The book dedicates particular emphasis to investigations which suggest that the discoverer of America was of Portuguese origin and includes arguments of the main scholars of this subject, such as Mascarenhas Barreto, Manuel Rosa, Roiz de Quental, José Rodrigues dos Santos and Manuel Luciano da Silva, whose work inspired Manoel de Oliveira to make the film, "Christopher Columbus, the Enigma".
It is nowadays clear that the Genoese weaver Cristoforo Colombo could never have been the navigator and therefore we are presented with two distinct personalities, both separately documented. Everything indicates that the Admiral was a noble Portuguese, firstborn of D. Fernando Duke of Beja and Isabel Gonçalves Zarco, daughter of the discoverer of Madeira and Porto Santo, João Gonçalves Zarco.
An intricate historical plot, starred by D. João II, explains the mysteries surrounding the identity of a man who was named Salvador Fernandes Zarco but better known as Christopher Columbus, whose nationality only comes to public debate 70 years after his death when an Italian family with the surname Colombo presented to the Court a will (which now is known to be a forged document) in an attempt to obtain Colon’s legacy. The courts of law judged against the petitioners and the legacy was granted to D. Nuno of Portugal, grandson of Colon´s own Portuguese son. This and many other evidences are reported in this book, which includes the latest results of DNA analysis showing that the discoverer of America, then called "Infante of Portugal”, was not Italian, French or Spanish.
The book, which is written in a journalistic style and is profusely illustrated, includes reports and interviews with the most relevant worldwide public figures related to this subject, also refers every work published on the subject and its overall intent is to be an easy to read summary, well presented chronologically, of a historical mystery that remains to this day.
The author of this book is Pedro Laranjeira, a journalist and director of a monthly news magazine, who has published several articles on the subject and has participated in numerous Conferences and Congresses on the thesis that Christopher Columbus was Portuguese, also frequently teaching in secondary schools all over the country.
This work has already been published in English, Portuguese and Spanish, and is being translated into German, Italian, French, Dutch, Polish and Chinese.
Portugal
