of the New World so that Spain and Portugal could finalize their territorial rights. He began an exhaustive dictionary but abandoned it knowing he could never finish it.
As he traveled across Europe, Hernando came into contact with all the great thinkers whose ideas were rocking the world: Erasmus, Luther, Rabelais, Thomas More. During Hernando's lifetime, Henry was looking to divorce Catherine, Suleiman was conquering the Eastern reaches of Europe, and the Holy Roman Emperor was crowned as the head of church and state. Luther's teaching had fueled the Peasant's Revolt and the anti-authoritarian Anabaptist movement arose.
In his later life, Hernando settled down and built his house and perfected his library. His garden was an arboretum containing plants and trees from across the world.
Hernando's achievement was remarkable. His goal to order all human knowledge for accessible retrieval was monumental. But after his death, most of his work and library were lost to neglect and time.
Through the life of one man, The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books gave me a panoramic view of the 16th c., an overview of the life and achievements of Christopher Columbus, and a biography of his son Hernando.
I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.
Show Less
LibraryThing member DinadansFriend
Edward Wilson-Lee has written a book that raises some very interesting questions, and is a real attempt to investigate the workings of a mind formed by mostly medieval concepts. It is a biography of Christopher Columbus' illegitimate son, Hernando Colon. i use as Wilson-L:ee does the Spanish form
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of his name, because it reveals a facet of the mental framework of the man's life. it seems Hernando spent a very great part of his life pursuing the polishing of his father's image, and the financial rewards resulting from the discovery of America. The book also visits the questions dealt with in the creation of one of the great libraries of the sixteenth century, and one of the first general purpose, and mixed media collections in the world. We visit, as well as the Caribbean, the central questions of librarianism....what will one include in one's collections, and how will one order and access the material? The book is well written, with occasional strokes of wit and adequate mapping of a largely peripatetic life, but a life with a purpose that led the man into some rather odd byways. It expands the mind of the reader by raising an image of the real changes between 1500 and now, in the mental life of people in general. Show Less
LibraryThing member dono421846
Christopher Columbus's son Hernando, while unknown to most of us, was a man ahead of his time. Possessed of an inquiring intellect, he endeavored to accrue what at the time was the largest personal library in Europe, with 15,000 volumes. More importantly, he recognized that this much information
His intent was not simply to amass a dusty collection of materials (he focused primarily on the printed book, but also favored what librarians call ephermera--pamphlets, posters, etc., as well as sheet music, all materials ignored by libraries of his day), but to make it a working library. This effort was primarily in defense of his father's legacy, and much of the book is spent recounting Columbus's legal challenges, which Hernando spent decades in the court of Spain's Charles I working to resolve. That Columbus has the reputation he does today is due largely to the success of those efforts, made possible by the library containing all the works necessary to rebut and correct those seeking to diminish Columbus. I, for one, did not know the fuller details of that history, and found the account a genuine gap-filler.
Hernando died fairly young, and despite leaving clear and innovative instructions for the growth of his library, his nephew let it fall to ruin. Only about 4,000 of the volumes are today preserved.
I'd be surprised if most readers did not enjoy the story, and find the historical background truly enlightening.
Show More
would be useless unless the contents could be accessed, so he also developed a variety of indices, including a forerunner of the card catalog. His vision was nothing less than "an extraordinary premonition of the world of the internet, the World Wide Web."His intent was not simply to amass a dusty collection of materials (he focused primarily on the printed book, but also favored what librarians call ephermera--pamphlets, posters, etc., as well as sheet music, all materials ignored by libraries of his day), but to make it a working library. This effort was primarily in defense of his father's legacy, and much of the book is spent recounting Columbus's legal challenges, which Hernando spent decades in the court of Spain's Charles I working to resolve. That Columbus has the reputation he does today is due largely to the success of those efforts, made possible by the library containing all the works necessary to rebut and correct those seeking to diminish Columbus. I, for one, did not know the fuller details of that history, and found the account a genuine gap-filler.
Hernando died fairly young, and despite leaving clear and innovative instructions for the growth of his library, his nephew let it fall to ruin. Only about 4,000 of the volumes are today preserved.
I'd be surprised if most readers did not enjoy the story, and find the historical background truly enlightening.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Shrike58
As a professional archivist I found this to be a very cool work, considering that Hernando Colon (the illegitimate son of Christopher Columbus) seems to be a man after my own heart, with his obsessions regarding books and information and how to organize the positive onslaught of stuff that was
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already pouring forth from the printing presses of Europe in the early to mid 1500s. Though with a little more luck Colon might have been remembered as the father of library science, his real impact was to create the Christopher Columbus of popular myth; this spinning of the image of the great man being necessary to maintain the Colon family's fortunes as courtiers of the royal House of Spain. While I found this to be a lively story, the reality is that Wilson-Lee assumes that you have some background in the period, and will otherwise, dare I say it, be somewhat left out to sea. Show Less
LibraryThing member streamsong
Hernando Colòn was the youngest (and an illegitimate) son of Christopher Columbus. Hernando travelled with his father on his last voyage to the new world in 1502. During the trip, Hernando found he had a joy in making lists and descriptions of things as various as shipboard items and descriptions
Returning to Europe, he began to collect art prints. Since his collection contained thousands of them, he began to device ways of classifying them to ensure he would not have duplicates.
