THE CATALOGUE OF SHIPWRECKED BOOKS is the fascinating history of Christopher Columbus’s illegitimate son, guardian of his father’s flame, courtier, and bibliophile, whose travels took him to the heart of 16th-century Europe. This is the scarcely believable and wholly true story of the bastard son Hernando, who sought to equal and surpass his father's achievements by creating a universal library. His father sailed across the ocean to explore the known boundaries of the world for the glory of God, Spain and himself. Hernando sought instead to harness the vast powers of the new printing presses to assemble the world’s knowledge in one place, his library in Seville.
THIS COPY (shown below) was hand signed on a bookplate at the author's office in England. It is a new, unread copy opened only for signing and comes with a certificate authenticating the signature. Published in March, 2019 by Scribner, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
EDWARD WILSON-LEE (shown below from our Wall of Fame) has written the first major modern biography of Hernando and the first of any kind available in English. He was raised in Kenya by conservationist parents, studied English at University College London, and completed a doctorate at Oxford and Cambridge. Over the past few years he has spent extended periods in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, and South Sudan. He now lives in Cambridge with his wife and son, and teaches Shakespeare at Sidney Sussex College. Thank you Edward Wilson-Lee for signing our books.
