Colombos 
 
Crabfe of f 0e CofomBoB 
 
IRELAND AND COLUMBUS. 
 
 Father Flattery's Brochure Brings Up Some 
 Strong Arguments. 
 
 The Rev. Hugh Flattery, the well-known 
 Harlem clergyman and one of the best 
 authorities on early American history, 
 has made extended and diligent research 
 into the ancestry of Columbus. He has un 
 earthed facts which have led to some very 
 inter esting conclusions, and these he has set 
 forth in a hand some little brochure, entitled 
 "The Cradle of the Colombos." It will 
 prove particularly interesting to all Irish 
 men, as showing the existence of another 
 link in the chain that binds Ireland and 
 America. 
 
 This pamphlet traces the patronymic of 
 the discoverer to its source in the city of 
 Bobbio, Lombardy. This once renowned 
 center of culture was founded in the sixth 
 century by St. Columban, a distinguished 
 Irish abbott. The name of this champion 
 of arts and letters was adopted as a patrony 
 mic by one of the ancestors of the discov 
 erer. In other words, Father Flattery be 
 lieves that had it not been for an Irishman 
 New York's Columbian Celebration might 
 have been conducted under some other 
 name. This pamphlet is an interesting 
 sequel to an address by General Butterfielr 1 
 published in the MOBNING ADVEKTISER so- 
 months ago, in which facts were adduce 
 show that St. Brendan, also an Irish- 
 "" visited America centuries bef o 
 us. 
 
of $e <Dofom6o* 
 
 BY 
 
 THE REV. HUGH FLATTERY 
 
 AUTHOR OF *f 
 
 "THE POPE OF THE NEW CRUSADE," ETC. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY 
 
 5 AND 7 EAST SIXTEENTH STREET 
 
 CHICAGO: 266 & 268 WABASH AVE. 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1892, 
 
 BY 
 UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY 
 
 [All rights reserved.] 
 
Who was the First Columbus? 
 
 Etymology of the Patronymic. 
 
 Columbian Nomenclature. 
 
 Word-Picture of an Ancient Literary Landmark. 
 
 Historic Retrospect of Bob bio. 
 
 Aboriginal Homestead of the Ancestry of Christo 
 pher Columbus. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 It is the unambitious aim of this monograph to 
 unfold in brief outline the aboriginal home of the 
 Colombos, as well as the interesting Hiberno-Biblical 
 surname of the " Admiral of the Indies," as discover 
 able in the dim, historic twilight of pre-mediasval 
 times. 
 
 To the illustrious Saint Columban the abbatial 
 city of Bobbio owes its Organic existence ; while to 
 the powerful emperor, Saint Henry II., the Lombard 
 city is indebted for municipal freedom, chartered 
 liberty, together with the official * muniments of 
 plenary civic autonomy. 
 
 Saint Henry was the fifth emperor of the Saxon 
 
12 PREFACE. 
 
 race to wear the imperial crown of Charlemagne ; 
 but he has worn it so as to enhance its splendor by 
 the brighter effulgence of heroic virtue both in him 
 self and his far-famed consort, Saint Conegunda. 
 
 It is but natural that sovereigns of so lofty a type 
 of character should have chosen as beneficiary of 
 their regal munificence a commonwealth founded by 
 the Apostolic Columban, so well beloved of yore 
 in the Kingdom of Burgundy, and in the embryonic 
 cities along the Rhine. 
 
 In this fair land of Columbia, the Celt and the 
 Teuton are potential factors in building up a system 
 of civilization alike unprecedented in the achievements 
 of the past, and the possibilities of the future. If their 
 average lot in life's struggle afford scant leisure to 
 probe the subtleties of ancient history, they must 
 feel a keen interest in all that bears upon the incu- 
 nabular details of a family immortalized by the 
 " Revealer of the World." 
 
PREFACE. 13 
 
 To the German and Irish-American citizens of 
 the United States it would be difficult to present two 
 nobler standards of moral excellence than Saint 
 Henry, the gem of the imperial Teutonic Crown, and 
 Saint Columban, the pride of the Emerald Isle. 
 
 H. F, 
 
ARMS OF BOBBIO. 
 
