Earth and Space News: Christopher Columbus Analogized First Indies Voyage to Egg Balancing

Summary: In an anecdote in Washington Irving's bestselling Columbus biography, Christopher Columbus analogized his first Indies voyage to egg balancing.

a modern depiction of the anecdote of explorer Christopher Columbus and the Egg; Columbi ägg, 1924 watercolor by Swedish Post-Impressionist painter Nils Dardel (full name: Nils Elias Kristofer von Dardel; Oct. 25, 1888-May 25, 1943), also known as Nils de Dardel: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Age of Discovery explorer Christopher Columbus analogized his successful first Indies voyage to egg balancing, according to an anecdote in Washington Irving's bestselling Columbus biography.

Late 15th-century to early 16th-century explorer and navigator Christopher Columbus (Catalan: Cristòfor Colom; Italian: Cristoforo Colombo; Portuguese: Cristóvão Colombo; Spanish: Cristóbal Colón; ca. 1446/1451-May 20, 1506) departed Aug. 3, 1492, from Palos de la Frontera, Huelva province, Andalusia (Spanish: Andalucía), southwestern peninsular Spain, for his first voyage westward across the Atlantic Ocean. On March 15, 1493, the New World discoverer returned to Palos. In late April 1493, Ferdinand II (Aragonese: Ferrando; Catalan: Ferran; Basque: Errando; Spanish: Fernando; March 10, 1452-Jan. 23, 1516), King of Aragon (Jan. 20, 1479-Jan. 23, 1516), and Isabella I (Spanish: Isabel I; April 22, 1451-Nov. 26, 1504), Queen of Castile (Dec. 11, 1474-Nov. 26, 1504), received the returning hero in their Barcelona Court, Catalonia (Catalan: Catalunya; Aranese Occitan: Catalonha; Spanish: Cataluña), northeastern Spain.

"During the whole of his sojourn at Barcelona, the sovereigns took every occasion to bestow on Columbus personal marks of their high consideration. He was admitted at all times to the royal presence, and the queen delighted to converse with him on the subject of his enterprises," described American biographer, short-story writer and statesman Washington Irving (April 3, 1783-Nov. 28, 1859) in the first volume (page 430) of his bestselling, four-volume Columbus biography, A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, published in 1828. The title of Admiral of the Ocean Sea and one-tenth of revenues from new lands claimed for Spain numbered among the promises, contingent upon a successful voyage, made to Columbus by the sovereigns in Capitulaciones de Santa Fe ("Capitulations of Santa Fe"). The signing of the document on April 17, 1492, preceded the explorer's first voyage by a little over three and one-half months (3 months 17).

Irving also noted the attention that Columbus received from Spanish cardinal Pedro González de Mendoza (May 3, 1428-Jan. 11, 1495). One of the Gran Cardenal de España's banquets served as the setting for the explorer's dramatic egg anecdote.

"He invited Columbus to a banquet, where he assigned him the most honourable place at table, and had him served with the ceremonies which, in those punctilious times, were observed towards sovereigns. At this repast is said to have occurred the well-known anecdote of the egg. A shallow courtier present, impatient of the honours paid to Columbus, and meanly jealous of him as a foreigner, abruptly asked him whether he thought that, in case he had not discovered the Indies, there were not other men who would have been capable of the enterprise. To this, Columbus made no immediate reply, but, taking an egg, invited the company to make it stand upon one end. Every one attempted it, but in vain, whereupon he struck it upon the table so as to break the end, and left it standing on the broken part; illustrating, in this simple manner, that when he had once shown the way to the New World, nothing was easier than to follow it," Irving related (pages 432-433).

Irving explained the source for the egg anecdote in an asterisked footnote. "This anecdote rests on the authority of the Italian historian Benzoni (l. i., p. 12, ed. Venetia, 1572)" (page 433).

Milanese Italian merchant and traveller Girolamo Benzoni (1519-1570) published Historia del Mondo Nuovo in Venice in 1565. Benzoni set the egg balancing scene at a post-first voyage party. He identified the party's attendees as Spanish nobles but he gave no names.

