Between his third and fourth voyages, Christopher Columbus gathered the passages of Scripture, the Church Fathers and the medieval doctors that he believed foretold the discovery of the islands, the conversion of all nations and the recovery of Jerusalem. In his letter to Ferdinand and Isabella he declares that it was not maps or mathematics that carried him to the Indies, but the fulfillment of what Isaiah had foretold. The complete book in modern English, with his letters to and from Father Gorricio.
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Letters, the letter to the King and Queen, prophecies of the past, present and future, Tharsis and the islands, closing verses
Source edition
Cesare de Lollis, Scritti di Cristoforo Colombo, Rome, 1894 AD
Length
About 35,000 words, 120 printed pages
"The Book of Prophecies" is an anthology Christopher Columbus compiled in 1501 and 1502 AD with the Carthusian monk Gaspar Gorricio. It gathers Scripture, the Church Fathers and medieval commentators on Jerusalem, the islands and the conversion of all nations, and opens with his letter to Ferdinand and Isabella declaring that his voyage to the Indies fulfilled Isaiah's prophecy.
“that it was feasible to sail from here to the Indies; and he opened my will to carry it out. And with this fire I came to Your Highnesses.”
From this edition
How the argument unfolds
01
The letters with Father Gorricio. Columbus writes from Granada on September 13, 1501, sending the Carthusian Gaspar Gorricio the passages he has begun to extract "that seemed to me to bear on the matter of Jerusalem." Gorricio answers from Las Cuevas in March 1502 that he has added his own remnants, "like one who gathers the leavings of the grape clusters, the olives and the ears of grain."
02
How Scripture is to be read. Before any prophecy, the book sets out the fourfold sense of Scripture from the Summa Angelica, Gerson and the Rationale of the Divine Offices, all shown in the one word Jerusalem: "historically it signifies that earthly city to which pilgrims journey; allegorically it signifies the Church Militant." Isidore and Nicholas of Lyra add that the prophets speak of things to come as already done, and that a prophecy can have a double literal sense.
03
The letter to the King and Queen. Columbus's own account of his life and calling. "At a very early age I took to the sea, sailing, and I have continued at it to this day." Learned men mocked his plan for seven years at court, but Scripture urged him on "with forty-four books of the Old Testament, and four Gospels, with twenty-three epistles of those blessed apostles."
04
The reckoning of the end. Following Augustine and Pierre d'Ailly, Columbus holds that the world ends in its seventh millennium. By King Alfonso's reckoning he counts 6,845 years from Adam to 1501, so that "only 155 years are lacking for the completion of seven thousand," and all that the prophets wrote must be fulfilled before then.
05
Prophecies from the Psalms, the Prophets and the Fathers. A run through the Psalter, Solomon's prayer from Sirach, Isidore's seven kinds of prophecy, the letter of Rabbi Samuel of Fez on the calling of the Gentiles, and long extracts from Augustine on the nations and the islands coming to worship the God of Israel.
06
Of the past. Prophecies Columbus counts as already fulfilled, above all from Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the minor prophets, where the islands and the ends of the earth turn to the Lord: "he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles" and "the islands shall wait for his law."
07
Of the present and the future. Isaiah's mountain of the Lord to which all nations flow, Solomon's Temple and the gold of Ophir in Chronicles, the Magi and the other sheep of John 10 with the glosses of Lyra, Gregory, Augustine and Chrysostom. Here too stand Seneca's chorus from Medea and Columbus's notes on the eclipses he observed at Saona in 1494 and on Jamaica in 1504.
08
Of the future, in the last days. A brief section that sets Jeremiah 25 beside the 1492 letter of the Genoese ambassadors to the Spanish sovereigns, which recalls that "Joachim, the Calabrian abbot, foretold that he who is to rebuild the citadel of Zion would come from Spain."
09
Of Tharsis and the islands. Every passage on Tharsis and Ophir, where Solomon's fleets fetched gold, silver and precious stones, with glosses and the Vocabulary of Alfonso de Palencia. One note draws the conclusion directly: "Tharsis is an island, which is also called Ophir, in which there are gold mines."
