Susanna Fontanarossa

Susanna Fontanarossa
Born1435
Monticellu, Republic of Genoa
Died1489 (aged 53–54)
SpouseDomenico Colombo
Children
ParentGiacometti Fontanarossa (father)
Plaque dedicated to Susanna Fontanarossa

Susanna Fontanarossa (1435–1489) was the mother of navigator and explorer Christopher Columbus.

Biography

Susanna was born in the hillside village of Monticellu, on the then Genoese island of Corsica, to a wealthy Catholic family. She was the daughter of Giacomo (Giacometti) Fontanarossa.[1] Her family owned substantial real estate in Quezzi, a little village in the low-lying valley of Bisagno (part of the present-day city of Genoa).[2] She married Domenico Colombo in 1455[3] and bore him 5 children: Cristoforo, Bartolomeo, Giovanni, Giacomo, and a daughter named Bianchinetta.

Commemorative marble plaque to Suzanna Fontanarossa in the village of Fontanarossa. The inscription reads In questo borgo nacque Susanna Fontanarossa, madre di Cristoforo Colombo ("Susanna Fontanarossa, the mother of Christopher Columbus, was born in this village"). Erected 1958.

A notarised document of sale in the Genoa state archive contains the Latinate text Sozana, (quondam) de Jacobi de Fontana Rubea, uxor Dominici de Columbo de Ianua ac Christophorus et Pelegrinus filii eorum, which can be translated as "Susanna was (the daughter) of Giacomo from Fontanarossa of the Bisagno, wife of Domenico Columbus from Genoa, their sons are Cristoforo and Pellegrino."[4] The Val Bisagno [it] was a significant inland district in the ancient Republic of Genoa including the valley of the Bisagno. Thus she was described as 'Susanna from Fontanarossa' within the Val Bisagno, rather than Suzanna Fontarossa.

Today the hilltop village of Fontanarossa frazione of Gorreto, Genoa, Liguria, in the Val Trebbia (31 km inland from Genoa, at 44°35′10.66″N 9°15′18.80″E / 44.5862944°N 9.2552222°E / 44.5862944; 9.2552222) and only 6 km beyond the watershed of the river Bisagno, has a marble stone with the inscription In questo borgo nacque Susanna Fontanarossa, madre di Cristoforo Colombo ("Susanna Fontanarossa, the mother of Christopher Columbus, was born in this village").

Little is known about her after 1484. She died before her husband, Domenico.[5]

References

  1. ^ Florentino, N.; Maney, Regina (1893). The wife of Columbus. Рипол Классик. p. 49. ISBN 978-5-88278-802-4.
  2. ^ Beding, Silvio A. (2016-02-08). The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia. Springer. p. 283. ISBN 9781349125739.
  3. ^ Fiske, John (1895). The Discovery of America, with Some Account of Ancient America and the Spanish Conquest. Houghton, Mifflin Company. p. 347. Before 1445 [sic], but how many years before is not known, Domenico married susanna Fontanarossa, who belonged to a family of weavers, probably of Quezzi, four miles northeast of Genoa.
  4. ^ Harrisse, Henry (1888). Christopher Columbus and the Bank of Saint George (Ufficio Di San Giorgio in Genoa): Two Letters Addressed to Samuel L. M. Barlow, Esquire. New York. p. 78.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. ^ Thatcher, John Boyd (1903). Christopher Columbus, His Life, His Work, His Remains. Productivity Press. p. 258. ISBN 978-0-527-89350-7.
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