"Trovandoſi adunque Colombo in un convito con milti nobili Spagnuoli, dove ſi ragionava (come ſi coſtuma,) dell'Indie; uno di loro hebbe a dire. Se voi Chriſtofarno non haveſte fatto tale impreſa non ſarebbe mancato chi il ſimile haveſſe trovato come voi, quà nella noſtra Spagna: come quella che è de grand'huomini giudicioſi ripiena, Coſmografi, & letterati. Non riſpoſe Colombo a tal parole con parole, ma tolſe un'uovo, & lo fece porre in tavola; dicendo, voi Signori lo farete ſtare in piedi qui ma non con cruſca, ſale, o uena; ma nudo ſenza coſa alcuna, perche con remola, & ſabbione, molti lo ſanno fare; ma nudo vi prego che lo rizziate, e fermiate, ſe non lo farò io, che ſon quello che le nuove Indie ho ritrovato prima, pruovaronſi tutti, et a neſſuno ſucceſſe il farlo ſtare in piedi: come alle mani del Colombo egli venne, dandogli una battuta ſu la tavola lo fermò ſtricciando coſi un podo della punta; onde tutti reſtarono ſmariiti, intendo che voleva dire: che dopo il fatto ciaſcuno sà fare, che dovevano prima cercare l'Indie, & non riderſi di chi le cercava innanzi come un pezzo s'erano riſi, e maravigliati, come coſa impoſſibile a eſſere" Benzoni, Historia, pages 12-13).

English Royal Navy officer, astronomer, historian, hydrographer, numismatist and translator William Henry Smyth (Jan. 21, 1788-Sep. 8, 1865) translated and edited Benzoni's Historia. The London-based Hakluyt Society published the English admiral's English translation, History of the New World by Girolamo Benzoni of Milan, in 1857.

"It will not be out of place to relate what I heard happened in Spain to Columbus, after he had discovered the Indies; although it had been done in ancient times in other ways, but was new then. Columbus being at a party with many noble Spaniards, where, as was customary, the subject of conversation was the Indies: one of them undertook to say: -- 'Mr. Christopher, even if you had not found the Indies, we should not have been devoid of a man who would have attempted the same that you did, here in our own country of Spain, as it is full of great men clever in cosmography and literature.' Columbus said nothing in answer to these words, but having desired an egg to be brought to him, he placed it on the table saying: 'Gentlemen, I will lay a wager with any of you, that you will not make this egg stand up as I will, naked and without anything at all.' They all tried, and no one succeeded in making it stand up. When the egg came round to the hands of Columbus, by beating it down on the table he fixed it, having thus crushed a little of one end; wherefore all remained confused, understanding what he would have said: that after the deed is done, everybody knows how to do it; that they ought first to have sought for the Indies, and not laugh at him who had sought for it first, while they for some time had been laughing, and wondered at it as an impossility" (Smith, History, page 17).

The explorer's apocryphal egg symbolism is reminiscent of a similar anecdote attributed to Florentine Renaissance architect Filippo "Pippo" Brunelleschi (1377-April 15, 1446). Brunelleschi's egg balancing episode took place in 1420, seven and one-third decades before Columbus's performance. Egg balancing by Columbus occurred after the achievement of his goal. Contrastingly, Brunelleschi's egg balancing, which preceded his goal, secured for him the design of the dome for Florence's Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore (Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower).

Did Christopher Columbus analogize his first Indies voyage to egg balancing? Washington Irving assessed, "It has been condemned as trivial, but the simplicity of the reproof constituted its severity, and was characteristic of the practical sagacity of Columbus. The universal popularity of the anecdote is a proof of its merit" (page 433).

"Columbus Breaking the Egg," 1752 subscription ticket for forthcoming book on theories of visual beauty, The Analysis of Beauty (1753), with etching by English artist and engraver William Hogarth (Nov. 10, 1697-Oct. 26, 1764); National Gallery of Art, Rosenwald Collection, Washington DC: Public Domain, via National Gallery of Art

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

"Columbus and the Egg," 1847 oil on canvas by German painter and draughtsman Johann Geyer (1807-1875); Woodmere Art Museum, Chestnut Hill neighborhood, Northwest Philadelphia, southeastern Pennsylvania: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Johann_Geyer_Columbus_and_the_Egg.jpg; via Woodmere Art Museum @ https://woodmereartmuseum.org/explore-online/collection/colombus-and-the-egg

