Columbus Was Not Italian—New Research Uncovers 500-Year-Old Cover-Up
COLUMBUS was a Royal Prince born in Madeira
CHICAGO, September 28, 2025 — Everything you thought you knew about Christopher Columbus is wrong. In a real-life historical detective story, Dr. Manuel Rosa, PhD in Insular and Atlantic History and the world’s leading expert on Columbus’s life, has uncovered evidence proving that Columbus was not an Italian weaver, but a Portuguese-born prince of Polish-Lithuanian royal blood.
This history changing evidence required 35 years of research in European archives, reviewing manuscripts, genealogical records, Spanish portraits, and DNA studies, Dr. Rosa has solved a 500-year-old mystery. Archival Spanish documents show that “Columbus” was not his real name. Born Segismundo Henriques in 1456 on Madeira, the explorer’s father was King Władysław III of Poland. A 1424 letter from Pope Martin V (Otto Colonna) confirms the connections to the Colonna family, and Segismundo adopted the surname Colón in Spain to conceal his royal lineage.
"Courts, the Vatican, and other authorities worked over the centuries to suppress this evidence," said Dr. Rosa. "This 500-year-old lie has misled classrooms worldwide. History books will be rewritten."
In his PhD dissertation,Columbus versus Colón, Dr. Rosa exposes forged documents, chronicler inaccuracies, printing errors, fraud, and political cover-ups that allowed Genoa to claim Colón was Columbus their own simple weaver. These new discoveries rewrite Columbus’s biography and transform our understanding of the 1492 voyage’s geopolitical significance.
“The reader will not find an exercise of guesses here, or rejection of sources that do not fit, nor any unfounded deductions,” — Professor João Paulo Oliveira e Costa
Public Lecture Series Dr. Rosa is invited to present his findings in a series of free Chicago lectures.
October 4, 2:00 PM – Chicago Lithuanian Center,5620 S. Claremont Ave, Chicago, IL Saturday, October 4, at 3:00 p.m.
October 5, 12:00 PM – Lithuanian World Center, Lithuanian World Center,
14911 127th Street, Lemont, IL
Scholars, journalists, and the public are invited to attend and participate in Q&A sessions.
Dr. Rosa asserts that the new evidence is so compelling the public may no longer need DNA studies to settle the centuries-old debate over Columbus’s true identity.
Media Contact: Bruno Sancci Email: brunosancci@gmail.com Phone: +54 280 459-2884 | +54 9 280 429-8898 Radio Chubut - LU20 Av. Hipólito Yrigoyen 1735, Ciudad De Trelew, Chubut, Patagonia, Argentina, 9100 Web: radiochubut.com
Starożytne manuskrypty ujawniają, że król Władysław III przeżył bitwę pod Warną
Tajemnica „znikniętego polskiego króla” pogłębia się wraz z pojawieniem się nowych wskazówek
(GStA PK, XX, HA, OBA, Nr. 11139)
TRELEW, September 21, 2025 —Nowe, przełomowe dowody podważają długo utrzymywane założenia dotyczące historii Europy. Król Władysław III Polski i Węgier, który prawdopodobnie zginął w 1444 roku w bitwie pod Warną przeciwko Imperium Osmańskiemu, mógł wcale nie zginąć na tym polu bitwy. Wygląda na to, że przeżył i dożył swoich dni na wygnaniu pod fałszywym nazwiskiem.
Odkrycie to wynika z najnowszej analizy rzadkich rękopisów z XV wieku przechowywanych w Budapeszcie i w Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz w Niemczech. Teksty te sugerują zaskakującą możliwość. Tak zwany „król-wojownik” wymknął się z chaosu Warny i nadal kształtował wydarzenia z ukrycia. Jego wpływ był odczuwalny długo po tym, jak historia ogłosiła jego śmierć.
„Fakty te zmuszają nas do ponownego przemyślenia jednego z najbardziej dramatycznych momentów w historii Europy Środkowej” – powiedział Manuel Rosa, doktor historii wysp i Atlantyku (XV–XX wiek) z Uniwersytetu Azorskiego. „Przez wieki krążyły pogłoski o tym, że Władysław przeżył. Dzisiaj po raz pierwszy przedstawiamy dokumenty z czterech różnych europejskich archiwów, które potwierdzają prawdziwość tych plotek”.