10
Closing notes and verses. Household notes of Masses and offerings, Spanish verses on death, judgment and the last things, and a list of further chapters of Scripture still to be searched, left as Columbus and Gorricio left them.
Key themes
A calling from God. Columbus presents his discovery as the work of the Holy Spirit through an unlettered sailor, holding to the word that God has kept "so many things secret from the wise, and hast revealed them to the innocent."
Prophecy fulfilled and still to be fulfilled. The book divides the prophecies by time. What was foretold of the islands has come to pass, and so, he argues, "it is to be believed that this other matter will come to pass as well."
Jerusalem and Mount Zion. The restoration of the Holy House to the Church is the book's stated purpose, and its opening line of argument: "The reason I have for the restoration of the Holy House to the holy Church Militant is as follows."
The calling of all nations. Psalms, prophets, the letter of Rabbi Samuel and the Fathers all return to the same point, that the God of Israel would be worshipped among the Gentiles to the ends of the earth, and Columbus reads "the preaching of the Gospel in so many lands in so short a time" as the sign that God is hastening it.
The islands of the sea. The islands, Tharsis and Ophir run through the whole anthology, from Isaiah's islands that wait for the Lord's law to the fleets of Solomon and Hiram, and tie the prophecies to the lands Columbus himself had reached.
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The Letters with Father Gorricio
Jesus with Mary be with us on the way. Amen.
Letter of the most magnificent and most prudent lord Don Christopher Columbus, Admiral, Viceroy and perpetual Governor of the islands of the Indies and of the mainlands discovered by him, etc., to Father Don Fray Gaspar Gorricio, etc.
Reverend and very devout Father: When I came here, I began to extract the authorities that seemed to me to bear on the matter of Jerusalem in a …, so that afterward I might go back over them and arrange them, each in its place where … it bears on the matter. After that, other occupations came upon me, so that there was no opportunity to continue my work, nor is there now. And so I am sending it to you, so that you may look it over …. It may be that your soul will move you to carry it on, and that Our Lord will enlighten you with very authentic authorities. The work should be continued in the Bible, and in many places the Gloss is profitable and gives light, and much note should be made of it when the time comes to make a clean copy. Written at Granada, September 13, 1501.
Reply to the aforesaid letter, etc.
My most magnificent and most singular lord: In other letters of mine I wrote to Your Lordship that I had received your letter and the book of prophecies, sayings and authorities touching the matter of Mount Zion and Jerusalem, and of the peoples of the islands and of all nations. I wrote that, according to my poor understanding (in order to fulfill your command), I would labor at it as much as I could. I would do so all the more because I saw it to be so holy an exercise, and because I hoped to be taught and to have my understanding awakened in a matter so salutary, consoling, admonitory and stirring to the service of Our Lord God, and to the benefit and honor of these our sovereigns and of the whole Christian religion.
And so, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and guided by the labor of Your Lordship, who gathered the whole flower of so many and such true authorities, opinions, sayings and prophecies, I have inserted and added some remnants, like one who gathers the leavings of the grape clusters, the olives and the ears of grain. And so, from the principal part as well as from the crumbs, I am left much consoled, and in some measure introduced to what had been far removed from my studies. I rejoice greatly in it, praying Our Lord that he may fulfill “that which he spoke by the mouth of the prophets” (Luke 1:70; Acts 3:18, 21). May it please his infinite clemency so to do, and to carry forward the holy desires of Your Lordship, just as, without cause, he brought to our knowledge the islands of the Indies and the mainlands through your magnificent person.
That little, my lord, which I have added and interwoven, Your Lordship will see in the writing of my own hand. I submit it all to the correction of your spirit and prudent …. I have not troubled to reconcile the sayings, nor the subjects, nor still less … and the histories. But I have inserted some rules and sayings of the doctors concerning this, by which any diligent reader may be instructed and have the doubts that arise for him made clear.