 BOBBIO is in the order of time one of the first 
 cities of Europe to possess an authorized coat of 
 arms. In this civic escutcheon, Columbianism is 
 conspicuously prominent. The device consists of 
 a red cross upon a white ground. Perched upon 
 the limbs of the cross two doves carrying olive 
 branches salute the hallowed symbol of Atonement. 
 Upon this sacrificial altar of Calvary was consum 
 mated the peace-triumph enunciated to the shep 
 herds of Bethlehem. A golden shield supports the 
 ancient crown of the Kings of Lombardy, encircled 
 with an ornamental wreath of laurel. The twin 
 doves represent the Old and the New Dispensa 
 tions, the end of a deluge never to be repeated, 
 and the advent to Bobbio in its dove-like Founder 
 of that peace which passeth all understanding. 
 
THE CRADLE OF THE COLOMBOS. 
 
 PATRONYMICS have interesting pedigrees. This is 
 particularly true in respect of our own country, called 
 after Americo Vespucci. But the principle is appli 
 cable to all times and peoples, from the eternal 
 Rome of the suckling Romulus to the legislative 
 capital on the Potomac, named after the Father of 
 his country. The origin of the names of distin 
 guished personages has ever been capricious. Thus, 
 a Roman emperor, whose real name was Bassianus, 
 affected a short cassock called by the Gauls caracalla, 
 whence the imperial Caracalla himself. If our noun 
 pertinacity does not come from the emperor Perti- 
 nase, it is certain that his gaiter or top boot, caliga y 
 
iS THE CRADLE OF THE COLOMBOS. 
 
 has given his name to Caligula ; while the Caesarean 
 operation, whereby they were brought into life, is 
 the accepted etymology of Scipio, Julius, and all 
 the Caesars. 
 
 Applying this line of thought to the greatest of 
 maritime discoverers, two things become at once 
 apparent. First, there must have been some person 
 by whom, first in the order of time, the name Co 
 lumbus has been borne ; secondly, it must be deeply 
 interesting to determine with approximate accuracy 
 who that primal personage is, thus establishing the 
 true fans et origo of the most distinguished name in 
 American history. Such is the genesis of the fol 
 lowing observations. 
 
 In the sixth century, two Irishmen appear on the 
 historic stage, Columba and Columban. Identical 
 in name, nationality, and professional pursuits, they 
 have differed widely in various respects. Columba 
 was born in Ulster in 521 ; Columban in Leinster 
 
THE CRADLE OF THE COL OMB OS. 19 
 
 some two and twenty years later, 543. While Co- 
 lumba has evangelized most of Scotland, continuing 
 to this day the popular idol of Caledonia, Columban 
 does not appear to have developed much interest in 
 that chivalrous country. There is, I believe, no 
 conclusive evidence that Columban has ever set 
 foot in either the Highlands or the Lowlands. The 
 Scottish form of Columba is Colon, identical with 
 the Irish Gaelic, modified by the Latin Columba, 
 which, upon Ireland's conversion to Christianity, 
 became so popular with the Bards and Druids. In 
 the Spanish, also, the primitive Colon of the Gaels 
 continues in its unchanged dress, making the full 
 Hispanic appellative of the Admiral of the Ocean, 
 Cristobal Colon Christopher Columbus. 
 
 As Colon of Ulster unto the pagan Picts of North 
 
 Britain, such was Colon of Leinster to Burgundy, 
 
 Switzerland, and Italy. In dove-like gentleness 
 
 ' they have borne each the olive-branch of Christian 
 
20 THE CRADLE OF THE COLO M BOS. 
 
 peace, amid regions agitated with strife and war. 
 The metaplasm in either name, by which Columba 
 becomes respectively Columbkille and Columbanus, 
 has been adopted for purposes of contradistinction. 
 Besides, terminal variety in names, while of frequent 
 occurrence, is of no material significance. Thus 
 Bede and Bedan, Offa and Offano, Thega and 
 Tegano are mutually convertible names. 
 