Odkrycia te ponownie budzą od dawna nurtujące pytania dotyczące sukcesji dynastycznej, niepewnych sojuszy i tajemniczej postaci znanej na Maderze jako „Henryk Niemiec” – postaci, którą wielu podejrzewa obecnie o bycie przebranym Władysławem III. Historia staje się jeszcze bardziej prowokacyjna dzięki kontrowersyjnym nowym materiałom sugerującym, że wygnany król mógł być nikim innym jak ojcem Krzysztofa Kolumba.
Wykład odbędzie się 4 października 2025 r. o godz. 10:00 w Teatrze Chopina w Chicago (USA) eksperci zaproszą do akademickiej analizy i otwartej debaty.
Historycy i kronikarze od wieków są zafascynowani tajemnicą losów młodego króla Władysława. Nowe dowody wskazują na dwa konkretne listy króla Aragonii z lat 1451–52, dotyczące portugalskiego sługi Władysława, Pedro Barreiro. Stanowią one najsilniejszy jak dotąd dowód na to, że jego historia nie zakończyła się w Warnie, ale rozpoczęła nowy, ukryty rozdział poza nią.
Kontakt dla mediów: Bruno Sancci E-mail: brunosancci@gmail.com Telefon: +54 280 459-2884 | +54 9 280 429-8898 Radio Chubut - LU20 Av. Hipólito Yrigoyen 1735, Ciudad De Trelew, Chubut, Patagonia, Argentyna, 9100
First, let me thank you for standing up for our history and the western heroes who helped to shape the modern world. Your statement today about Christopher Columbus inspired me to reach out — because after thirty-four years of meticulous research, I have published groundbreaking evidence that corrects the story we have all been taught.
Contrary to the repeated myth, Columbus was not an Italian commoner. He was a nobleman of royal Portuguese/Polish blood, a Knight Templar from of the Order of Christ, and an agent working on Portugal’s grand global strategy of discovery — not the impoverished dreamer we’ve been led to believe.
I have dedicated my life to uncovering truth through thousands of pages of archived documents, letters, and royal decrees across Europe. My findings, detailed in several books, reveal that Columbus was highly educated, a scientist operating at the highest levels of the 15th-century courts — something far removed from the simplistic image that modern historians and political activists have tried to exploit or erase.
Given your dedication to preserving American heritage and honoring the truth, I humbly offer to share my research with you and your team. I have enclosed copies of my English books. It is a story that strengthens the greatness of Columbus’s achievements and the monumental journey that ultimately led to the creation of our exceptional nation.
I hope it serves as a powerful resource in restoring historical accuracy and inspiring Americans to again take pride in our founding legacy.
Thank you for your leadership and your commitment to keeping the truth of history alive.
Fraud and Forgeries Debunk the Italian Columbus History as False
The Italian Columbus has been debunked and dethroned!
This new book, COLUMBUS versus COLÓN: The weaver from Italy was not the navigator from Spain, is the first English edition of a doctoral dissertation proving once and for all that the 500 year history of Christopher Columbus was false.
The reader will not find an exercise of guesses here, or rejection of the sources that do not fit, nor any unfounded deductions. Doctor Manuel Rosa demonstrated, through a systematic analysis of all the documentation, that Don Cristóbal Colón was not born in a family of Genoese weavers.
— Professor João Paulo Oliveira e Costa
A Falsified Story
Uncovering the truth about Christopher Columbus, the putative discoverer of the Americas, is more than just an esoteric quest for knowledge of the 15th century. Dr. Rosa’s research reveals how the explorer was born a Portuguese nobleman in 1455, not an Italian weaver born in 1451. Forged documents led historians astray for centuries.
Christopher Columbus’ history was a devious labyrinth falsified by many different actors working in different centuries and for different reasons. Documents about some Cristoforo Colombo weaver from Genoa, include many forgeries, as Ulloa, Altolaguirre, Strahan and others declared.
