Sangiuliano rewrites history: “Columbus wanted to circumnavigate the Earth based on Galileo’s theories.” Which however was born 70 years later

More than a gaffe or a sensational historical blunder, perhaps it is actually a heresy, that is, the topic he was dealing with at that moment. It is difficult to frame in another way the red pen error committed by the Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, during the dialogue with the Corriere della Sera journalist, Paolo Conti, at […]

More than one gaffe or a sensational historical blundermaybe it’s just aheresy, that is, the topic he was dealing with at that moment. It is difficult to frame the red pen error committed by the Minister of Culture in another way, Gennaro Sangiulianoduring the dialogue with the journalist of Corriere della Sera, Paolo Conti, in Taormina. On Sunday morning, the event “Taobuk 2024 – Italian identity, cultural identity” is underway, the two have been discussing for just over a quarter of an hour. At a certain point the minister starts talking about breaking the mold.

There is a case in point, that of Christopher Columbus and of his obstinacy in looking for a navigation route to the west to reach the Indies. Reconstructing the genesis of the Genoese navigator’s travels which involuntarily led him to discovery of Americathe minister starts from the request of Isabella of Castile to undergo the Holy Inquisition and he says, verbatim: “Columbus wanted to reach the Indies by circumnavigating the Earth on the basis of theories of Galileo Galilei”.

However, the physicist and astronomer was born in Pisa on 15 February 1564 and Columbus – who, if anything, was inspired by Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli – began his first voyage in August 1492 and died in 1506. In short, a huge mistake by the minister who shortly before had begun the passage of the speech by claiming: “Very often in theheresy there is the vision of the future”. After the historical blunder, he then compared Columbus’s desire to go beyond the “Pillars of Hercules” to the approach of Meloni government.

“In legislative regulatory activity when we start thinking about how reformwe always find i solons who tell us: ‘But this thing has never been done’ – he went so far as to say – But if in the history of humanity if there hadn’t been someone who broke the mold at a certain point, we wouldn’t have made so many conquests.” Applause from the room. No one must have noticed Sangiuliano’s last heresy afterwards Times Square moved from New York to London: are we really sure that Galileo Galilei was born after the death of Christopher Columbus?