Andrea. "Brunelleschi and the egg." Your Contact in Florence > Blog. Dec. 26, 2014.
Available @ https://yourcontactinflorence.com/brunelleschi-and-the-egg

Benzoni, Girolamo. "Trovandoſi adunque Colombo in un convito con milti nobili Spagnuoli, dove ſi ragionava (come ſi coſtuma,) dell'Indie; uno di loro hebbe a dire. Se voi Chriſtofarno non haveſte fatto tale impreſa non ſarebbe mancato chi il ſimile haveſſe trovato come voi, quà nella noſtra Spagna: come quella che è de grand'huomini giudicioſi ripiena, Coſmografi, & letterati. Non riſpoſe Colombo a tal parole con parole, ma tolſe un'uovo, & lo fece porre in tavola; dicendo, voi Signori lo farete ſtare in piedi qui ma non con cruſca, ſale, o uena; ma nudo ſenza coſa alcuna, perche con remola, & ſabbione, molti lo ſanno fare; ma nudo vi prego che lo rizziate, e fermiate, ſe non lo farò io, che ſon quello che le nuove Indie ho ritrovato prima, pruovaronſi tutti, et a neſſuno ſucceſſe il farlo ſtare in piedi: come alle mani del Colombo egli venne, dandogli una battuta ſu la tavola lo fermò ſtricciando coſi un podo della punta; onde tutti reſtarono ſmariiti, intendo che voleva dire: che dopo il fatto ciaſcuno sà fare, che dovevano prima cercare l'Indie, & non riderſi di chi le cercava innanzi come un pezzo s'erano riſi, e maravigliati, come coſa impoſſibile a eſſere." Pages 12-13. La Historia del Mondo Nuovo. Venetia: Appresso Francesco Rampazetto, MDLXV [1565].
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/la-historia-del-mondo-nuovo/page/n34/mode/1up

Deák, Gloria. "Everything You Need To Know About Columbus." American Heritage, vol. 42, issue 6 (October 1991).
Available @ https://www.americanheritage.com/everything-you-need-know-about-columbus

De Vere, Gaston du C. "What Filippo, therefore, had not been able to achieve before the tribunal, he began to effect with individuals, talking now to a Consul, now to a Warden, and likewise to many citizens; and showing them part of his design, he induced them to determine to allot this work either to him or to one of the foreigners. Wherefore the Consuls, the Wardens of Works, and those citizens, regaining courage, assembled together, and the architects disputed concerning this matter, but all were overcome and conquered by Filippo with many arguments; and here, so it is said, there arose the dispute about the egg, in the following manner. They would have liked Filippo to speak his mind in detail, and to show his model, as they had shown theirs; but this he refused to do, proposing instead to those masters, both the foreign and the native, that whosoever could make an egg stand upright on a flat piece of marble should build the cupola, since thus each man's intellect would be discerned. Taking an egg, therefore, all those masters sought to make it stand upright, but not one could find the way. Whereupon Filippo, being told to make it stand, took it graciously, and, giving one end of it a blow on the flat piece of marble, made it stand upright. The craftsmen protested that they could have done the same; but Filippo answered, laughing, that they could also have raised the cupola, if they had seen the model or the design. And so it was resolved that he should be commissioned to carry out this work, and he was told that he must give fuller information about it to the Consuls and the Wardens of Works." Page 209. "Life of Filippo Brunelleschi [Filippo di Ser Brunellesco] Sculptor and Architect," pages 193-237. Gaston du C. De Vere, trans., Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects by Giorgio Vasari. In ten volumes. Vol. II Berna to Michelozzo Michelozzi. London: Philip Lee Warner, 1912.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/livesofmostemine02vasauoft/page/195/mode/1up
Available via Project Gutenberg @ https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/25759/pg25759-images.html#Page_209

Gardner, Martin. "The great egg-balancing mystery -- the tricks behind making an egg stand on its broad end." Skeptical Inquirer, vol. 20, no. 3 (May-June 1996): .
Available via Internet Archive Wayback Machine @ https://web.archive.org/web/20070221082438/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_n3_v20/ai_18372128
Available via Skeptical Inquirer @ https://skepticalinquirer.org/volume/no-3-vol-20/

