The Repertorium Columbianum is a collection of contemporary sources relating to Columbus’s four voyages, and the interpenetration of the hitherto separate worlds that resulted from them. This multivolume series will provide in readily accessible form the basic documents that are the starting point for research into this pivotal moment in world history; they form the indispensable tools for all scholarly inquiry into the encounter. The series provides accurate editions of the essential texts in their original languages, for the use of specialists, while at the same time making them available to students and scholars in related fields through parallel translations into modem English.
The Repertorium Columbianum was originally conceived by the late Professor Fredi Chiappelli, former director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. The series is respectfully dedicated to his memory. He intended it to be an up-to-date, greatly expanded version of the Raccolta Colombiana published on the occasion of the Columbian quatercentenary in 1892. He laid down the basic lines of editorial policy that are being followed in these volumes, in an approach that blends philological and historical methodologies. Because of the dual approach, the editing of most volumes is an interdisciplinary undertaking among specialists in the field represented by the source materials in that volume. The Repertorium’s scope is generally limited to sources from the period between Columbus’s first voyage and the Spanish conquest of Mexico in 1519-1521, although certain volumes, by their nature, may extend the chronological range of the series beyond these dates.
Since 1892 historical perspectives on the Columbian encounter have shifted, and the techniques of philological analysis have made enormous strides. The Repertorium’s presentation of the sources reflects these changes. Centennial commemorations such as the Columbian quincentenary serve to remind us of the way in which scholarly methods and concerns have altered over the intervening years; they are occasions for taking stock of the past century’s achievements, for seeing how interpretations have changed, for scrutinizing new material that has come to light, and for charting the course for future research. These are the purposes that inform the editorial policy of the Repertorium Columbianum. It seeks to sum up what has been achieved in the field of Columbian studies over the past century, to throw new light on the encounter and its immediate aftermath, to collect in a standardized format the essential materials for research, and to suggest lines of inquiry for the years ahead.
The original Columbian ventures were international in conception and execution, and in this same spirit the Repertorium Columbianum is an international undertaking. The contributing scholars and the members of the editorial board are drawn from both sides of the Atlantic, and the costs are being borne with the help of generous funding from the United States National Endowment for the Humanities, the Italian Comitato Nazionale per le Celebrazioni de! V Centenario della Scoperta dell’America, and the Spanish Sociedad Estatal para la Ejecuci6n de Programas de Quinto Centenario. The administrative and editorial work for the series is being performed by the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, under whose auspices these volumes will appear. As general editor it is my pleasant dury to acknowledge a profound debt of gratitude to the three government sponsors, without whose generous and enlightened support this project would have been impossible.
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