The Admiral and His Lady: Columbus and Filipa of Portugal

Treen, Maria de Freitas

ISBN 10: 083150191X / ISBN 13: 9780831501914

Published by Robert Speller & Sons, New York, 1989

CT4 - A first edition (stated) hardcover book SIGNED by author with "with best wishes" written on the front free endpaper in very good condition in very good dust jacket that is mylar protected. Dust jacket has wrinkling, chiping, and small tears on the edges and corners, crease on the sides, light discoloration and shelf wear. Book has some bumped corners, some stains on the front free endpaper, light discoloration and shelf wear. The only work about Filipa, published in the 19th century was on her ancestry rather than on her life with Christopher Columbus. She appears briefly in most biographies of the Discoverer, but always in passing, in the background. In this book she flourishes as a person. 9.5"x6.5", 133 pages. Satisfaction Guaranteed. Size: 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Seller Inventory # EC31213BB

Synopsis:

The Admiral and His Lady: Columbus and Filipa of Portugal by Maria de Freitas Treen is a classic book focusing upon a biographical mystery about one of the foremost figures in world history, Christopher Columbus. Columbus' first wife, Filipa Moniz Perestrello, who became the mother of his only legitimate child, his oldest son Diego, was a Portuguese noblewoman with whom Columbus lived on the small Portuguese island of Porto Santo, and before this book was published very little information was available to scholars on the mystery Portuguese woman who shaped Christopher Columbus into the "Great Navigator of the Ocean Blue" who in 1492 changed the path of global history. The Star of San Juan, Puerto Rico, describes Maria de Freitas Treen's seminal biographical study of Filipa as follows, inter alia: "The life of Christopher Columbus abound in contradictions, even to the point of containing a mystery woman...No book could do more to illuminate the influence of the woman of mystery on Columbus' life, and indirectly on the discovery of America than this book...The so-called mystery woman was none other than his lawfully wedded wife, Filipa Moniz Perestrello. Their marriage was a happy one...Treen's research includes numerous on-site interviews in the Madeira Islands...it was in Portugal that Columbus became a seasoned ship's officer and an accomplished chartmaker and thanks to the magnificent nautical library left in Porto Santo by Filipa Moniz's deceased father, a man learned in astronomy, in the theories of the ancients about reaching the east by sailing west. Columbus passed entire nights in the library, absorbing naturical lore and the astronomical science that would fire his dream of discovery...Without his marriage to Filipa Moniz, there would have been no access to that library. Her life brought him and destiny together, her death from tuberculosis after six years of marriage freed him to fulfill his destiny." Mrs. Treen (1920-1996) was a prominent and distinguished Portuguese American with old ancestral roots in the Madeira Islands. She worked as an interpreter and translator for the U.S. State Department from 1941-1944 in the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, later Vice President of the U.S. Nelson A. Rockefeller. She later worked for the private Rockefeller family offices from 1947 to 1960. In 1960, she returned to the State Department and was assigned to the U.S. Permanent Mission to the United Nations during the Ambassadorship of Governor Adlai E. Stevenson. At her UN post she worked closely with such important diplomats as Ambassador Charles Yost and Clayton Fritchey, a famous columnist. She also worked for many years for Dr. Carleton Sprague Smith, famous historian, musicologist, diplomat and eminent librarian. The Admiral and His Lady: Columbus and Filipa of Portugal highlights the contribution of Portugal to the career of Columbus, and should be in every library 's collection of important books on the history of the Western Hemisphere and the historical continuities connecting the New World to the Old World. It also is very useful reading for anyone interested in the continuities of scientific knowledge before science became elevated into a purpose rather than a perfectly valid method; anyone interested in mysteries concerning great personalities and their preparation and motivation for their accomplishments; and to anyone fascinated by an unusual biographical subject who was "the better half" to a great explorer and world figure.

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Admiral and His Lady: Columbus and ...
Publisher: Robert Speller & Sons, New York
Publication Date: 1989
Binding: Hard Cover
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
Signed: Signed by Author
Edition: First Edition.