Irving, Washington. "Next in importance to the protection shown him by the king and queen, may be mentioned that of Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, the Grand Cardinal of Spain, and first subject of the realm; a man whose elevated character for piety, learning, and high prince-like qualities, gave signal value to his favours. He invited Columbus to a banquet, where he assigned him the most honourable place at table, and had him served with the ceremonies which, in those punctilious times, were observed towards sovereigns. At this repast is said to have occurred the well-known anecdote of the egg. A shallow courtier present, impatient of the honours paid to Columbus, and meanly jealous of him as a foreigner, abruptly asked him whether he thought that, in case he had not discovered the Indies, there were not other men who would have been capable of the enterprise. To this, Columbus made no immediate reply, but, taking an egg, invited the company to make it stand upon one end. Every one attempted it, but in vain, whereupon he struck it upon the table so as to break the end, and left it standing on the broken part; illustrating, in this simple manner, that when he had once shown the way to the New World, nothing was easier than to follow it.*" Pages 431-433. A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. In four volumes. Vol. I. Chapter VII Sojourn of Columbus at Barcelona. Attentions Paid him by the Sovereigns and Courtiers," pages 427-435. London: John Murray, MDCCCXXVIII [1828].
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/historyoflifeand01irviiala/page/432/mode/1up

Irving, Washington. "*This anecdote rests on the authority of the Italian historian Benzoni (l. i., p. 12, ed. Venetia, 1572). It has been condemned as trivial, but the simplicity of the reproof constituted its severity, and was characteristic of the practical sagacity of Columbus. The universal popularity of the anecdote is a proof of its merit." Page 433. A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. In four volumes. Vol. I. Chapter VII Sojourn of Columbus at Barcelona. Attentions Paid him by the Sovereigns and Courtiers," pages 427-435. London: John Murray, MDCCCXXVIII [1828].
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/historyoflifeand01irviiala/page/433/mode/1up

Marriner, Derdriu. "Christopher Columbus's Wife Was Madeiran But Was He Really Genoese?" Earth and Space News. Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2022/10/christopher-columbuss-wife-was-madeiran.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Columbus's Ombu Tree From Indies Flourishes at La Cartuja in Seville." Earth and Space News. Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2022/12/columbuss-ombu-tree-from-indies.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Ferdinand Columbus Biographized His Father as Italian But Born Where?" Earth and Space News. Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2022/10/ferdinand-columbus-biographized-his.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Is May 1506 Columbus Military Codicil in Prayer Book Found 1780 Fake?" Earth and Space News. Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2022/12/is-may-1506-columbus-military-codicil.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Lombardy Associates With Columbus and His Wife's Great-Grandparents." Earth and Space News. Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2022/10/lombardy-associates-with-columbus-and.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "May 1506 Prayer Book Codicil Mismatches Columbus's Usual Signature." Earth and Space News. Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2023/01/may-1506-prayer-book-codicil-mismatches.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Missing Half or Third of Columbus's Personal Papers Includes 1502 Will." Earth and Space News. Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2022/12/missing-half-or-third-of-columbuss.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Possible Columbus Grandfather João Gonçalves Zarco Discovered Madeira." Earth and Space News. Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2022/11/possible-columbus-grandfather-joao.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Second of Four Columbus Wills Likely Was Genuine But Has Disappeared." Earth and Space News. Thursday, Nov. 24, 2022.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2022/11/second-of-four-columbus-wills-likely.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Secrets & Lies Finds Duke of Beja Perhaps Fathered Christopher Columbus." Earth and Space News. Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2022/11/secrets-lies-finds-duke-of-beja-perhaps.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Sleepy Hollow's Washington Irving Wrote Columbus Bestseller in 1828." Earth and Space News. Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2023/01/sleepy-hollows-washington-irving-wrote.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Statue in Cuba, Portugal, Honors Columbus as Salvador Fernandes Zarco." Earth and Space News. Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2022/11/statue-in-cuba-portugal-honors-columbus.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Trail of 1502 Columbus Will Confuses After 1578 Removal From Monastery." Earth and Space News. Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2022/12/trail-of-1502-columbus-will-confuses.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Washington Irving Assessed 1506 Columbus Military Codicil as Authentic." Earth and Space News. Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2022/12/washington-irving-assessed-1506.html