 It would seem, indeed, to be a usage inherited 
 from pre-Christian times, as is evident from the 
 variety of suffix common among the Hebrews. 
 Thus Jehovah expresses simple being or existence 
 I AM. By this is implied the changeless identity of 
 the self-existent, or uncreated Deity; but the par 
 ticular phase of providential favor, or interposition, 
 needed for the nonce by the Israelite, is enunciated 
 in copious terminal modifications. When, for 
 instance, there is question of daily sustenance it is 
 Jehovah-Jirieh, the bountiful God. If it be a 
 
THE CRADLE OF THE COL OMB OS. 21 
 
 matter of fields and flocks, it is Jehovah-Robi. 
 When war is impending, the form is Jehovah-Nissi, 
 as a rallying-point : but if hostilities are over, and a 
 truce is to be proclamed, the suffix is Jehovah- 
 Shehem. Similarly as to Colon Cill, euphemized 
 Columbkille, the Dove of the Church, from his 
 having been professionally a churchman. Apart, 
 however, from variety in the sense here illustrated, 
 Columba was in both instances, a sobriquet, or term 
 of endearment, expressive of the winsome disposi 
 tion and delightful individuality of the teachers 
 toward their scholars, pupils, attendants, and fol 
 lowers. And whereas there has been in Ireland in 
 this sixth century a third Columba, contempora 
 neous with the two great missionaries, but other 
 wise unknown beyond his quiet official sphere as 
 Abbot of Tyrdaglas, in Munster, the conclusion is 
 irresistible that the popular pet-name was taken 
 either from the winped nuncio of peace at the end 
 
22 THE CRADLE OF THE COL OMB OS. 
 
 of the Deluge, " Columba Noachi" Noah's Dove : or 
 from the apparition at the Baptism in the Jordan of 
 the Holy Spirit, " in Columbcz specie" in the sem 
 blance of a dove, or else from eager emulation to 
 exemplify the evangelical injunction " Be ye there 
 fore prudent even as the serpent, and simple like 
 unto the dove." 
 
 A similar change of name occurs in the person of 
 St. Winfrid, better-known by the physiognomical 
 description of Boniface. (755, A. D.) But there 
 is abundant evidence that this is not the first person 
 named, or nick-named Boniface. It is distinctively 
 Latin, and thence in popular speech Italian buona- 
 faccia. There have been a dozen Popes of the 
 name. One hundred years before St. Winfrid's 
 birth, an Italian bishop named Boniface had lived 
 and died in Caledonia. Upon his death in 630, he 
 was buried at Rosmark, the capital of the county of 
 Ross, Scotland. Earlier still another Italian Bon- 
 
THE CRADLE OF THE COLOMBOS. 23 
 
 iface had been martyred in Greece, about the year 
 307, A. D. 
 
 Not so as to Columba and its derivatives. This 
 Irish name is first in the field in connection with any 
 person of the masculine gender. Moreover, the 
 Colons of the sixth century are the first persons so 
 named in Irish, Scottish, and Spanish history. 
 Besides being of noble lineage, through the O'Don- 
 nells of Gartan in Donegal, and therefore a con 
 spicuous personage in Ireland, Columba of the 
 Hebrides had already achieved distinction in the 
 Ulster University of Beuchor, when Columba of 
 Leinster was born, A. D. 543. The latter outlived 
 the former by a score of years, dying in 615, at 
 Bobbio, in Italy, wherewith his name is inseparably 
 interwoven. 
 
 The episcopal see of Bobbio takes its historical 
 pedigree from the far-famed school which St. Co- 
 lumban here founded as a duplicate of his Irish 
 
24 THE CRADLE OF THE COL OMB OS. 
 
 Alma Mater, Beuchor. The history of Bobbio is the 
 history of the Hiberno-Italian Colon, the greatest of 
 Irish missionaries. But it is also the true record of 
 Italian Colombianism. The Columbanian Institute 
 of Bobbio is the very raison d'etre of the city itself. 
 attracted thither by the virtue, scholarship, and 
 eloquence of the hermit-founder, a few families 
 settled on the bank of the brook Bobio, whence the 
 Abbatial, collegiate city of a thousand years. 
 
 As a seat of learning Bobbio has continued from 
 the outset to shine in ever increasing lustre. The 
 royalties, from Queen Theolinda, who rocked its 
 cradle, to the empress St. Cunegunda, have loved to 
 visit, patronize, and enrich the sequestered hamlet 
 during the first centuries of its pre-mediseval life. 
 For Bobbio, the reader must remember, is the day- 
 star of the Universities. Ancient before Oxford and 
 Cambridge had been heard of, before old Bologna, 
 " Mater studio-rum" had donned its swaddling- 
 
THE CRADLE OF THE CO LOME OS. 25 
 
 clothes, this initial Columbanian college carries us 
 back to the corner-stone of Monte Cassino, and the 
 archaic medical gymnasia of Salerno in southern 
 Italy, and Montpelier in France. Even its famous 
 neighbor, Pavia, is the fair daughter of Bobbio. At 
 best this renowned filiation can claim no higher 
 ascendancy than that implied in the Horatian 
 
 dictum : 
 
 " O ! Matre pulchra ! 
 
