Add to Italy's favorable geographical position the fact that her people
were unusually quick of intellect, and were gifted with great
imagination, and you will see how natural it was that the Renaissance
should have started there. Also, you will see why the great discoverer
was a very natural product of Italy and its Renaissance.
* * * * *
Genoa, like other large Italian cities, was teeming with this new spirit
of investigation and adventure when Cristoforo Colombo (in his native
land his name was pronounced Cristof'oro Colom'bo) was born there or
first came there to live. Long before, Genoa had taken an active part in
the Crusades, and every Genoese child knew its story. It had carried on
victorious wars with other Italian seaports. It had an enormous
commerce. It had grown rich, it was so full of marble palaces and
churches, and it had such a glorious history, that its own people loved
to call it _Genova la Superba_ (Superb Genoa).
Although Cristoforo's family were humble people of little or no
education, the lad must have had, or made, many opportunities for
acquiring knowledge. Probably he _made_ them; for, as a boy in
those days generally followed his father's trade, Cristoforo must have
spent a good deal of time in "combing" wool; that is, in making the
tangled raw wool ready for weaving.
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