Washington Irving Manuscript Fragment

"Columbus Before The Council At Salamanca. IRVING, Washington. Autograph manuscript fragment, "Chapter 7. Columbus before the Council at Salamanca.", one page. 4 1/2" x 7* Heavily corrected. Broken edges in upper and lower margins, not affecting the text. With an engraved portrait (1824).

The manuscript fragment reads: "Columbus before the council at Salamanca: The interesting conference took place... at Salamanca, the great seat of learning in Spain. It was held in the Dominican convent of St Stephen, the most scientific college in the university, in which Columbus was lodged and entertained with great hospitality during the course of the examination. The board of conference was composed of professors of the .. university, together with various dignitaries of the church and learned friars; no tribunal could bear a front of more imposing wisdom, yet Columbus soon discovered that..."

The printed text of this manuscript is considerably altered. In addition to textual revisions, the section appears as Chapter III in Book II. Vo. I of The Life and Vovages of Columbus (1828). In part: "The interesting conference took place...at...Salamanca, the great seat of learning in Spain. It was held in the...Dominican convent of St. Stephen, the most scientific college in the university in which Columbus was lodged and entertained with great hospitality during the course of the examination....The hall of the old convent presented a striking spectacle. A simple mariner standing before this imposing array of ecclesiastical dignity and scholastic learning, to defend his theory by the aid of natural eloquence....

Washington Irving (April 3, 1783 – November 28, 1859) was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820), both of which appear in his collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works include biographies of Oliver Goldsmith, Muhammad, and George Washington, as well as several histories of 15th-century Spain that deal with subjects such as Alhambra, Christopher Columbus, and the Moors. Irving served as American ambassador to Spain in the 1840s. In 1826 Irving became a diplomatic attache in Spain, where he gathered material for his History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (1828), and for two later books;A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada and The Alhambra.

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