 Filia pulchrior ! " 
 
 Situated between the Ligurian Republic, and the 
 martial capital of Lombardy, the sages of Bobbio 
 attracted the adolescent flower of Genoa the Superb, 
 and of the imperial stronghold of the Goth and the 
 Longobard. To filch the Golden Fleece of Colom- 
 banian distinction has been the laudable ambition of 
 the Italian nobility from the dawn of the feudal 
 Houses of Visconti, Trivulzio, Sforza, and numerous 
 others. In those days to be a Bobbian graduate 
 
26 THE CRADLE OF THE COL OMB OS. 
 
 was, in current parlance, to have captured the Blue 
 Ribbon of Oxford, to have won a double first, to be 
 an Oxonian par excellence, a typical Cantabrigian, or, 
 what in American phraseology is rightly considered 
 a much more enviable mark of sterling ability, a 
 Yaleite, or Hartford man. It was the guerdon of 
 honest worth, and the symbol of established excel 
 lence. 
 
 Such is the fountain source of Italian Colum- 
 bianism. Bobbio grew to be instinctively beloved and 
 admired of all great and good men. It was espe 
 cially the magnet of attraction for brilliant ecclesias 
 tics. The Apostolic See was wont to regard the 
 bright northern Pharos as the embattled citadel of 
 orthodoxy against the ensanguined vicissitudes of 
 Hun, Goth, Frank, Teuton, and Ghibelline. The 
 successors of Columban have been unexceptionally 
 intellectual athletes, after the heart of the poet- 
 philosopher-saint himself. 
 
THE CRADLE OF THE COLO MB OS. 27 
 
 In an incomplete Bobbian catalogue of one hun 
 dred and one Abbots, I find that forty-two have been 
 elevated to the episcopate. This does not include 
 fifty other bishops of the Bobbian diocese, whose 
 episcopal residence, during more than two centuries, 
 had been the Columban Abbey. Of these four have 
 been enrolled in the Kalendar, and repose beneath 
 a costly mausoleum erected to their honor by King 
 Luitprand. Several have been created Cardinals, 
 notably Castiglione, promoted by Pius IV. in recog 
 nition of his valuable services before the Council of 
 Trent. In the ninth century, the Abbot was made a 
 feudatory ruler, with the hereditary title of Count, 
 holding jurisdiction over all the neighboring territory, 
 himself subject only to the imperial sovereignty. 
 The first prince- Abbot was Hilduin, (846 86 1) some 
 time imperial chancellor of Lothair, and sub 
 sequently archbishop of Cologne. 
 
 Among the conspicuous laity of Bobbio are 
 
28 THE CRADLE OF THE CO LOME OS. 
 
 families which ante-date the Crusaders. The re 
 nowned House of Malaspina, a plant from the out 
 set of local growth, would alone make the ancestral 
 fame of any commonwealth. As marquisate of 
 Massa and Carrara, it has been prominent since 
 the ninth century, while its primitive annals are 
 among the crystal springs of inspiration whence flow 
 the early lays of the Troubadour. But the crowning 
 glory of this immemorial Apennine homestead is the 
 rare distinction of having been embalmed for all 
 time in that archetypal creation of the human intel 
 lect, the DIVINA COMMEDIA. To have been Dante's 
 host in, the flesh were in itself no obscure quater- 
 ing in the proudest escutcheon of heraldry. It was 
 in the halcyon days of the Malaspina, and in the 
 chaotic convulsions of the Guelph-Ghibelline fac 
 tions, that the Bard of Florence began what he so 
 amusingly designates as his " exile " in the moun 
 tains of Lombardy. Among the' curios which still 
 
