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GERALDINI, Alejandro, R. C. bishop of Santo
Domingo, born in Amelia, Italy, in 1455; died in Santo Domingo in 1525. He
became a soldier in early life and went with his brother to Spain, where he
served against the Portuguese in 1475-'6. He afterward entered the service of
the Church, and was entrusted with the education of the princesses of the royal
family.
While at court he rendered an important service to
Columbus, who had come to present to the sovereigns of Castile and Aragon his
plan for discovering a new world. Geraldini says:
They were discussing this
project in a council composed of men of the most eminent rank. Opinions were
divided, because several Spanish prelates treated the view of Columbus as
manifest heresy; they cited the authority of Nicolas de Lyra, who represents the
terrestrial globe as not containing any lands on the sides, neither beneath nor
beyond the Canaries: and that of St. Augustine, who affirms that there are no
antipodes.
I chanced to be standing then
behind Cardinal de Mendoza, a man equally remarkable for his accomplishments and
his learning. I represented to him that Nicolas de Lyra had been a very able
theologian, and St. Augustine, a doctor of the Church illustrious for his
doctrine and sanctity, but that both had shown themselves bad geographers, for
the Portuguese had reached a point on the other hemisphere where they had lost
sight of the polar star and had discovered another at the opposite pole, that
they had found all the countries under the torrid zone well populated.
This argument produced its effect, and Columbus was
heard. Geraldini was employed in diplomatic services in nearly all the courts of
Europe, and his zeal in the service of the state was rewarded first with the
bishopric of Volterra and Monte Corvino, and finally with that, of Santo
Domingo, which he was the first, to hold. He embarked in 1520 at Seville to take
possession of his see. He founded schools and seminaries in the island, and did
everything in his power for its spiritual and temporal welfare.
Geraldini wrote a great many works on theology,
collections of letters, exhortations addressed to Christian princes against the
Turks, poetry, sacred and profane, a life of Catharine of Aragon in hexameter
verse, treatises on politics and education, and finally an account of his voyage
to the Antilles, which appeared under the title "Itinerarium ad regiones sub
equinoctiali plaga constitutas Alexandri Geraldini Amerini, episcopi civitatis
S. Dominici apud Indos occidentales" (Rome, 1631). This work gives a detailed
narrative of the voyage of Geraldini along the coast of Africa to the mouth of
the Senegal and thence to Santo Domingo. The editor adds a sketch of the life of
the author and a list of his works, printed and in manuscript. The best part of
the work is the description of Santo Domingo, the condition of which at the time
it was written being vividly set forth. We learn from it that already the native
race had been almost entirely exterminated.
In one of the letters annexed to his relation Geraldini
announces that he is sending, among other rarities, two turkeys. This letter was
written in 1523, and is consequently prior to the work of Oviedo, who had been
regarded as the first author who mentioned these fowls. Geraldini wrote a
curious treatise entitled " De viris Geraldinis qui in obsequio apostolicae
Sedis per varia tempera insudarunt," which Alacci read in manuscript and speaks
of in his "Apes urbanae."
Edited Appletons Encyclopedia, by John Looby Copyright © 2001 StanKlos.comTM
GERALDINI, Alejandro, R. C. bishop of Santo Domingo, born in Amelia, Italy, in 1455" died in Santo Domingo in 1525. He became a soldier in early life and went with his brother to Spain, where he served against the Portuguese in 1475-'6. He afterward entered the Church, and was entrusted with the education of the princesses of the royal family. While at court he rendered an important service to Columbus, who had come to present to the sovereigns of Castile and Aragon his plan for discovering a new world. Geraldini says: "They were discussing this project in a council composed of men of the most eminent rank. Opinions were divided, because several Spanish prelates treated the view of Columbus as manifest heresy; they cited the authority of Nicolas de Lyra, who represents the terrestrial globe as not containing any lands on the sides, neither beneath nor beyond the Canaries: and that of St. Augustine, who affirms that there are no antipodes. I chanced to be standing then behind Cardinal de Mendoza, a man equally remarkable for his accomplishments and his learning. I represented to him that Nicolas de Lyra had been a very able theologian, and St. Augustine, a doctor of the Church illustrious for his doctrine and sanctity, but that both had shown themselves bad geographers, for the Portuguese had reached a point on the other hemisphere where they had lost sight of the polar star and had discovered another at the opposite pole, that they had found all the countries under the torrid zone well populated." This argument produced its effect, and Columbus was heard. Geraldini was employed in diplomatic services in nearly all the courts of Europe, and his zeal in the service of the state was rewarded first with the bishopric of Volterra and Monte Corvino, and finally with that, of Santo Domingo, which he was the first, to hold. He embarked in 1520 at Seville to take possession of his see. He founded schools and seminaries in the island, and did everything in his power for its spiritual and temporal welfare. Geraldini wrote a great many works on theology, collections of letters, exhortations addressed to Christian princes against the Turks, poetry, sacred and profane, a life of Catharine of Aragon in hexameter verse, treatises on politics and education, and finally an account of his voyage to the Antilles, which appeared under the title "Itinerarium ad regiones sub equinoctiali plaga constitutas Alexandri Geraldini Amerini, episcopi civitatis S. Dominici apud Indos occidentales" (Rome, 1631). This work gives a detailed narrative of the voyage of Geraldini along the coast of Africa to the mouth of the Senegal and thence to Santo Domingo. The editor adds a sketch of the life of the author and a list of his works, printed and in manuscript. The best part of the work is the description of Santo Domingo, the condition of which at the time it was written being vividly set forth. We learn from it that already the native race had been almost entirely exterminated. In one of the letters annexed to his relation Geraldini announces that he is sending, among other rarities, two turkeys. This letter was written in 1523, and is consequently prior to the work of Oviedo, who had been regarded as the first author who mentioned these fowls. Geraldini wrote a curious treatise entitled " De viris Geraldinis qui in obsequio apostolicae Sedis per varia tempera insudarunt," which Alacci read in manu-script and speaks of in his "Apes urbanae."
