Page 178 - Lanzarotto Malocello from Italy to the Canary Islands

178

What do we actually know about

Lanzarotto Malocello?

Italian historiographical sources

The sources regarding this individual are very few and far between.
Some information belongs to the domain of common knowledge:
- there is a Via Lanzarotto Malocello in Varazze, just like in Genoa-Pegli
and, to our knowledge, a road was dedicated to the sailor in Lecce, too.
th
- This year, on the occasion of the 7 centenary of the discovery of Lan-
zarote and the Canary Islands, the city of Rome granted the request of
the Promoting Committee for the celebrations, by dedicating a public
park to “Giardino Lanzarotto Malocello, navigatore del XIV secolo”
th
(Park of Lanzarotto Malocello, 14 century sailor).
- The coat of arms of Celle is the owl, the coat of arms of the Malocello
family;
- There is the Malocello Gallery in Genoa Banchi, beautifully built with
arches;
- in the topography of Genoa in the Middle Ages, there was a “Malogel-
lorum” district, probably because the family described above or at least
one of the main branches had settled there;
There is a second series of information which should instead be consid-
ered somewhat lacking in proof.
For example, in his book Dizionario Biografico dei Varazzini [Biograph-
ical Dictionary of the People of Varazze] (Varazze, 1991), the previously
quoted Benedetto Tino Delfino writes, word for word: “He is presented to
us (our Lanzarotto) as wealthy, a courageous sailor, passionate about risky
ventures and new discoveries. Of excellent temperament”. However, this
author does not tell us who and which source provides us with this infor-
mation, because we only read “he is presented to us”; furthermore, there
are no documents indicating his riches (if any), just as there are no writings
by people who met him or who spent time with him, seeing as we are given
a description of his character and personality.
It is clear that he must have been quite a large and striking man to be
able to fit out his own ships (perhaps this is why Delfino describes him
as “wealthy”, without there being any documents relating to the matter),