The Contemporary Review (1937) stated that “the forgery of documents referring to Columbus has not stopped,being more intensified after his death.” Consuelo Varela described forged documents stating “the great celebration of the 400th Anniversary brought out forgers that were better experts.” Guadalupe Chocano mentions the doubts and contradictions inherent in the Genoese documents. Ezquerra Abadía observed that many Genoese documents were not authentic, saying that “with a certain abundance have appeared in the current century.” The Raccolta Colombiana was a government propaganda incentive that served the purpose of grafting a Genoese Colombo into this story, even if by fraud. It was not a search for the truth. Armando Cortesão wrote that many Genoese documents “were later discovered to be forgeries” and was astonished that such a keystone document as the Assereto had never been found in the Genoese archives until the Genoese needed to prove 1451 as the year of their Colombo’s birth. The Assereto Document is the most egregious fraud committed against academics and the historical truth in the last century. At any time, the Italian lobby could have opted for seeking truth and let the world know about their lack of documents. Instead, they chose to bluff the world with misleading documents and their manipulations succeeded in deceiving thousands of academics for over 100 years. By deceiving countless biographers and investigators, this fraud was a crime against the Humanities. We are deceived no more! What COLOMBO versus COLÓNpresents are the solid facts on which to anchor a new biography and a new and more accurate story.
33 Years of Research
Since 1991, Dr. Manuel Rosa, PhD in Insular and Atlantic History (XV-XX Centuries), has visited archives and museums looking for the truth and published a dozen revolutionary history books in several countries, including the award-winning COLUMBUS: The Untold Story (USA 2016). This publication is admired as perhaps the best and most authoritative work ever written about the discoverer of America. It received a 5-star review from Indie Reader, won an Independent Press Award in the category of Biography: Historical, won the 2018 New York City Big Book Award and was named the Best World History Book of 2016 in the Huffington Post.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and Dr. Manuel Rosa did an unbelievable job as an investigative detective matching up documents from different countries to show how the world had accepted a history as being written in stone when it was actually written on shifting sands. The amount of new information in Columbus versus Colón is amazing for anyone who likes true conspiracy and mystery detective novels, except this one turns out to be a true story.
COLUMBUS versus COLÓN: The weaver from Italy was not the navigator from Spain, deals meticulously over Columbus’s name and country of origin. I’ll say the book is painstaking in trying to determine Cristoforo’s birth and lineage through an interesting theory on why Columbus’s stuck to his discovery of ‘India.’
A fantastic book. The author methodically checks off the lies, the misinformation, the forgeries, and focuses on the aspects of Don Cristóbal Colón’s life the historians have ignored or tried to explain away with ridiculous assertions.
A doctoral dissertation that is well researched, complete with details and sources. A stunning array of artifacts and data connecting the dots to a medieval conspiracy, so massive, so bold, so risky, and so well executed, that it has continued to fool the world for 500 years.
This printed edition deviates slightly from the preceding version by the addition of these last paragraphs of the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS in which the author sees as his prerogative to place the blame for the prevailing falsified history clearly at the feet of the Italian academics from the late 1800s and early 1900s and their supporting government entities. All of them colluded to provide false and misleading documents to the world in the hopes that the doubts surrounding theirGenoese Columbus weaver could be erased.
At any time, the Italian lobby could have opted for seeking truth and let the world know about their lack of documents. Instead, they opted to bluff the world with misleading publications and their manipulations succeeded in deceiving thousands of academics for over 100 years.
We are deceived no more!
On June 3, 2024, the Chief of Staff of the Portuguese Navy, Admiral Henrique Eduardo Passaláqua de Gouveia e Melo, introduced our book Columbus in the Crosswinds. The Admiral stated in its Introduction that, “this small book serves only as a gateway to discover” the big historical lie surrounding the person we commonly call Columbus.
Columbus in the Crosswinds was written at Admiral Gouveia e Melo’s request to give readers a bird’s eye view of the research that was presented in our 600-page book, Portugal e o Segredo de Colombo (Lisbon, 2019).
The Admiral’s support is one of the greatest honors our work could garner and our appreciation is immeasurable.
