THE SECRET IDENTITY OF COLUMBUS at UMass Dartmouth

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Gloria de Sá, Faculty Director

Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese American Archives

Phone: 508-910-6888

Email: mdesa@umassd.edu

THE SECRET IDENTITY OF COLUMBUS: PEASANT TO VICEROY IN 33 DAYS

October 12, 2012 – North Dartmouth, MA.  The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives announces a presentation by historian Manuel Rosa titled “The Secret Identity of Columbus: Peasant to Viceroy in 33 days.” The event—free and open to the public—will take place on Thursday, October 25 at 5:30 P.M. in the Prince Henry Society Reading Room at the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives. Light refreshments will be served.

“Will Christopher Columbus's picture soon adorn the walls of many Lithuanian-American, Polish-American, and Portuguese-American institutions as well as private homes of people of this background?” questioned the organizers of a similar talk held last month at the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture in Chicago.  Mr. Rosa’s research suggests that it should.  During his presentation, he will show historical evidence indicating that the man credited with discovering America was not the son of a humble weaver from Genoa, but rather a nobleman of Portuguese birth fathered by the exiled Polish King Wladislaw III, a member of the Lithuanian Jagiellonian Dynasty.

While Mr. Rosa’s theories have been met with skepticism by many, they have also received considerable praise. At a presentation that took place on May 16, 2012, at the Portuguese Academy of History, which was full to capacity with members of the scientific community, his investigations were described as "a serious look at the truth, well-substantiated and worthy of praise." Similarly, his book Portuguese Columbus—New Revelations received accolades from Portuguese academics, including Professor Manuela Mendonça, President of the Portuguese Academy of History, and Professor Joaquim Veríssimo Serrão ex-president of the same organization who wrote the preface to Colombo Português—Novas Revlações and described Mr. Rosa’s work as “serious and diligent.”

Despite all the attention that his work has received, Manuel Rosa did not start out as a historian. Born on the island of Pico in the Azores, he immigrated to Somerville, Massachusetts in 1973 with his parents and, like other children across the world, learned in school that the man that “sailed the ocean blue” was Italian.  He has followed a successful, professional career that ranged from management to graphic artist, to IT working for such distinguished publications as  the Atlantic Monthly and the Boston Magazine. In 1991, while working on the English translation of a book on Columbus by A. Mascarenhas Barreto, he became aware of the controversy over Columbus’s identity.  Overnight, history became his passion.

Since then, Manuel Rosa has dedicated most of his free time and countless other resources to researching the life of Christopher Columbus. This scientific, historical investigation has taken him to the Dominican Republic, to Poland and many places in between, in his relentless quest for the truth about the identity of the putative discoverer of America.  These efforts included an active involvement in the DNA studies of Columbus's bones at the University of Granada, Spain, to which Mr. Rosa was able to contribute DNA material collected from members of Portuguese noble families who are possible descendants of Columbus.

Mr. Rosa’s sensational findings have been announced in major newspapers worldwide, including the New York Daily and the Daily Telegraph and resulted in the publication of two academic books that have been translated into several languages.  He has also presented the results of his investigations at numerous Portuguese, US, Spanish and Polish universities as well as the prestigious Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa.  Currently, he lives in North Carolina where he works for Duke University.

For directions to the UMass Dartmouth campus, see http://www.umassd.edu/vtour/.  Please use Parking Lot 13.  Access to the archives during library construction is by way of the library basement and first floor exit.

The Secret Identity of Columbus: Peasant to Viceroy in 33 days

Stanley Balzekas, Eglė Juodvalkė, Manuel Rosa, Eric Zsteele, Henryk Skwarczynski and Rita Janz during the Columbus lecture at the Balzekas Musuem, Sept 7, 2012

Will Christopher Columbus's picture soon adorn the walls of many Lithuanian-American, Polish-American, and Portuguese-American institutions as well as private homes of people of this background?