THE CRADLE OF THE CO LOME OS. 29 
 
 attract the antiquary are " Dante's Tower," and a 
 house called ever since " Dante's House." As 
 guest of the Malaspina the irascible poet poses 
 paradoxically enough as Head Pacificator in the 
 Valley of the Trebbia. To send Dante on a 
 pacific mission seem like pouring vinegar upon 
 nitre. But whether or not he may have been the 
 firebrand to kindle among the Bobbiese the lurid 
 torch of that Ghibellinism which he loved so well, 
 it is certain that in behalf of the erring scions of 
 the leading house he went as intermediary to the 
 bishop of Lemi, a prelate staunchly Guelph, and who 
 could stand no nonsense at the hands of flexible 
 trimmers. In his triple pilgrimage Dante meets in 
 Purgatory, Conrad Malaspina : 
 
 " One turned to Virgil ; one addressed a shade 
 Who sat there crying : ' Conrad, up, and view 
 The grace of God here signally displayed.' " 
 
30 THE CRADLE OF THE COL OMB OS. 
 
 This was the father of Morello Malaspina who 
 received and entertained Dante during his exile. 
 The poet had not yet been to Bobbio, but the fame 
 thereof, and that of its leading house is suitably 
 touched in the passing interview : 
 
 " Conrado Malaspina was my name 
 Sprung from the older-one ; the love I bear 
 To mine own race, here burns with purer flame. 
 Oh, never have I seen thy land, I said ; 
 But where, throughout all Europe may be found 
 The spot to which thy glory hath not spread ? 
 
 " The fame which o'er this house such lustre throws 
 Makes both its nobles and the land renowned ; 
 E'en 'he who ne'er was there, their greatness knows. 
 I swear by all my hopes to mount on high 
 The name thy offspring won, both by the sword 
 And generous deeds, they do not now belie. 
 Habit and nature have such grace bestowed 
 That though the world pursues a vicious lord 
 Upright alone they spurn the evil road." 
 
THE CRADLE OF THE COL OMB OS. 31 
 
 It will be in the memory of Dantesque students 
 that in the 24th Canto of the Inferno the pilgrim 
 songster again refers to a crushing victory gained 
 by the House of Malaspina to the ruin of the Flor 
 entines. 
 
 When the opening eleventh century blazed forth 
 in a galaxy of emperors, kings, queens, bishops, 
 warriors, and statesmen conspicuous alike in vir 
 tue and literary culture, it was apparent to Europe 
 that the luminary of that gorgeous constellation was 
 Gerbert of Aurillac, successor during twenty years 
 of St. Columban. Having swept the gamut of 
 sacred and secular literature, he was the first French 
 man to ascend the Fisherman's throne, A. D. 999. 
 From the plains of Lombardy to the Gulf of Genoa 
 joyous holiday was kept, for Bobbio had now at 
 tained the zenith of its glory. Its gifted master, 
 confessedly the colossus of his age, whether as phil 
 osopher, mathematician, man, musician, or canonist, 
 
3 2 
 
 THE CRADLE OF THE COLO M BUS. 
 
 was now Pope Sylvester II. Having already been 
 incumbent successively of the Sees of Rheims and 
 Ravenna, there was wanting but the Popedom to 
 set the plenitude of honor upon the greatest of all 
 the Abbots of Bobbio. 
 
 Having introduced to Europe the use of Arabic 
 figures, originated the jubilee and the crusade, and 
 founded in the person of St. Stephen the kingdom 
 of Hungary, Gerbert passed hence together with the 
 literary eclipse which his golden life had dispelled. 
 Eleven years later, the seven-hilled city witnessed a 
 truly gorgeous pageant. At the vestibule of St. 
 Peter's basilica stood Benedict VIII., where amid 
 the glitter of imperial insignia, and the mingled 
 pomp of civic and religious ceremonies, St. Henry 
 and St. Cunegunda, attended by Roman senators, 
 the hierarchy and nobility, with the flower of the 
 army, received sacred unction, with the jewelled dia 
 dems of sovereign dominion. 
 
THE CRADLE OF THE COLO MB OS. 33 
 
 Three Columbian incidents here synchronize in a 
 chromatic picture which the historian's prism reflects 
 in kaleidoscopic crystallization, (i.) This solemn 
 function of coronation was first introduced into 
 Christian Europe by one of the two Irish Colons 
 under consideration, when Columba of Donegal 
 anointed and set the golden sphere upon his 
 compatriot, King Aiden, successor to Comal on the 
 Scottish throne of Alba, in 574. A. D. 
 