The false Christopher Columbus history is a problem so wide-ranging that it has taken 33 years of research to get to the clarity we have reached in this Columbus versus Colón dissertation. The good news is that now there is no going back.
FRAUDULENT STORY
. . . Academic Support
On June 17, 2024, nearly 20 years after our first lecture there, we presented our latest evidence at the Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa with the lecture Colombo Versus Colón: A Genoese Tale along with Professor João Paulo Oliveira e Costa. Professor Oliveira e Costa was chosen the advisor for our doctoral dissertation because he is one of the top historians in Portugal. Over the decades he had made certain statements in his books doubting the official Christopher Columbus story.
It just didn’t make sense to him.
However, on June17, Professor Oliveira e Costa’s position regarding who the 1492 explorer was not can’t be made any clearer, as we quote here:
This was the discussion I had with Manuel Rosa, as his doctoral advisor. I believe that his doctoral dissertation is a milestone in the Portuguese historiography, but it is a limited milestone. The milestone was only in what we can say with the certainty of historians. Yes, it is what we can prove through the scientific method. History is a science, it is a human science, but it is a science with a scientific method. And, therefore, everything that I can affirm without the scientific method contradicting me…
And therefore, my position is that there is a fact that seems to me to be indisputable. What is indisputable is that Cristóbal Colón was not a Genoese weaver. That is impossible. There is no chance.
No matter how many other historians tell me otherwise, it is impossible (for him to have been a Genoese weaver).
It is impossible because of one reason, above all others…, the big argument against the Genoese weaver has always centered on Filipa Moniz (his wife). The fact that Filipa Moniz was noble is already sufficient evidence of his noble birth.
Whoever he was, the explorer was a person noble enough to be named Viceroy before doing anything and then his grandson is named Duke… Duke is the top of the nobility hierarchy, one step below the crown.
And therefore, just to reiterate what Manuel Rosa has presented, Cristóbal Colón, was certainly born in Portugal, he wrote in Portuguese. He was certainly a nobleman, there is no other explanation! He is appointed Viceroy by the Queen of Castile, who knew who he was. He was also revered here in Portugal. He married here an individual of significant relevance in the social context of the second half of the 15th century.
Colón had to inevitably be a nobleman to be in this marriage.
There is one other thing, and that is for me, the key fact, it will be the title of my book that I hope to publish next year called Colón the Viceroy. And Viceroy is the key argument for me, and I don’t know how people pretend that this fact doesn’t exist.
Cristóbal Colón before setting sail, before having done anything of any relevance in any way to make himself significant. A social act, a sword fight, killing a random guy in a battle. Something like that. When he set sail, before he is sent… the promised reward he got was not the promise that King D. Afonso V had made to all those who were going to venture out into the Atlantic, which was to be Lords of the islands they discovered. Not even in a more centralizing way as King D. João II did, no longer promising the lordship as his father did, he promised only the captaincy of the discovered islands. The Queen of Spain does not promise a title of Lordship or a title of Captain. She promised him the title of Viceroy!
It is a matter of seeing who was made Viceroy in the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Has any weaver ever been captain of anything, let alone Viceroy? And therefore, we cannot create history by going against the facts of history.
We are grateful for Oliveira e Costa’s valued support, which culminates our three decades of working to convince academia that the Italian story about a Genoese weaver Christopher Columbus was a fraudulent story.
As it now seems, the Christopher Columbus history was falsified by many different actors working in different centuries and for different reasons. We will not go into all those details in this work. What we present in COLUMBUS versus COLÓN: The weaver from Italy was not the navigator from Spain, are the solid facts on which to anchor a new biography and a new and more accurate story.
May this work speak for itself and let the story of Don Cristóbal Colón, who was never called Christopher Columbus, begin to be rewritten with more truth and less invention. If so, then all the challenges we have been put through in these last thirty-three years were worth it, and the old saying “truth will rise above falsehood as oil above water” (Cervantes) will be affirmed, even after 500 years of being covered by censorship, fabrications, deviations, and lies.
The Italian Christopher Columbus has been debunked and dethroned in this new doctoral dissertation COLUMBUS versus COLÓN: The weaver from Italy was not the navigator from Spain!
