Page 244 - Lanzarotto Malocello from Italy to the Canary Islands

244 from Italy to the Canary Islands

Causes of a discovery:

The hows and whys of the Atlantic navigations

e would like
to set some
order among
all the sources that have
talked about the discov-
ery of Lanzarote in rela-
tion to the great Atlantic
navigations, and it seems
only fair to follow a
chronological order.
First and foremost, the
first to link Lanzarote
to the great Atlantic
navigations was, in Ita-
ly, the aforementioned
Michel-Giuseppe Can-
ale, of whom we have
a rare text from 1846,
which is the typescript of
his report to the “Ottavo The port of Genoa in 1481.
congresso Italiano della Painting by C. Grassi. Pegli - Navy Museum.
Sezione d’archeologia e geografia” [Eighth Italian Congress of the Archae-
ology and Geography Section] entitled “Degli antichi navigatori e sco-
pritori genovesi”. [On the ancient Genoese navigators and discoverers].
Starting from page 4, already in 1846, Canale recalls how (after the Dark
Ages), the Genoese were the first to resume navigation in the Mediterrane-
an, reaching as far as Spain and Morocco. The Genoese - always according
to Canale - aspired to find a direct route to the Indies, from which they
obtained spices, not because of some abstruse idea, but for geopolitical
need (as we would say today). As a matter of fact, the Tartar invasion (as
well as the openly hostile behaviour of the Egyptian Muslims) had made
it impossible to trade with the Orient, a sea voyage being very dangerous,