 (2). The Roman coronation of Saint Henry oc 
 curred in February 1014, amid the ringing of numer 
 ous bells, followed by salvos of artillery. The dying 
 echoes of this religious-military fete were taken up 
 by the naval battle then waging on the eastern coast 
 of Ireland. It is known in history as the battle of 
 Clontarf. The pentarchy of Ireland united all 
 Columban's race in a successful effort to extinguish 
 Norse domination in the Emerald Isle. The King 
 of the Orkney Islands, and the Isle of Man, with 
 
34 THE CRADLE OF THE CO LOME OS. 
 
 hordes of European mercenaries, on booty bent 
 had rallied to the doomed cause of Denmark. With 
 Norse ascendency within the Kingdom of Ireland 
 fell Brian Borii on Good Friday, 1014 A. D. Just 
 while the Teutonic hierarchy and nobility were bid 
 ding greeting to their newly consecrated dynasts, 
 those of Ireland were assembled in the primatial 
 city of Armagh to mourn the fallen House of Kin- 
 cora. 
 
 (3). Finally, the first favour which Henry, upon 
 his coronation, solicited at the hands of Benedict 
 VIII. was the elevation of Bobbio to an episcopal 
 See, 1014. The civic honor of urban dignity, with 
 chartered symbol of municipal authority, had al 
 ready been bestowed by this emperor, thus making 
 Bobbio one of the most ancient cities of Europe. 
 About one century later, Genoa was elevated to an 
 Archbishopric, when pope Innocent II. constituted 
 Bobbio, thitherto in the jurisdiction of Milan, one 
 
THE CRADLE OF THE COLO ME OS. 
 
 35 
 
 of the suffragan Sees of the Genoese Metropolitan, 
 reserving to the Papacy the government of the Co- 
 lumban Institute, 1133, A. D. The present popu 
 lation of the city, including the environs, is 15,000. 
 Thus about three hundred and two years before 
 the birth of Columbus at, or near, Genoa, or Cogo- 
 letta, his native diocese had become officially con 
 nected with Columbian Bobbio ; or, more correctly, 
 the Lombard city had been canonically incorporated 
 into the ecclesiastical district of Genoa. It is matter 
 of history that his ancestors came originally from 
 Lombardy. It is agreed among historians that the 
 several Colombo families of Piedmont and the Gen 
 oese Liguria in the fifteenth century had ramified 
 from one common stock, and a single parentage. 
 Other Colombos than those of Lombardy there 
 are in chronological order absolutely none. The 
 aboriginal stem, therefore, alone remains to be 
 accounted for. 
 
36 THE CRADLE OF THE CO LOME OS, 
 
 It is difficult to resist the conclusion that the 
 primal patronymic is derived from Bobbio. This is in 
 the best sense a question of patronomatology. The 
 father of Christopher, the " Admiral of the Indies," 
 was himself a Colon, and the son of a Colon, or 
 Colombo. The Colombii are notoriously one of the 
 ancient Bobbiese families. That is the recognized 
 cradle of the Lombard stock, whereof all other 
 Italian Colombii are branches. This Columban 
 City, the amplification of the Columban Institute, 
 has no competitor. Ages before its name appears 
 in any other form, or in relation to any house, or 
 clan, or family, this pristine Columban lamp had 
 shone in unborrowed effulgence. It is consenta 
 neous to the laws of etymology, in harmony with 
 analogy, and suitable to the unbroken thread of 
 traditional evidence to identify the bright name of 
 Columbus as the abiding quenchless beam of Bob- 
 blio's noontide brilliancy. There is an acceptable 
 
THE CRADLE OF THE COL OMB OS. 
 
 37 
 
 fitness between the radiant morning of the City by 
 the Trebbia, its thousand golden years of sunny 
 fruitfulness, and the grateful apotheosis of its illus 
 trious scion in the mellow eventide of this nineteenth 
 century. It is an Orient not unworthy the perma 
 nent discoverer of the fair Land of the West. 
 Writers on floriculture tell of a plant which flowers 
 in the cottage-gardens of half the world, but is ex 
 clusively known in American Flora as the Even 
 ing Primrose. If the fragrant creature has really 
 come hither in the world's vesper-age, its trem 
 ulous voyage athwart Neptune's Kingdom has 
 been piloted by that beacon-light of the tempest- 
 tossed mariner whose roseate Phcebus is Columban 
 Bobbio. 
 