Moreover, I have been as brief as I could, referring to the originals, and also so as not to be tiresome with much writing, especially knowing that if, in what Your Lordship labored on and in what I added, there is not a most abundant store of authorities and prophecies for the purpose, as follows, not … the books of the Old and New Testaments, nor all that the holy men and doctors wrote; may it please the Lord that there be the spirit, with will and desire, for it, and that suffices. If Your Lordship commands anything else, whether in this or in other matters, you already know that I will always be ready and most willing. Written in this your holy house of Las Cuevas, March 23, 1502, etc.
Here begins the book, or handful, of authorities, sayings, opinions and prophecies concerning the matter of recovering the holy city and the mount of God, Zion, and the discovery and conversion of the islands of the Indies and of all peoples and nations; to Ferdinand and Isabella, etc., our Spanish sovereigns.
In the Summa Angelica, Under “Exposition”
Sacred Scripture is expounded in four ways. First, according to history. History is the narration of a thing done, from hystrion, which means “to see” or “to know,” because among the ancients no one wrote history unless he had been present. Second, allegorically, from leon, which means “other,” and gore, which means “to say” or “speech”; and this is when by one deed something else is given to be understood, which is to be believed. Third, tropologically, from tropos, which means “turning,” and logos, which means “word”; and this is when by one deed is given to be understood what is to be done. Fourth, anagogically, from ana, which means “upward,” and goge, which means “leading”; and this is when by one deed is given to be understood what is to be desired, namely glory.
Also Jean Gerson, and in the Decretum
The letter teaches what was done; allegory, what to believe; the moral, what to do; anagogy, what end you strive to achieve.
Also in the Rationale of the Divine Offices
The fourfold sense of sacred Scripture is plainly indicated in this one word: Jerusalem. For historically it signifies that earthly city to which pilgrims journey; allegorically it signifies the Church Militant; tropologically it signifies any faithful soul; anagogically it signifies the heavenly Jerusalem, or homeland, or the kingdom of heaven.
With these things set out first, let us pray.
O God, who teach the hearts of men without the noise of words and without toil, who make eloquent the tongues of those who stammer, and who are present at every fitting time: look upon what our mind has conceived, and be favorable to our desire. For since we have not known learning, we will enter into your power. For “blessed is the man whom thou shalt instruct, O Lord, and shalt teach him out of thy law” (Ps 93:12). Grant therefore, we beseech you, that we may understand the words and books and prophecies written concerning you and your holy place, by the same Spirit by which they were written. Amen.
It is to be noted that in sacred Scripture one tense is sometimes put for another, as the past for the future, etc.
“All things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you” (John 15:15). Whence blessed Augustine, in a certain sermon which some read on the feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle, says: “Our Lord Jesus Christ says that he has done what he is going to do, he who has made the things that are to be. For just as he says through the prophet, ‘They have dug my hands and feet’ (Ps 21:17), and does not say, ‘They will dig,’ speaking as of things past and yet foretelling them as things to come, so also in this place he says that he has made known to the disciples all things which he knew he would make known in that fullness of knowledge, etc.” Let the rest be looked up, if desired.
Whence Also Blessed Isidore, in Book 1 of On the Highest Good, Chapter 25
“There is also that figure concerning times by which certain things that are to come are narrated as if already done; as is that saying, ‘They have dug my hands and my feet, they have numbered all my bones, and they parted my garments amongst them’ (Ps 21:17-19); and others like these. But why are things that were still to be done narrated as already done? Because the things that are still to come for us have already been done in the eternity of God.” And the rest, both what follows and what precedes, throughout.
In the Gloss of Nicholas of Lyra on Daniel, Chapter 8
For the clear understanding of the following text, it is to be noted that in sacred Scripture there is sometimes a double literal sense. For the things that were done in the Old Testament are figures of those that are done in the New, as the Apostle says in 1 Cor 10:11: “All things happened to them in figure.” Therefore, when something is foretold in the Old Testament to be fulfilled in some person of the Old Testament, yet more truly and more perfectly in some person of the New Testament, then there is a double literal sense there. One is less principal, and the other more principal, namely concerning the one in whom the foretold word is more perfectly fulfilled.
