Columbus

The name of Christopher Columbus is firmly linked to the era of great voyages and geographic discoveries: through persistence and willpower, he was the first to manage to guide his ships across the Atlantic to the shores of America. In his honor, a national holiday was established, dozens of films have been made about him, and places such as Colombia—along with cities, a crater, and an asteroid—have been named after him. And yet Columbus himself remains a figure still surrounded by mysteries.

Separating facts from legends, British historian Felipe Fernández-Armesto has written the most complete biography of Columbus to date—a self-taught man, desperately seeking recognition at court, an adventurer, and a dreamer. Accurate, almost chronicle-like in its style, this book is easy and engrossing to read, like a real adventure novel.

“Columbus was an uneducated man who knew about his own ignorance, yet dared to challenge the conventional wisdom of his time. Reverence for old texts did not prevent him from feeling delight whenever he managed to adjust them based on experience. This makes him one of the last beacons of medieval cosmography and one of the first harbingers of the Scientific Revolution…” (Felipe Fernández-Armesto)

In Russian, the book is published in two series: «Columbus: Uncharted Lands» (the «Persona» series) and «Uncharted Lands: Columbus» (the «Historical Interest» series).