 The Spaniards have a family of herbs or shrubs 
 by no means exclusively indigenous to their own 
 country, but which the Hispanic botanists have 
 patriotically designated Pavonia, in honour of their 
 
38 THE CRADLE OF THE COLO MB OS. 
 
 renowned traveller and botanical student, Don 
 Josef Pavon. This is in strict accordance with the 
 genius of universal nomenclature, whether scientific, 
 geographical, or pharmaceutical. Conversely, there 
 is no lack of surnames, since their first appearance 
 in the eleventh century of our era, which can be 
 naturally traced to the birth place, the aboriginal 
 homestead, or native hamlet of the founder of a 
 given clan or family. 
 
 Cologne was built by Claudius Agrippa, and 
 named after his wife, Colonia Agrippina 57 B.C. 
 The city could of course have been built by any 
 other magnate ; but would it have come down to us 
 as Cologne, if the builder's wife had not been named 
 Colonia ? 
 
 As in the British peerage there probably never 
 would have been an earldom of Oxford had not a 
 score of colleges, with domes, towers, and spires, 
 risen upon the Isis and the Cherwell, making Eng- 
 
Bancroft 
 
 THE CRADLE OF THE COLO M BOS. 39 
 
 land's Bosphorus an architectural forest, so there 
 probably never had been an Italian named Colum- 
 but if the Irish Columban had not filled the air of 
 upper Italy with the elevating associations of his 
 new Beuchor on the Bobio. It is not any parliament 
 which has created the fame of Oxford, but it is 
 Oxford which has evoked parliamentary homage. 
 It was not any family of Colombos who launched 
 the archaic gymnasium of the Apostle of the Apen 
 nines, but it was the supernal lustre of that scholastic 
 emporium which found patronymic embodiment in 
 the commendable aspirations of self-respecting Ital 
 ians. The home of letters is invested with irresist 
 ible fascinations. The sons of men needs must bow 
 in unquestioning fealty to the Olympian casket of 
 genius. But more winsome still is that baptized 
 Athens springing from ruined Rome, that venerable 
 scriptorium of the tireless palceographist and illu 
 minator which, through a long barbaric night, spans 
 
40 THE CRADLE OF THE COLO MB OS. 
 
 the gulf between the Theodosian empire and the 
 meteoric dynasty of Bonaparte, and whose palimp 
 sests, and peerless library are still the prized treas 
 ures of the Vatican, Ainbrosian, Turinese, and other 
 European collections. 
 
 Moreover, the Lombard town, San Colombano, in 
 the vicinity of the City of Lodi, is a busy market- 
 borough in the Apennines of some five thousand 
 inhabitants. This land-mark demonstrates in itself 
 the extent to which the magnetism of the Columban 
 hermitage has impressed itself not merely on the 
 religious and mental character, but even the topog 
 raphy of the Lombard-Venetian province. A par 
 allel and contemporaneous instance is seen in an 
 cient England, unchanged to our own day, where the 
 other Colon, Apostle of the Picts, is perpetuated in 
 the market-town of Saint Colum, in the county of 
 Cornwall. 
 
 The District of Columbia, U. S., the capital of 
 
THE CRADLE OF THE COLO MB OS. 41 
 
 Ceylorf, the two places named Colombo in Savoy, 
 those in France, and the numerous other localities 
 of Col'imbian appellation are without exception 
 traceable, through the Genoese Navigator, to the 
 Irish Columban Abbot of Bobbio. Perhaps the 
 most remarkable instance of this is the fitful etymo 
 logy of the tropical capital of the Singhalese. It is 
 the old Taprobaue of Athens and Rome, and the 
 Sevendib of the Arabian Nights. Its earliest name, 
 however, is Kalan-Totto, the Kalany Ferry, from the 
 near by stream, Kalany-Gauga. This became grad 
 ually corrupted into Kalambu, by which it was 
 known in the i4th century of our era. Some two 
 centuries later, upon the arrival of the Portuguese, 
 Kalambu had further modified to Kolamba, or Co- 
 lumbu, which the mariners interpreted, and all Por 
 tugal henceforth wrote Colombo, in honor of Chris 
 topher Columbus. But why ? because at the time 
 under consideration, 1517, Europe was mourning 
 
42 THE CRADLE OF THE COL OMB OS. 
 
 the "Revealer of the Globe," with the absorbing 
 earnestness of posthumous appreciation. Ferdinand 
 had been aroused by public indignation from his 
 comatose lethargy of ingratitude. The crown of 
 Castile had, in 1513, ordered pompous obsequies 
 unto the Grand Admiral of the Ocean, whose remains 
 were solemnly removed from Valladolid to Seville 
 by the Guadalquiver, to repose " in a sepulchre 
 entirely new," at St. Mary of the Grottoes, in a vault 
 under the Chapel of Christ. 
 
