1490s

Explore 5 quotes from the 1490s

At two hours after midnight appeared the land, at a distance of two leagues. They handed all sails and set the treo, which is the mainsail without bonnets, and lay-to waiting for daylight Friday, when they arrived at an island of the Bahamas that was called in the Indians' tongue Guanahaní.

Christopher Columbus

Referring to an island located in what is now the Bahamas.

More information about this quote

Topic

Discovery of America

Author

Christopher Columbus

Medium

Personal journal

Language

Spanish

Time

1492 1490s 15th century

Era

Age of Exploration

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Columbus, Christopher. Journal entry. 12 Oct. 1492.

Current Citation

Columbus, Christopher. The Diario of Christopher Columbus's First Voyage to America 1492-1493, translated by Oliver Dunn and James E. Kelley, Jr. University of Oklahoma Press, 1991.

I have always read that the world, both land and water, was spherical, as the authority and researches of Ptolemy and all the others who have written this subject demonstrate and prove, as do the eclipses of the moon and other experiments that are made from east to west, and the elevation of the North Star from north to south.

Christopher Columbus

More information about this quote

Topic

Curvature of the earth The earth

Author

Christopher Columbus

Medium

Letter

Language

Spanish

Time

1498 1490s 15th century

Era

Age of Exploration

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Columbus, Christopher. Letter to the Sovereigns on the Third Voyage. Oct. 1498.

Current Citation

Columbus, Christopher. "Narrative of the third voyage of Christopher Columbus to the Indies, in which he discovered the mainland, dispatched to the sovereigns from the island of hispanola." The Four Voyages, translated by J. M. Cohen. Penguin Classics, 1992.

And they know neither sect nor idolatry, with the exception that all believe that the source of all power and goodness is in the sky, and they believe very firmly that I, with these ships and people, came from the sky, and in this belief they everywhere received me, after they had overcome their fear.

Christopher Columbus

Describing the natives of what came to be called Hispaniola.

More information about this quote

Topic

First contact with Native Americans

Author

Christopher Columbus

Medium

Letter

Language

Spanish

Time

1493 1490s 15th century

Era

Age of Exploration

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Columbus, Christopher. Letter to the Sovereigns on the First Voyage. 15 Feb. 1493 - 4 Mar. 1493.

Current Citation

Columbas, Christopher. "Letter to various persons describing the results of his first voyage and written on the return journey." The Four Voyages, translated by J. M. Cohen. Penguin Classics, 1992.

How beautiful is youth,
that is always slipping away!
Whoever wants to be happy, let him be so:
of tomorrow there's no knowing.

Lorenzo de Medici

More information about this quote

Topic

Youth Living in the moment

Author

Lorenzo de Medici

Source

Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne

Medium

Poem

Language

Italian

Time

1490 1490s 15th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Medici, Lorenzo. Il trionfo di Bacco e Arianna [The Triumph of Bacchus and Arianna]. c. 1490.

The thread on which the different good qualities of human beings are strung as pearls, is the fear of God. When the fastenings of this fear are unloosed, the pearls roll in all directions, and are lost one by one.

Orchot Tzaddikim

More information about this quote

Topic

Fear of God

Source

Orchot Tzaddikim

Genre

Religious literature

Language

Hebrew

Time

1499 1490s 15th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Orchot Tzaddikim. 15th century, introduction, no. 19.

Current Citation

Orchos Tzaddikim: A Treasure for Life Commentary by Rabbi Avrohom G. Yachnes. Feldheim Publishers, 2016, introduction.