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| Source: The Vintage News |
Everyone knows of Christopher Columbus but what about his youngest son Hernando Columbus? After accompanying his explorer father to the New World (on the 3rd and 4th voyages) Hernando become a different sort of conquistador back in Europe. A conqueror of books.
Hernando amassed on of the largest private libraries ever known, with the deliberate goal of collecting widely (all books in all languages), beyond what was considered acceptable or of value by the Catholic church. His collection spanned between 15,000-20,000 books. Hernando was obsessed with collecting, mapping, and cataloging a wide view of then contemporary affairs.
His ambition and stamina in this singular quest was amazing.
The collection, known as the Colombine Library, is housed in Seville, Spain.
Herando's bibiomaniacal quest is deftly recounted in The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books, by Edward Wilson-Lee, which is, incidentally, a book worth collecting.
