Haven't reviewed a book for a while, so..

I currently have about 30 Columbus books in my personal library. I didn't wanna collect repetitive biographies, so most of my books cover more obscure and/or esoteric aspects of Columbus' life. But this biography (Columbus: The Grand Design) is kinda unique, because it only covers his earlier life, and ends with his first voyage. Instead of documenting the most famous (or infamous) achievements/days of his life, it's a chronology of events and theories that led up to planning his first voyage. And it's the most insightful report I've read on the people and experiences that influenced him.

It's a detailed recounting of sea voyages Columbus took as a young sailor to the edges of the known world,  people he met who influenced his travel projections. Columbus' family, his long deceased father-in-law who left behind important, cutting-edge maps that Columbus studied. The Atlantic islands Columbus lived on, & began noticing non-native plants washing up on their shores.. helping him recognize that land lay further west in the foreboding Atlantic.. Columbus' relationship with Toscanelli, and other progressive thinkers of the time. The Vivaldi brothers who may have been attempting a Columbian voyage 200 years earlier than Columbus, but disappeared at sea.

Columbus' legacy has gone thru a lot of ups & downs over the centuries.. it's an environment now where most (non children's) books are fundamentally written to attack, or to a lesser extent, defend, Columbus' character. But this one was originally written in Italian in the (less Columbus-polarized) early 70s, and is a pretty objective, amoral evaluation. I got an English language edition, that was printed several years later, and it feels like it used high quality, coated paper that's really sturdy. The book feels like a cinder block. 

It thoroughly answers one of the enduring questions about Columbus.. How did a seemingly ordinary, self-educated sailor formulate, then execute this game-changing grand design.

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