So when his prime love turned to book collection, he also invented ways to classify them – including books listing volumes, price, etc. But these were not enough and he began devising ways that he could locate volumes that included various subjects, which he called Book of Epitomes – a way to extract the ideas of each volume by summarizing the arguments. This was a forerunner of today’s card catalog and Google searches.
This was the time of the High Renaissance in Europe. Printing press were king and the books written by the philosophers and theologians of the day were changing the course of Western History.Hernando threw himself into collecting – not just major works by contemporary authors such as Martin Luther, but also broadsheets and pamphlets which often were thought to have little value. He and his designated lieutenants scoured Europe and beyond for his collection.
Even with the loss from a shipwreck of 1637 books, he managed to amass a collection of some twenty thousand books which eventually became the Biblioteca Hernandina in Seville, Spain. Upon his death, the books, prints, broadsides and pamphlets were not valued and most of them were destroyed or decayed. Only a few thousand exist today.
This is a fascinating book. There is lots of wonderful history of the Age of Discovery, the High Renaissance, the sack of Rome in 1527 which caused the loss of the Vatican library, and Hernando’s struggle to establish his father as the discoverer of the New World.
Recommended to those who are bibliophiles or love libraries, but history lovers will also enjoy this, too. It took me quite a while to read this, but although it was harder for me with my limited knowledge of the European history and politics of the late 1400’s and early 1500’s, I thought it was a fascinating read.
It is beautifully illustrated with an amazing number of prints and maps from the time period.
Show More
of lands visited.Returning to Europe, he began to collect art prints. Since his collection contained thousands of them, he began to device ways of classifying them to ensure he would not have duplicates.
So when his prime love turned to book collection, he also invented ways to classify them – including books listing volumes, price, etc. But these were not enough and he began devising ways that he could locate volumes that included various subjects, which he called Book of Epitomes – a way to extract the ideas of each volume by summarizing the arguments. This was a forerunner of today’s card catalog and Google searches.
This was the time of the High Renaissance in Europe. Printing press were king and the books written by the philosophers and theologians of the day were changing the course of Western History.Hernando threw himself into collecting – not just major works by contemporary authors such as Martin Luther, but also broadsheets and pamphlets which often were thought to have little value. He and his designated lieutenants scoured Europe and beyond for his collection.
Even with the loss from a shipwreck of 1637 books, he managed to amass a collection of some twenty thousand books which eventually became the Biblioteca Hernandina in Seville, Spain. Upon his death, the books, prints, broadsides and pamphlets were not valued and most of them were destroyed or decayed. Only a few thousand exist today.
This is a fascinating book. There is lots of wonderful history of the Age of Discovery, the High Renaissance, the sack of Rome in 1527 which caused the loss of the Vatican library, and Hernando’s struggle to establish his father as the discoverer of the New World.
Recommended to those who are bibliophiles or love libraries, but history lovers will also enjoy this, too. It took me quite a while to read this, but although it was harder for me with my limited knowledge of the European history and politics of the late 1400’s and early 1500’s, I thought it was a fascinating read.
It is beautifully illustrated with an amazing number of prints and maps from the time period.
Show Less
LibraryThing member tuckerresearch
This is an eclectic read, but an interesting one. It is one part biography of Hernando Columbus, one part story of Columbus's explorations, one part exploration of bibliophilia, one part history of sixteenth-century Spain, and one part intellectual history of sixteenth-century Europe. The book
A few weeks after this book came out in the United States, Hernando Columbus's "Book of Epitomes" was discovered in a Danish archive. I do hope that the author releases a new (paperback?) version of this with new pictures and a new chapter on this awesome discovery.
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follows Hernando Columbus's life in a fairly chronological manner, exploring his intellectual curiosity, his bibliographic projects, his life as an explorer, his intrigues at the Spanish court. Along the way are characters like Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand of Aragon, Juan of Castile, Emperor Charles, Erasmus, various popes, mapmakers, book publishers, artists, etc., etc., etc. Along the way we learn of Hernando's book-collecting, print-collecting, mapmaking, dictionary planning, indexing (a proto-card catalog system), list-making, etc., etc., etc. It is an interesting read, which captures my attention in a number of ways. It is very well illustrated (though there could have been more). There are copious endnotes (though footnoting would have been nicer), but no bibliography, which is frustrating.A few weeks after this book came out in the United States, Hernando Columbus's "Book of Epitomes" was discovered in a Danish archive. I do hope that the author releases a new (paperback?) version of this with new pictures and a new chapter on this awesome discovery.
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Awards
James Tait Black Memorial Prize (Shortlist — Biography — 2019)
PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize (Shortlist — 2019)
Los Angeles Public Library Best of the Year (Non-Fiction — 2019)
ISBN
1982111399 / 9781982111397