In the 13th and 14th centuries, Genoese sailors sailed freely in all the seas known at that time, acquiring knowledge and trading with the coastal towns where they docked. Captaining their own ...
In the 13th and 14th centuries, Genoese sailors sailed freely in all the seas known at that time, acquiring knowledge and trading with the coastal towns where they docked. Captaining their own boats or commanding foreign ships, they taught the art of navigation to mixed crews, mostly made up of Iberians. They were undoubtedly the best navigators in the Western world, not only did they know every port and refuge in the Mediterranean. They left the current Strait of Gibraltar to flow into the Atlantic Ocean to go to Portugal, the Netherlands and England. They possessed very advanced nautical, astronomical and mathematical technical knowledge for that time. In addition, they had more advanced technical instruments and in greater quantity than those possessed by other populations. Which, together with their enormous experience, made them far superior sailors in many aspects compared to others. They also had relations with the Arabs, and there were Genoese merchants who lived in Africa and the East, and who sent important reports to the Republic of Genoa, which confirmed that the two oceans that bathed the opposite coasts of the African continent could be communicated. Genoese navigators did not give importance to the storms of the mysterious Atlantic Ocean, the equatorial heat or the sea monsters.
The Genoese were ultimately convinced that the circumnavigation of Africa was possible and that it did not present major problems to do so. Backed by their technical knowledge, perfected with the introduction of the compass and cartography for navigation. They considered the eventual obstacles secondary compared to the advantages they believed they would achieve in the company. Because the needs that pushed them to such a challenge were so strong that they convinced them to face them with a spirit of victory.
It was about saving the Republic of Genoa from economic ruin. Because they knew that the commercial routes used at that time were closing, and that sooner or later it would have become impossible to trade with the rich Asian markets that supplied Europe.
The Genoese had to find new ways to reach distant commercial centers, because the ones used up to now, by land, were closing and only the sea could guarantee the solution to the problem. They knew that the waters of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans met south of the black continent, and thanks to this it would be possible to reach the Indies and China by sailing around Africa.
The first to attempt the company were the Genoese brothers Vadino and Ugolino Vivaldi: they set sail from the port of Genoa in the spring of 1291 aboard two galleys with the idea of reaching the Indies and their navigation was followed along the coasts known to their citizens.
At one point there was no more news of them and nothing more was ever known. After a few years, in 1312, another brave Ligurian captain and shipowner, Lanzarotto Malocello, set sail from Genoa, it is believed to give aid to the brave Vivaldi brothers.
Who was Lanzarotto Malocello? Not everyone in Italy knows who this historical figure was, to be honest very few scholars have knowledge of the historical figure. Navigator who lived between the 13th and 14th centuries in the ancient seafaring Genoa and owner at that time of the seas.
It is no small matter that with Lanzarotto Malocello the modern history of the Canary Islands began.
His name appears for the first time on the map of Angelino Dulcert, dated 1339, where you can see the archipelago of the Canary Islands and attributes to the northernmost of them the name of Lanzarote, which will never be changed again ("Ínsula de Lanzarotus Marucellus"). The Malocello (or Maroxello) family was among the noblest in Genoa, distinguished by the public offices fulfilled and by the memorable companies they carried out.
This surname appears since 1099 in the Genoese chronicles, it is said that they are originally from the Val Polcevera where they owned important assets.
As a sample of the importance of this unique lineage we will tell some of the historical distinctions of the family of Lanzarotto:
In Celle Ligure, Varazze and Abissola they had many possessions, so many that they could declare themselves owners of a small feudal state. Between 1114 and 1240 he gave Genoa 11 consuls, Lucca and Bologna a mayor and two bishops.
A Jacapo was the Genoese admiral who lost the battle of the island of Giglio against the Pisans in 1241.
In the town of Prieto Malocello the doge of Genoa Simón Bocanegra was poisoned. It is said that Lancelotto Malocello was born in Varazze, where today there is an old street in the center of the city dedicated to his name.
Some members of his family went to serve France as captains of galleys around 1340 and over time became French, changing the name of Malocello to "Maloisel".
The Frenchman Charles De la Rocier, one of the greatest experts and scholars in the field, discovered that according to a document from the National Library of Paris, in 1659 one of the families of Norman nobles De Maloisel claimed the merit that an ancestor of them Lancelot Maloisel, was the first discoverer of the Canary Islands, assuring that he arrived in 1312 to an island of aborigines called TITERROYGATA, where he lived and reigned, having his residence in a castle, for more than 20 years, until the same aborigines with the help of the neighbors of the other islands threw him out.
Also the anonymous Spanish Franciscan Friar, author of the notable "book of knowledge" speaks of Malocello, stating that he was murdered by the islanders.
The landing of Lanzarotto Malocello in the Canary Islands, for a whole series of reasons and considerations, confirmed by scholars, can be dated to the year 1312.
He departed from Genoa in search of the brave Vivaldi brothers, arrived on the island to which he gave his name Lanzarota (today known as Lanzarote), located south of the smaller Alegranza. He took possession of it and, as a symbol of his dominion and in representation of the Republic of Genoa, built a Castle. The remains of this fortress were found years later by the French adventurers Juan de Betancourt and Gadifer de la Salle, upon their arrival in Lanzarte in 1402. Previously it was said that only in 1339 does the first map appear where you can read "Ínsula de Lanzaroto Marocellus", while later, in 1367 the map of the Pizigani brothers appears with the Canary Archipelago almost in its entirety, and unprecedentedly, on the island of Lanzarote the emblem of the Republic of Genoa is drawn, in addition to Genoese ships sailing south.
The name of Lanzarotto Malocello and the Genoese flag, spread on the ground, as a sign of proof of first discovery and dominion, from then on was repeated in all the cartographic documents that have remained, as indelible evidence of the Italian discovery.
It can be said, incidentally, that the insistence on reproducing the emblem of Genoa had to mean by the cartographers of the time, not only the priority of the discovery of Malocello, but also the possession or political protectorate of the Genoese State.
Since then, the Canary Islands throughout the 14th century were a continuous destination for ships from the Mediterranean and the Portuguese islands, in order to practice trade and the slave trade.
The journey of Lanzarotto Malocello and his epic company, completed with the discovery of the Canary Islands, then has the merit of having revealed the ominous myth of the Pillars of Hercules (current Strait of Gibraltar) that until then stood dark and threatening, to remind sailors of the insurmountable limit past which it was not possible to navigate, thus opening the way to travel and achieve other important geographical discoveries by other brave explorers.
It is a duty, then, to pay just tribute to this intrepid Italian navigator, still unknown to most.
And also to fill this void, and that two nations, Spain and Italy, prepare to celebrate in 2012 the seventh centenary of this very important historical-geographical event, which is considered by historians with the same importance as Marco Polo's trip to Asia, or Vasco de Gama's arrival in the Indies or Christopher Columbus's very discovery of America.