Henryk Skwarczynski wrote in his introduction to Manuel Rosa's book "KOLUMB. Historia Nieznana" just published in Poland and earlier in Spain and Portugal that in Central Park, New York, there are monuments to King Jogaila and his grandson Christopher Columbus but the world is unaware of these family ties. Can this be true?

These questions and their answers lead directly to Duke University in North Carolina where after more than twenty years of investigations author Manuel Rosa has come up with the most stunning findings about Columbus. Manuel Rosa is the first historian to present new documents that for 500 years had been overlooked by historians all over the world! 

Born in 1961 Manuel Rosa is an American historian who emigrated from the Azores, Portugal, to the Boston area in 1973 with his parents. For many years he has investigated the contradicting facts pertaining to the man credited with the discovery of America. 

The results of his research are flabbergasting! The turning point for publicizing his findings was an article published on November 28, 2010 in the British "Daily Telegraph" (the same which reported the discovery of Troy by Heinrich Schliemann!) where its correspondent Fiona Govan reported from Madrid about Manuel Rosa's book Colon: La Historia Nunca Contada - (Columbus: The Untold Story), published in Spain.

The news quickly spread all over the globe. "Mamma Mia!" exclaimed New York Daily News Staff Writers Corky Siemaszko and Christine Boyle, "New research suggests the man credited with discovering America was actually the son of exiled Polish King (from the Lithuanian Jagiellonian dynasty) Vladislau III - and not the son of a humble craftsman from Genoa... the Genoese wool-weaver is a fable".

Soon after that information was repeated by Moscow TV and many other media. Manuel Rosa claims to have proved that a last will dated 1498 in which Columbus wrote "being I born in Genoa" (quoted by many authors as a proof of Columbus origin) was forged 80 years after his death by Italians with the name Columbo who wanted to lay claim to his inheritance. 

Mr. Rosa participated in the DNA studies of Columbus's bones at the University of Granada and has presented the findings of his investigations at numerous Portuguese, US and Spanish universities, at the Portuguese Air Force Academy and at the prestigious Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa.

The author's of these sensational findings lecture at the Portuguese Academy of History, on May 16, 2012, was full to capacity of the scientific community who described Mr. Rosa's history--changing research as "a serious look at the truth, well-substantiated and worthy of praise".

"A completely new face of Christopher Columbus is emerging from a book published in Polish by Portuguese historian Manuel Rosa, who believes that the discoverer of America was the son of the Polish king for the Jagiellonian dynasty, Vladislau III of Varna," - the Polish Newspaper Gazeta Prawna.

'Christopher Columbus 'was son of Polish king' The explorer, Christopher Columbus, was the son of a Polish king living in exile in Madeira and hid his royal roots to protect his father, a new book claims, 

reported the British Telegraph Newspaper.

Academics Assert Christopher Columbus Was"Portuguese-Born," a new biography

shows that Christopher Columbus was a "Portuguese-Born" Royal Prince.

Christopher Columbus Was Polish: New Book ShowsProof, Readers Say of Manuel Rosa's Polish  book "Kolumb. Historia nieznana" 

Lecture: "The Secret Identity of Columbus: Peasant to Viceroy in 33 days" (In English)

When: September 7, 2012, 7 pm

Location: Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture 6500 S. Pulaski Rd., Chicago IL 60629 

Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture | Official Website

The Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture in Chicago, Illinois, is the largest repository of Lithuanian artifacts outside of Lithuania. The Museum offers exhibitions and programs on a wide range of subjects, including Lithuanian history, music, folk art, rare books, maps and numismatics. The Museum'...

Kolumb. Historia Nieznana (Columbus. Unknown History) beats Steve Jobs

Kolumb. Historia Nieznana has gotten great reviews in Poland. Readers are loving the book.

