Pipped to the post

While transcribing an essay from 1345, Latin literature expert Paolo Chiesa found evidence that sailors from Genoa were already aware of North America before Christopher Columbus ‘discovered’ it. The revelation – stemming from the document Cronica universalis, written by Galvaneus, a Dominican friar – was made ahead of Columbus Day 2021, which many people across the USA alternatively celebrate as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. ‘We are in the presence of the first reference to the American continent, albeit in an embryonic form, in the Mediterranean area,’ Chiesa said.