Page 32 - Lanzarotto Malocello from Italy to the Canary Islands

32 from Italy to the Canary Islands

he Lega Navale Italiana (Italian Navy League) has always taken
on the task of popularising every aspect of sea culture all over the
word, especially in Italy and with a special focus on young people.
It is thus with extreme pleasure that we announce the creation of the
excellent work by Mr Alfonso Licata, dedicated to the Genoese sailor
Lanzarotto Malocello, whose discovery of the Canary Islands is celebrating
its 700 anniversary in this year 2012.
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The book, which is the scholarly result of laborious, patient and
enthusiastic historiographic research, has the noble aim of putting into
order existing historical information on a sailor who was important but
who is not adequately remembered.
The author highlights this void and enables Lanzarotto Malocello to
stand out as a great figure in the history of navigation.
In sharing this important initiative, the Italian Navy League joins in
with the due and well deserved celebration of a sailing event which now,
thanks to this book, will become of interest again and will incite further
research on both Malocello and the sailing systems which enabled him to
undertake his expedition.
As president of the Italian Navy League, I wish to thank Mr Alfonso
Licata profusely for his studies which are sealed in this praiseworthy book.
I would like to encourage him to continue with his studies, because they
honour both the past and the present of a people of sailors like the Italians.
Admiral Franco Paoli
National President of the Italian Navy League – Public body under the
High Patronage of the President of the Republic,
Association of Environmental Protection and Social Promotion