This is a Google Translation of the Book Review found here:
http://oksiazki.pl/the-news/142-recenzja-manuel-rosa-kolumb-historia-nieznana.html

Kolumb. Historia Nieznana also hit the Number 1 Bestseller spot here: http://www.dobreksiazki.pl/

Beating out a book on the great iCon Steve Jobs. 

This groundbreaking book still needs an English Language publisher.

Kolumb. Historia nieznana (REBIS) - Christopher Columbus

WARSAW, Poland, May 08, 2012 - New book about Christopher Columbus published May 8 in Poland says that all we had been taught in schools about Columbus is a fairy tale and exposes the famous explorer as a Portuguese spy.

Kolumb. Historia nieznana (REBIS) (Columbus. The Unknown History), is the result of a 21-year-long investigation that casts serious doubts on the longstanding belief that Christopher Columbus was a poor Genoese peasant, lost at sea, who found America only by accident. Thus the Christopher Columbus controversy is again front and center for the 506th anniversary of discoverer’s death on May 20. 

Providing a fresh look at the 15th and 16th Century documentation, Manuel Rosa, a Portuguese-American historian, founding member of Association Cristovao Colon, and author of four books on Christopher Columbus, writes that the famous explorer lived a life of “treachery, treason, murder, lies, intrigue, assassinations, fraud, and deception,” as a secret agent for King John II of Portugal, whose voyage to a previously “discovered” America was a carefully planned mission of international espionage meant to convince the Spanish crown that Spain had reached India first.

Historic facts establish that there were lies interposed by Christopher Columbus in his letters and other writings meant to hide his identity as well as his reasons for the 1492 voyage. Basing himself on up-to-now unknonwn Portuguese documents as well as on Portuguese chronicles, geneaologies and Columbus's own writings, and with well-documented sources, the author makes a strong case that the 500-year-old Christopher Columbus history was wrong. The book shows that Cristóbal Colón, (the Spanish name the discoverer used), was the pseudonym of Prince Segismundo Henriques born on Madeira Island, the royal son of King Ladislau III of Poland, Lithuania and Hungary; self-exiled in Portugal after his disastrous defeat against the Muslims at the battle of Varna.

More and more historians now question which version of the history is correct as they seem to be caught off guard by the new revelations: “Another nutty conspiracy theory! That’s what I first supposed… I now believe that Columbus is guilty of a huge fraud carried out over two decades,” wrote professor James T. McDonough, Jr., who taught at St. Joseph’s University for 31 years.

“Hero? Plebeian? Sailor? Weaver? Nobleman? Worker? Who really was Christopher Columbus, and where was he born? .… 20 years of careful research deny the official version of history. Columbus was a Pole, not Genoese…” reads the Polish literature about the Warsaw Book Fair where the controversial author will lecture on May 12, 2012. (http://www.matras.pl/kolumb-historia-nieznana.html?utm_so...#)

Manuel Rosa will also to lecture at the city of Poznan in Poland, May 14, in Brussels, Belgium, on May 22, in Funchal, Madeira, on May 18, May 20 in Cuba, plus a special lecture at the Portuguese Academy of History in Lisbon on May 16.

“Those who take the time to understand what a sixteen century navigator needed to know science-wise and then learn that Christopher Columbus knew Latin, Portuguese, Castilian, Cosmography, Geography, Algebra, Geometry, Cartography, Theology, Navigation, plus secret ciphers,” says Rosa, “must question how could he have been the touted wool-weaver from Genoa and not a noble well-schooled from a young age?”