For example, in 1 Chr 22:10 it is said: “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.” This is the word of the Lord speaking of Solomon, who was a son of God by adoption at the beginning of his reign, for which reason he was called Amiable to the Lord, as is plain from 2 Sam 12:24-25. And so that word was fulfilled according to the letter in Solomon, but it was more perfectly fulfilled in Christ, who is the Son of God by nature, and of whom Solomon was a figure. Therefore that authority is understood according to the letter both of Solomon and of Christ: of Solomon less principally, and of Christ more principally. For this reason the Apostle, in Heb 1:5, cites the aforesaid authority as spoken of Christ according to the letter.
So it is in the case at hand. For under the likeness of the ram and the he-goat, Daniel treats of the war of the kingdom of the Greeks and the Medes; but his principal intention is to treat of the war between Antichrist, or his members, and the Christians. And therefore there is a double literal sense there, as is plain from what has been said, etc.
The Letter to the King and Queen
Most Christian and most exalted princes: The reason I have for the restoration of the Holy House to the holy Church Militant is as follows.
Most exalted sovereigns: At a very early age I took to the sea, sailing, and I have continued at it to this day. This very art inclines whoever pursues it to desire to know the secrets of this world. It is now more than forty years that I have been engaged in this practice. Wherever people sail to this day, I have traveled. I have had dealings and conversation with learned people, clergy and laity, Latins and Greeks, Jews and Moors, and with many others of other sects. I found Our Lord very favorable to this desire of mine, and from him I received for it a spirit of understanding. In seamanship he made me abundant. Of astronomy he gave me what sufficed, and likewise of geometry and arithmetic, and ingenuity of mind, and hands to draw a sphere, and on it the cities, rivers and mountains, islands and ports, all in their proper places.
In this time I have seen and set myself to study all kinds of writings: cosmography, histories, chronicles and philosophy, and other arts. Our Lord opened my understanding to these, and, with a hand I could feel, to the fact that it was feasible to sail from here to the Indies; and he opened my will to carry it out. And with this fire I came to Your Highnesses. All those who learned of my enterprise rejected it with laughter, mocking it. All the sciences I spoke of above were of no use to me, nor were their authorities. In Your Highnesses alone remained faith and constancy. Who doubts that this light was from the Holy Spirit, as was mine? With marvelous rays of clarity he comforted me through his holy and sacred Scripture, in a very loud and clear voice, with forty-four books of the Old Testament, and four Gospels, with twenty-three epistles of those blessed apostles, urging me on to proceed; and continually, without ceasing for a moment, they urge me on with great haste.
Our Lord willed to work a most evident miracle in this matter of the voyage to the Indies, in order to console me and others in this other matter of the Holy House. I spent seven years here at your royal court, disputing the case with so many persons of such authority, learned in all the arts; and in the end they concluded that it was all vain, and with this they gave it up. Afterward it came to pass as Jesus Christ our Redeemer said, and had said before by the mouth of his holy prophets. And so it is to be believed that this other matter will come to pass as well. In confirmation of this, if what has been said is not enough, I offer the sacred Gospel, in which he said that all things would pass away, but not his marvelous word (Matt 24:35; Mark 13:31; Luke 21:33). And with this he said that everything that was written by him and by the prophets must of necessity be fulfilled (Luke 24:44).
I said that I would give the reason I have for the restoration of the Holy House to the holy Church. I say that I set aside all my sailing since my youth, and the conversations I have had with so many people, in so many lands, and of so many sects; and I set aside the many arts and writings of which I spoke above. I hold only to the holy and sacred Scripture, and to certain prophetic authorities of some holy persons who by divine revelation have said something about this.
It may be that Your Highnesses, and all the others who know me and to whom this writing may be shown, will reproach me, in secret or publicly, with reproaches of various kinds: that I am not learned in letters, that I am an unlettered sailor, a worldly man, etc. I answer with what Saint Matthew said: … “O Lord, who wouldst keep so many things secret from the wise, and hast revealed them to the innocent” (Matt 11:25). And the same Saint Matthew tells how, as Our Lord was going into Jerusalem, the children sang, “Hosanna, son of David.” The scribes, to tempt him, asked him whether he heard what they were saying; and he answered them that he did, saying, “Know ye not that out of the mouth of children and innocents the truth is uttered?” (Matt 21:15-16; Ps 8:3). Or, more fully, consider the apostles, who said things so well founded, especially Saint John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, etc.” (John 1:1). These are words so lofty, from persons who never learned letters.