 Like unto the Admiral's tomb is his family 
 " entirely new." His genius, life-work, superb 
 feats, all are new, unrivalled, unique. His stain 
 less integrity, his undeviating fidelity, his patience, 
 longanimity, and trusty confidence in God, in his 
 friends, and in the great purpose of his life bespeak 
 the artless nature of Noah's model nuncio, the 
 gentle dove. Only a Columban famjiy-tree could 
 have borne so distinctively a Columban fruitage. 
 
THE CRADLE OF THE COLO MB OS. 43 
 
 The reader will perhaps object that this is but 
 conjectural evidence, furnishing an argument at 
 best of verisimilitude. But this plausible difficulty 
 vanishes when confronted with a trustworthy 
 parchment from the Bobbian archives, which gives 
 an alphabetical list of the families, both extant and 
 extinct, of the Abbatial City, down to the date of 
 the Manuscript, namely, 1611, A. D. This list the 
 reader will find transcribed in extenso by Bertacchi, 
 in his interesting Monografia di Bobbio (Penerolo, 
 
 This muniment contains the names of 134 fam 
 ilies, arranged in alphabetical order, and gives 
 various interesting details as to their advent to 
 Bobbio, whether as refugees from Florentine turbu 
 lence in the angry Guelph-Ghibelline commotions, or 
 during the punic war of the Trebbia, in the day of 
 Hannibal's victory over Scipio, 218 B. C., or, finally, 
 as pilgrim-votaries of letters attracted by the Co- 
 
44 THE CRADLE OF THE COL QMS OS. 
 
 lumban library and Institute. These families, the 
 author observes, had all been established at Bobbio 
 in 1533, A. D., so long as to have duplicated, the 
 younger branches either migrating to the near by 
 Piedmont and Genoa, or else becoming lease 
 holders of new homes at an annual rent payable to 
 the Columban Abbey. On this authentic roll, stands 
 at number 50 the family of the Colombos, in the 
 Italian plural, thus, " Columbii." This I regard 
 as the parent stem of the patronymic of the Discov 
 erer of the New World. 
 
 There is given but one entry of " Colombii," clearly 
 suggesting the dispersion to contiguous localities of 
 the second and subsequent generations of descend 
 ants from the primal stock, exclusively shown in 
 the authoritative Columbanian register. In this one 
 recognized fountain-source, and in the implied mi 
 gration of the junior off-shoots, the reader will find 
 the key to two established facts, namely : the con- 
 
THE CRADLE OF THE COL OMB OS. 45 
 
 sensus of opinion which declares Lombardy to have 
 held the original homestead of the Colombos ; 
 secondly, the diversity of opinion as to the exact 
 birthplace of Christopher Columbus. The scattered 
 kinsfolk would periodically exchange friendly visits, 
 during one of which a child born in the distant home 
 of an uncle or aunt would be taken later to the 
 parental homestead to be baptized in the parent's 
 parish church, and duly enrolled in the parochial 
 record of Baptisms, an earnest of legitimacy, and 
 abiding guide to identification. But such a seeming 
 discrepancy would, however natural, supply ample 
 material to effusive village gossips for various ver 
 sions of the true incident. 
 
 I trust that this feeble effort to unfold the pedigree 
 of a distinguished name may enlist ulterior investi 
 gation. Meanwhile, if anything could brighten in the 
 American mind the fair image of Columbus it is the 
 religious-literary setting in which it is here present 3d. 
 
46 THE CRADLE OF THE COLOMBUS. 
 
 The master spirit of Oceanic navagation wings its 
 aboriginal flight from that peaceful Lombard eyrie 
 built by the aquiline priest of Ireland's golden age, 
 and ermined with the quickening unction of the 
 Jordanic Dove. Having carried gladsome tidings to 
 benighted realms, it is in turn borne upon the lumi 
 nous pinions of umblemished integrity and majestic 
 triumph to its own central niche in the Pantheon of 
 the Immortals. 
 
 THE END.