Columbus Navigational Genius Even on Land

Navigational Genius Even on Land

"We have not hesitated to call Christopher Columbus a consummate seaman, the first sailor of his or of any other time. It is not merely that he made the most memorable voyage ever made by man, but because he navigated all seas with skill, prudence, daring, and success. He was a scientific sailor. He studied the seasons, the planets, the winds, the tides, the atmosphere, the flight of birds, the habits of fish, things over the sea, things on the sea, things under the sea. He was familiar with the coasts known to man and, partly by instinct and partly by the employment of his skill, he made his way in safety along shores never known and reported by any sailor until his day. In the following letter we are in communion with Columbus, the sailor. He is not making parade of his knowledge. The Sovereigns, as they had done before on many occasions, and notably in the spring of 1497, have required of him a dissertation... Columbus then reminds the Sovereigns that no one pilot may be expected to know all courses. The pilot who can safely conduct a ship from the Guadalquivir to Fuenterrabia in the Bay of Biscay may not take a ship to Lisbon. The pilot who goes to the Eastern countries by way of the south may be entirely unfitted to sail ships to Flanders. And this leads the Admiral to refer to the intimate correspondence by water between Spain and the Low Countries. By the month of January the Bay of Biscay becomes so wild from the resistless winds that prudent navigators have returned to their own countries. Yet, a skillful sailor, watchful of conditions, quick to seize a moment when the wind lulls, may escape and finish his journey, particularly should he avail himself in an emergency of some welcoming French or English port on the way. Then the Admiral becomes reminiscent. He recalls a time early in the year 1497 when the Sovereigns, the gallant Prince Juan, the Spanish Court,-all were anxiously awaiting the ship which was to bear them a new Princess; but the ship came not and fear was in every heart. Then the Sovereigns appealed to Columbus, and he told them where, by the blowing of the wind and the probable course, he thought the ships to be, and predicted their safe arrival within a day or two.

...enfadados yban a Soria y partida toda la corte un sabado quedaron VUESTRAS ALTEZAS para partir lunes de manana y aun cierto proposito en aquella noche en un escripto mio que envie a VUESTRAS ALTEZAS dezia tal dia comenzo a ventar el viento. El otro dia no partira la flota aguardando sy el viento se afirma partira el miercoles y el jueves o viernes sera tant avant como la ysla de Huict y sy no se meten en ella seran en laredo el lunes que viene o la razon de la marineria es toda perdida. este escripto mio con el deseo de la venida de la prinzesa movio a VUESTRAS ALTEZAS a mudar de proposito de no yr a soria y espirmentar la opinion del marynero y el lunes remaneszio sobre laredo una nao que refuso de entrar en Huit porque tenia pocos bastimentos...(- Christopher Columbus, Granada, 6 February, 1502)

And his prophecy was fulfilled. The ships, indeed, had been where he said they were, driven by winds which he knew and on courses which he knew, to a neighboring English harbour. It was a triumph for Columbus which history has not hitherto recorded. ... It was in August, 1496, that a mighty fleet of vessels gathered in the port of Laredo in the Bay of Biscay to escort the Princess Joanna to Flanders for her marriage to Philip. The fleet was under command of Don Fadrique Enriquez, the Admiral of Castile, ... Six months passed before the Princess Margaret of Austria was landed on Spanish soil. ... The Court was at Burgos early in March, 1497, awaiting news of the expected fleet. Days passed, and the ships came not. Then the Court was moved southward-away from the coast to Soria, and the Sovereigns were about to follow, when a letter reached them from Columbus, saying that if the fleet had started from Flanders on a certain Wednesday, the weather was such as to cause the ships to put in to the Isle of Wight (Huict) on Thursday or Friday, and from the conditions of wave and wind, the Admiral predicted that the fleet would enter the port of Laredo on the following Monday. The words of the sailor weighed with the Sovereigns, and, with the young Prince, they changed their purpose and went to Laredo, where the prediction was fulfilled, and promptly on the succeeding Monday one of the fleet appeared in the harbour of Laredo. Truly, the Admiral of the Indies was the first pilot of his time." (Christopber Columbus HIS LIFE, HIS WORK, HIS REMAINS AS REVEALED BY ORIGINAL PRINTED AND MANUSCRIPT RECORDS JOHN BOYD THACHER VOLUME III, G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, NEW YORK AND LONDON, 1904)