First Time in Print
Dr. Rosa is 100% financed by himself and by donations to ACC. Please make your donation in order to keep research and lectures ongoing.
COLUMBUS in the Crosswind is an abridgment of COLUMBUS the Untold Story at the request of the Admiral of the Portuguese Navy Fleet, Henrique Gouveia e Melo who plans to gift copies of the book to his counterparts during foreign travel.
I am honored to have Gouveia e Melo's support in the promoting of the historical truth. The book release was held at the Navy Museum in Lisbon on June 3, 2024 and is only available for sale at the Museum store in Lisbon.
I am currently seeking a US publisher for this shorter version which is perfect for readers who are not interested in all the documents and details of this 500-year-old labyrinth.
Columbus history is changing. Christopher Columbus is no longer Italian. In fact his name was never even Columbus. Eventually all history books will be changed to present the corrected story, until then, your only source for the explanation of the truth and the explanation of the lie is COLUMBUS the Untold Story which can be purchased here: Columbus-Book.com
Here is the report from the meeting/lecture by Professor Manuel Rosa:
In the editorial office of Nowy Dziennik on October 9, 2015.
My personal report:
I went to this lecture with great reservation about the whole topic. I didn't know Professor Rosa before and I heard about his discovery from others and I treated this news with a pinch of salt. However, I decided not to believe it and listen to it myself.
What I heard and saw in his over an hour long presentation left me in a kind of shock and embarrassment! Why?
I realized that Manuel Rosa is a lonely "rider", a "Don Quijote", who for almost 20 years has been trying to turn the history of the greatest geographical discovery of all time upside down with his very well-documented discovery. Everywhere, however, he encounters a wall of ignorance and reluctance.
Why is it like that?
I think it's because his discovery brings to light not only the truth about that the real Columbus was the son of a Polish king, but that information about this was covered up for centuries by the royal courts of Western Europe! And I think this is the main reason for this ignorance.
I am not able to describe the entire meeting in detail here, but what I heard and saw as well as reading his book; COLUMB The Unknown Story completely convinces me. I am convinced NOT only as a Pole who would be happy with the news that Columbus was a Pole, but as a discoverer, a Fellow of the prestigious The Explores Club, a researcher of the history of geographical discoveries and a logical person for whom documented discoveries become true. And that is exactly the case here.
And that is why I will support Professor Manuel Rosa with all my authority in his pursuit of spreading the truth about who the discoverer of America really was.
I also appeal to all of you, my dear compatriots, to spread the discovery of Prof. Rosa in every way available to you, through social media, personal contacts, especially in the American environment or among the inhabitants of the country of your residence.
Now that we know so much about the research/discoveries of Prof. Rosa, we cannot leave him alone in the continued fight for the truth to triumph. It will probably be a long road, but that's what happens with unwanted truth!
I invite you to listen to the conversation with Professor Manuel Rosa, which can be found at this link, from which you will learn how we can all help, together and individually.
I also invite you to read the article published in Nowy Dziennik about Manuel Rosa's research.
We have known this face for over 500 years, but it is not the real Christopher Columbus!
ACCORDING TO MANUEL ROSA, EVERYTHING INDICATES THAT COLUMBUS WAS THE SON OF A PORTUGUESE NOBLE LADY AND THE MYSTERIOUS HENRIQUE ALEMAO. SUCH NAME AND SURNAME WAS USED, ACCORDING TO THE RESEARCH, BY NOONE OTHER THAN WLADYSLAW III, THE FORMER KING OF POLAND, WHO DID NOT DIME IN THE BATTLE OF VARNA IN 1444, AS USED TO BELIEVE, BUT - AS IT SHOWS FROM THE DOCUMENTS REACHED BY MANUEL RO SA – FROM THE BATTLEFIELD HE WENT INTO SECRET EXILE. HE SETTLED ON THE PORTUGUESE ISLAND OF MADEIRA AND MARRIED A PORTUGUESE NOBLE WOMAN.
This is what King Władysław III looked like at the end of And this is what Christopher Columbus looked like. my life. The resemblance to his father is huge!