I say that the Holy Spirit works in Christians, Jews, Moors, and in all others of every sect, and not only in the learned but in the ignorant. For in my time I have seen a villager who could give a better account of the heavens and the stars, and of their course, than others who spent money to learn it. And I say that the Holy Spirit not only reveals to rational creatures the things to come, but also shows them to us, when it pleases him, by signs from the heavens, from the air and from beasts. So it was with the ox that spoke in Rome in the time of Julius Caesar, and in many other ways that would be tedious to tell and are well known to all the world.
Sacred Scripture testifies, in the Old Testament by the mouth of the prophets, and in the New by our Redeemer Jesus Christ, that this world must come to an end. (Seneca, in the seventh tragedy, Medea, in the chorus that begins “Too bold”: “The late years of the world will come.”) Matthew, Mark and Luke told the signs of when this is to be; the prophets also had abundantly foretold it.
Saint Augustine says that the end of this world is to come in the seventh millennium of the years since its creation. The sacred theologians follow him, especially Cardinal Pierre d’Ailly in the eleventh section and in other places, as I shall say below.
From the creation of the world, or from Adam, until the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ there are 5,343 years and 318 days, by the reckoning of King Alfonso, which is held to be the most certain. So says Pierre d’Ailly in the Elucidation of the Agreement of Astronomy with Theological and Historical Truth, in the tenth section. When 1,501 years, incomplete, are added to these, the total is 6,845 years, incomplete.
According to this reckoning, only 155 years are lacking for the completion of seven thousand, in which, as I said above from the authorities cited, the world must come to an end.
Our Redeemer said that before the consummation of this world, all that was written by the prophets must be fulfilled.
The prophets, in writing, spoke in different ways: of the future as past, and of the past as future, and likewise of the present. They said many things by likeness, others close to the truth, and others entirely according to the letter; and one did so more than another, and one in a better way, and another not so well. Isaiah is the one whom Saint Jerome and Saint Augustine and the other doctors praise most of all; they approve him and hold him in great reverence. Of Isaiah they say that he is not only a prophet but an evangelist. He devoted all his diligence to writing of what was to come and to calling all peoples to our holy Catholic faith.
Many holy doctors and sacred theologians wrote on all the prophecies and on the other books of sacred Scripture. They greatly enlightened us about what we did not know, although they disagree among themselves on many things; there were some things whose understanding was not granted to them.
I return to repeat my protest, so that I may not be called presumptuous and without learning. I hold continually to the saying of Saint Matthew, who said: “O Lord, who wouldst keep so many things secret from the wise, and hast revealed them to the innocent” (Matt 11:25). With this I settle my account, and with the experience of it that has been seen.
A very great part of the prophecies and of sacred Scripture is already accomplished. They themselves say so, and the holy Church is saying it with a loud voice without ceasing, and no other testimony is needed. I will speak of one of the prophecies, because it bears on my case, and because it gives me rest and makes me glad every time I think of it.
I am a most grievous sinner. The pity and mercy of Our Lord, whenever I have called upon them, have covered me entirely. I have found the sweetest consolation in casting all my care upon contemplating his marvelous presence.
I have already said that for carrying out the enterprise of the Indies, neither reason nor mathematics nor maps of the world were of any use to me. What Isaiah said was fully accomplished. And this is what I wish to write here, to bring it back to Your Highnesses’ memory, and so that you may rejoice over the other matter that I will tell you of concerning Jerusalem by the same authorities. Of that enterprise, if there is faith, hold the victory as most certain.
Let Your Highnesses remember the Gospels, and the many promises that our Redeemer made to us, and how all of it has been proved by experience. Saint Peter, when he leapt into the sea, walked upon it as long as his faith was firm. The mountains will obey whoever has faith as much as a grain of millet (Matt 17:19; Matt 21:21). Whoever has faith, let him ask, and everything will be given him. Knock, and it will be opened to you. No one ought to fear to undertake any enterprise in the name of our Savior, if it is just and undertaken with a sound intention for his holy service. He came to the aid of Saint Catherine after he had seen her proved. Let Your Highnesses remember that with little money you undertook the enterprise of this kingdom of Granada.
