Columbus, Money Memory

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This course is about business, innovation, art, culture, and the stories that shape how the past is remembered. Said more succinctly, this course is about power. It is also about three Italians – the men and the myths that have grown up around them. It is no coincidence that three of the men who are widely credited as the first Europeans to encounter America were all born near the Ligurian Sea. Cristoforo Columbo (Christopher Columbus) and his contemporary, Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot), are believed to be from Genoa, just 245 km or a three-hour drive from Florence. Christopher Columbus claimed the southern part of the Americas for Spain; Cabot claimed the northern regions for England. Amerigo Vespucci, for whom “America” is named, was born in Florence. These Italian entrepreneurs were part of a much bigger system of power that animated the Age of Exploration. By beginning our work with Christopher Columbus and Europe in the 15th century, then broadening our purview, we will begin to see how the money that fueled art, maritime commerce, technological development, sovereignty, and science was intricately intertwined with the business of “discovery.” The destabilization of class structures and new innovations in banking, currency, accounting, insurance, shipbuilding, navigation, and weaponry, opened doors to the sea and allowed money and media to flow in new directions. Contextualizing Columbus and his contemporaries within these historical power-dynamics provides a platform for re-imagining these men and re-imagining the region around the Ligurian Sea in centuries past. It is also a platform for re-examining the stories told in culture today about Columbus and the Age of Exploration, allowing students to go beyond the contemporary Columbus versus Indigenous People binary that dominates discourse in the United States. By standing in Italy, physically and intellectually, students will have the opportunity to wrestle with new questions about Columbus, Italian entrepreneurship, and the connections between art and money, innovation, technology, and the sea. They may find themselves surprised at what they learn by asking, who is Columbus to Italians? How is Cabot remembered? Is Vespucci a big deal? Do their names don street signs and names of cities and college campuses and record companies in Italy like they do in the United States? Do children do skits in grade school to commemorate their accomplishments? Are Italians actively debating their place in cultural memory and holidays right now? What roles do money and power play in determining what gets remembered in public art and culture? Field trips and experiential learning will complement course readings. Locally, there are numerous potential spots to visit as a class, or for students to visit on their own, depending on timing. For example, we may visit the Palazzo Coppini which has an eclectic collection of items from around the world. This will be an opportunity to talk about Cabinets of Curiosity, the first museums, and how and why the items brought back from the Americas created interest, changed long-held views about God and nature, and advanced science. We may visit the Medici Palace as a forum for discussing banking in Florence and the role of this powerful family in the Age of Exploration. We may go to the Amerigo Vespucci statue outside the Uffizi to discuss how he is remembered and who funded 6 this public art. If time and resources are available, we may take a trip to Genoa to contemplate ways that Columbus and Cabot are remembered, opening up an opportunity to discuss the power that their names and their stories play in the United States relative to what we experience in Genoa. While we will walk back in time to earlier centuries, this is not a history class. It is an opportunity to zoom out and reframe narratives of Italian explorers. This will allow students to appreciate that business and culture are not separate enterprises; the dynamic duo of money and art wielded power centuries ago just as it does today.