Preface - Christopher Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci

PREFACE - CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND AMERIGO VESPUCCI

The President’s grant holder and laureate of the “Golden pen” award Ramiz Daniz (Gasimov) writes various literary and scientific works. His scientific works astonishes scientists of geography, astronomy and history of mathematics.
He has described obscurities of Columbus’s first travel and very interesting facts concerning the unknown map used by him during the expedition in his work “Christopher Columus, Nasiraddin Tusi and real discovery of America”. R. Daniz has denied known information and mentioned that, Columbus knew the destination, route and term of his travel, but kept it secret. Of course, this is a serious judgement. Reasons why three expeditions sent by Portuguese to the western part of the Atlantic Ocean in order to find the forth continent failed have been explained in the work. The author has proved by indicating perspicacity of Spanish monarchs and disbelief of the king of Portugal that “Mathematical Union” of Lisbon had significant role in appropriation of those territories by Spaniards. Besides it, Ramiz Daniz has mentioned that, Columbus had used calculations of scientists of the East including Nasiraddin Tusi when he prepared his project.
“Enigmatic discovery of Brazil” concerns the problem, which make scientists of geographical discoveries to hesitate, and the author tries to prove that Brazil wasn’t discovered by Pedro Cabral in 1500 by accident, it was discovered by Duarte Pereira in 1494 in accordance with secret agreement reached with the king of Portugal, but the result of that travel was kept secret for some reasons. In accordance with this work, Portuguese were able to conceal Spaniards by means of the Pope and became owners of today’s Brazil according to Tordesillas treaty concluded in 1494. Though Portuguese were agree to own lands located at 100 liq west of Azores in 1493, in accordance with the result of the secret expedition of Duarte Pacheco, who visited American coasts after a year, they appropriated large territories by moving the demarcation line between Spain and Portugal for 270 liq towards the west.
The author has described scientific activities and achievements of the remarkable scientist N. Tusi, essence of most of his works known all over the world in his next work “The scientist passed ahead of centuries – Nasiraddin Tusi” and mentioned that, several works of the scientist had been published by other authors as their own works.
It is known that, Nasiraddin Tusi wrote masterpieces in fields of astronomy, mathematics, geometry and ethics, played a significant role in development of these sciences and passed ahead of well-known scientists for hundreds of years. The author has remembered scientific works carried out by the most ancient scientists of Greece, ancient Rome, Byzantine, Egypt and Muslim scientists of the early middle ages, mentioned that, Tusi had significant achievements in listed branches and tried to emphasize Tusi’s genius.
According to the book, the astronomical table “Zij-i Ilkhani” prepared by Nasiraddin Tusi was used for discovery of America. Ramiz Daniz mentioned it in the book, which explains most issues concerning Tusi’s scientific activity and causing scientists of the world to think. The scientist had described the prime meridian at 34⁰west of today’s Greenwich Meridian (remote north-western coast of Brazil) and this fact helped Columbus when he passed the ocean.
Another interesting moment is the investigation of the real owner of the map made by the Turkish admiral Piri Reis in 1513, which has been analyzed in most science centers.
Though America was discovered 500 years ago, that discovery is still interesting for most experts as it is very enigmatic. Ramiz Gasimov could explain most details about discovery of America. This book includes answers of most questions, which were enigmatic during centu-ries.
Following questions are interesting for every student, historian, geographer and other experts:
- Why coasts of the New World were named America in honor of Amerigo Vespucci, but not in honor of the well-known sea traveler Christopher Columbus?
- How could the professional navigator and sea trave-ler Columbus write 40⁰ instead of 22⁰when determined geographic latitude, where Cuba was situated.
- Why Columbus sailed at 20⁰-25⁰northern latitude towards the south-west, instead of 35⁰-40⁰northern latitude towards the west in order to reach Japan, Chine and India.
Investigation of results of Columbus’s travels towards coasts of the New World was very interesting for scientists of Azerbaijan besides experts of America and Europe.
Books full of rich historical facts and sensational information will be interesting for scientists all over the world and attract special attention. Discovery of America and Brazil is the most interesting part of the history of geographical discoveries and these books are significant source for deep investigation of mentioned theme.
The author has proved following facts in his book “Amerigo Vespucci, Martin Waldsemuller – secret bargain”: Vespucci travelled to America twice as a merchant, but not quadrice and 32-page letter, which brought him fame, is a copy of some lines of diaries of Pero Vaz de Caminha, Diego Chanca and Christopher Columbus. According to the author, lines of America on the map made by Martin Waldsemuller in 1507 were analogous to the lines on the left corner of the map made by Piri Reis in 1513 and same source was used for these maps.
Result of the research carried out by the author:
1. Vespucci hadn’t any role in discovery of the Amazon River. The Florentine cosmographer tried to present his fictitious letter to the world community in order to appropriate another sea traveler’s success.
2. Ramiz Deniz proves that, Vespucci didn’t sail to 52⁰ latitude near Antarctica.
3. The Florentine cosmographer didn’t travel quadrice as scientists wrote, he travelled only twice as the member of the Chamber of Commerce.
4. The author has found out that, Vespucci’s corres-pondence with the king of Portugal Manuel I wasn’t real.
5. The map made by Waldsemuller in 1507 was handed over by Vespucci.
6. Secret proposals of Vespucci as the navigation officer of Castile had a significant role in naming the forth continent America in books and maps prepared by most geographers and cartographer. It means that, he used his powers in order to name the continent, discovered by Columbus, “America”.
7. In general, the author declared that, it is unjust to name the New World “America” and scientists all over the world have to make serious steps to correct this mistake.
Ramiz Daniz’s new work allows to look through Amerigo Vespucci’s biography, his personal and public activity and his tracks in the history. So, novelties of this book will attract attention of scientists working in the field of the history of geography. I’m sure that, scientists’ reactions will not be univocal and new works will appear for coming to the common conclusion.
As mentioned works are about some periods of the history of Portugal, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Azerbaijan and Turkey, they can cause interest in these countries.
Scientific works of R. Daniz may be spread among scientists and ordinary readers interested in the history of geographical discoveries. Ramiz Daniz has found out new facts and so could destroy stereotypes concerning this field.

        Ramiz Mammadov – Laureate of State Prize, Associate Member of the Academy of Science,
        doctor of technical sciences, director of the Institute,
        of Geography of the Academy of Science

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