Our Lord left the decision of every matter to each one’s free will, although he admonishes many. He lacks nothing that it is in people’s power to give him. Oh, what a good Lord, who desires that people should do the things for which he will be in their debt! By day and by night, and at every moment, people ought to give him most devout thanks.
I said above that much of the prophecies remained to be fulfilled, and I say that these are great things in the world. And I say that the sign is that Our Lord is hastening it: the preaching of the Gospel in so many lands in so short a time tells me so.
The Calabrian Abbot Joachim said that the one who was to rebuild the House of Mount Zion was to come out of Spain.
Cardinal Pierre d’Ailly writes much about the end of the sect of Muhammad and the coming of Antichrist in a treatise he wrote, On the Agreement of Astronomy, Truth and Historical Narrative. In it he recounts the opinion of many astronomers concerning the ten revolutions of Saturn, especially at the end of that book, in the last nine chapters.
Questions
Who wrote "The Book of Prophecies"?+
Christopher Columbus compiled it in 1501 and 1502 AD, with the help of Gaspar Gorricio, a Carthusian monk of the monastery of Las Cuevas in Seville. Most of the book is passages from Scripture and earlier authorities that the two men selected; Columbus's own voice is heard in his letters and his long letter to Ferdinand and Isabella.
What is "The Book of Prophecies" about?+
It collects the prophecies Columbus believed concerned the recovery of Jerusalem and Mount Zion, the discovery and conversion of the islands of the Indies, and the calling of all nations to the faith. His letter to the King and Queen explains why he believed his voyages fulfilled them.
Why did Columbus want Jerusalem recovered?+
He held that everything the prophets foretold must be fulfilled before the end of the world, which by his reckoning was about 155 years away. The voyage to the Indies had already fulfilled Isaiah, so he urged the sovereigns to take up the restoration of the Holy House with the same faith, promising, "Of that enterprise, if there is faith, hold the victory as most certain."
Why does the book say so much about Tharsis and Ophir?+
Tharsis and Ophir are the distant lands to which the fleets of Solomon and Hiram sailed for gold, silver and precious stones. The final section gathers every passage and gloss on them, along with the islands of the sea, and one note identifies Tharsis as an island "also called Ophir, in which there are gold mines."
Is Seneca really quoted in it?+
Yes. Columbus copies the chorus from Seneca's Medea foretelling a time when Ocean would loosen the bonds of things and a vast land would lie open, and he cites the same chorus in his letter to the sovereigns on the end of the world.
Which edition is this?+
The complete text in modern English, following Cesare de Lollis's 1894 edition of the manuscript in the Raccolta Colombiana. It includes the letters to and from Father Gorricio, the letter to the King and Queen, every section of the anthology and the closing notes and verses. Scripture passages follow the Douay-Rheims wording wherever it matches the Latin Vulgate text Columbus quoted.
Is there a free PDF or full text of "The Book of Prophecies"?+
Yes. The complete Book of Prophecies, with the letters to and from Father Gorricio, is available on this page as a free PDF and EPUB.
Christopher Columbus (1451 to 1506 AD) was a Genoese navigator who, sailing for the crowns of Castile and Aragon, crossed the Atlantic in 1492 AD and reached the islands of the Caribbean. Born in Genoa and trained at sea from boyhood, he sailed the Mediterranean and the Atlantic coasts and lived for years in Portugal before bringing his plan to sail west to the Indies to Ferdinand and Isabella, who backed it after the fall of Granada. He made four voyages between 1492 and 1504, exploring the Bahamas, Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, the coast of South America at Paria and the coast of Central America, and was named Admiral of the Ocean Sea and Viceroy of the lands he discovered. Columbus understood his voyages as a calling from God, foretold in the prophets, and between his third and fourth voyages he compiled The Book of Prophecies to set out that conviction for the sovereigns. He died at Valladolid in 1506.
