Simon Mattacks
speaker
2,981 appearances
17 recordings
3 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard 13 Sep
Simon Mattacks’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 14 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 3.
Appearances
But why?
Some scholars have pointed to linguistic evidence, such as extracts from Columbus's letters, or to DNA studies.
One theory proposes that Columbus may have been a Sephardic Jew from Spain, though this remains controversial.
Supporters of the theory argue that, given the persecution of the Jews at the time,
he may have concealed his background.
Columbus is a hard man to pin down, and given his importance as a historical figure, we can see why there's a temptation to claim him, so to speak, for the Spanish to claim he was one of theirs, and so on.
However, the scholarly consensus is that Columbus was most likely from Genoa.
So, let's start there.
It's thought that Christopher Columbus was the son of Domenico Columbo, a wool weaver from Genoa.
Christopher Columbus is the Latinized form of the name.
Growing up, he may have been known as Christopher Corumbo in the local dialect.
Columbus seems to have begun his career at sea at quite an early age, perhaps when he was just a teenager.
He worked as a merchant sailor and became skilled in navigation and map making, taking part in numerous voyages around Europe.
In 1476, he survived a shipwreck off the coast of Portugal.
Around this time, Columbus was based in Lisbon, where his brother Bartholomew also lived.
A few years later, Columbus married a Portuguese woman named Felipe, and they had a son, Diego.
While Columbus was on an expedition off the west coast of Africa, his wife passed away.
Afterwards, he became involved with a young woman named Beatrice, who gave birth to his second son, Fernando.
We don't know that much about Columbus's romantic relationships or the relationships he had with his sons,
Still, we can imagine that Columbus must have been a somewhat absent father, as his career meant he was often at sea.
Showing 1781–1800 of 2,981 · page 90 of 150
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