KRZYSZTOF KOLUMB NEVER WROTE IN ITALIAN, ONLY IN PORTUGUESE AND SPANISH. IF HE WAS AN ORDINARY POOR GUY AS HE USED TO BE CONSIDERED IN THE HISTORY TEXTBOOKS, HE COULD NOT HAVE ACCESS TO MANY MONARCHS.
Dear compatriots,
Once again, I invite you to work together. If you have any interesting ideas resulting from your personal or business contacts, please call or write to me. I especially recommend inviting prof. M. Rosa to give a lecture about his discovery in your Cuba, business or university. It would be a huge step to have his book published and widely distributed in English in America.
I believe that together we will achieve these and subsequent goals, because the truth stands behind us. With heartfelt thanks and greetings.
New Research Exposes Countless Lies About Christopher Columbus
NEWS PROVIDED BY - EIN Presswire - Sep 29, 2023, 12:23 PM ET
Renowned Columbus scholar Dr. Manuel Rosa will present “Columbus Exposed: Lies, Spies & Conspiracies” over the next few weeks
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES, September 29, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ -- With Columbus Day around the corner, North Florida Historian and Author Dr. Manuel Rosa, one of the foremost authorities on Christopher Columbus, announced today he will present a lecture titled “Columbus Exposed: Lies, Spies & Conspiracies” in cities from Florida to Massachusetts. The lecture is based on Dr. Rosa’s decades-long research into the man the world knows as Christopher Columbus, a supposed Italian weaver. In fact, the discoverer was named Cristóbal Colón and was not Italian.
“This year, for Columbus Day, I think we owe it to our ancestors to blow the lid off the lies we’ve been hearing about this man for half a millennium,” said Rosa.
The new evidence was just published in Rosa’s dissertation, CRISTOFORO COLOMBO vs CRISTÓBAL COLÓN. The 30-years-long research shows a story completely different from what most people’s teachers taught them. João Paulo Oliveira e Costa, Chair of the Department of History and Full Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at Universidade Nova in Lisbon, wrote that Rosa’s dissertation “Scrupulously respects the sources” and that it makes “clear the impossibility of Cristóbal Colón having been born into a family of Genoese weavers.”
Uncovering the truth about the discoverer is more than just an esoteric quest for knowledge of the 15th century. Rosa’s lecture will reveal how Cristóbal Colón was, in fact, a Polish prince, not an Italian weaver. The discoverer intentionally claimed that the New World was India because he wanted to deceive Spain. Forged documents led historians astray for centuries.
“The fact that we have Columbus Day in the USA, a place he never visited, shows us how important the myths are in general,” said Rosa, who earned his PhD in Insular and Atlantic History (XV-XX Centuries) from Azores University. “So many false assertions have been made about him and the consequences are not benign. Today there is bitter controversy over who he was, and wasn’t. It is time to start setting the record straight.”
Rosa has scheduled these lectures to align with Columbus Day in the U.S., which is October 9, and Spain’s national holiday, celebrated on October 12 in honor of the 1492 discovery.
The lectures will take place at the following places and times: - Thursday, October 6 at 6:30 PM at the University of Florida’s Adam Herbert U Center (12000 Alumni Drive, Jacksonville, FL) – This event is free of charge. - Friday, October 7 at 4:30 PM at the Argyle Branch Library (7973 Old Middleburg Road, Jacksonville, FL) – This event is free of charge. - Saturday, October 14 at 6:00 PM at St. Anthony Church Parish Hall (400 Cardinal Medeiros Ave, Cambridge, MA) – This event requires ticket purchase. - Sunday, October 15 at 7:00 PM at the Polish Russian Lithuanian American Citizen’s Club (12 Cheever Street, Danvers, MA) – This event is free of charge.
Since 2006, Rosa has been a member of the Centre for the Humanities, School of Social Sciences and Humanities of NOVA University Lisbon and has published nine revolutionary history books in several countries, including the award-winning "Columbus: The Untold Story" (USA 2016), which is admired as perhaps the best and most authoritative work ever written about the discoverer of America. It received a 5-star review from Indie Reader, won an Independent Press Award in the category of Biography: Historical, won the 2018 New York City Big Book Award and was named the Best World History Book of 2016 in the Huffington Post.