National Gallery of Art. "William Hogarth Columbus Breaking the Egg, 1752." National Gallery of Art > Collection > Rosenwald Collection.
Available @ https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.30449.html

Price, Nancy J.; Dream Do Live Love. "Brunelleschi and the egg, or on convincing people you actually know what you’re doing." Dream Do Live Love > Do > Insights.
Available @ https://dreamdolivelove.com/do/insights/brunelleschi-and-the-egg

Savage, Charles C. [Cassee]. "Among many others of the grandees of Spain, Pedro Gonzales de Mendoza, the grand cardinal of Spain, invited Columbus to a banquet. He gave him the most honorable place at table, and, notwithstanding etiquette to its fullest extent was at that time punctiliously observed, he served him with ceremonies which were observed toward sovereigns. It was at that banquet that the anecdote of the egg is said to have occurred, which scene is graphically delineated in our engraving. A courier who was present, possessing more impudence than wit, and jealous of Columbus because he was a foreigner, and so highly honored by his master, abruptly asked him whether he thought that, in case he had not discovered the Indies, there were not other men who would have been capable of the enterprise. Columbus, looking with proper contempt upon the fellow, deigned no reply, but, taking an egg, invited the company to make it stand upon one end. All attempted it, but in vain, whereupon he struck it upon the table so as to break the end, and left it standing upon the broken part. This, in the most simple manner, illustrated the fact that when he had once shown the way to the New World, it was a very easy thing to follow. The rebuke was felt, and the courtier held his peace. 'This anecdote,' says Irving, 'rests on the authority of the Italian historian Benzoni. It has been condumned as trivial, but the simplicity of the reproof constituted its severity, and was characteristic of the practical sagacity of Columbus. The universal popularity of the anecdote is a proof of its merit.'" Page 81. Illustrated biography; or, Memoirs of the Great and the Good of All Nations and All Times; Comprising Sketches of Eminent Statesmen, Philosophers, Heroes, Artists, Reformers, Philanthropists, Mechanics, Navigators, Authors, Poets, Divines, Soldiers, Savans, Etc. "Christopher Columbus," pages 76-83. Buffalo: Phinney & Co.; New York: Ivison & Phinney, 1856.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/illustratedbiogr00sava/page/81/mode/1up

Savage, Charles C. [Cassee]. "Christopher Columbus." Pages 76-83. Illustrated biography; or, Memoirs of the Great and the Good of All Nations and All Times; Comprising Sketches of Eminent Statesmen, Philosophers, Heroes, Artists, Reformers, Philanthropists, Mechanics, Navigators, Authors, Poets, Divines, Soldiers, Savans, Etc. Embellished by Two Hundred and Fifty Portraits and Engravings. Buffalo: Phinney & Co.; New York: Ivison & Phinney, 1856.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/illustratedbiogr00sava/page/76/mode/1up

Smyth, William Henry, trans. "It will not be out of place to relate what I heard happened in Spain to Columbus, after he had discovered the Indies; although it had been done in ancient times in other ways, but was new then. Columbus being at a party with many noble Spaniards, where, as was customary, the subject of conversation was the Indies: one of them undertook to say: -- 'Mr. Christopher, even if you had not found the Indies, we should not have been devoid of a man who would have attempted the same that you did, here in our own country of Spain, as it is full of great men clever in cosmography and literature.' Columbus said nothing in answer to these words, but having desired an egg to be brought to him, he placed it on the table saying: 'Gentlemen, I will lay a wager with any of you, that you will not make this egg stand up as I will, naked and without anything at all.' They all tried, and no one succeeded in making it stand up. When the egg came round to the hands of Columbus, by beating it down on the table he fixed it, having thus crushed a little of one end; wherefore all remained confused, understanding what he would have said: that after the deed is done, everybody knows how to do it; that they ought first to have sought for the Indies, and not laugh at him who had sought for it first, while they for some time had been laughing, and wondered at it as an impossility." Page 17. Rear-Admiral W.H. Smyth, trans. and ed., History of the New World by Girolamo Benzoni, of Milan. London: Hakluyt Society, M.DCCC.LVII [1857].
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/historynewworld00smytgoog/page/n41/mode/1up

Vasari, Giorgio. "Et cominciato in diſparte a favellare ora a queſto Conſolo ora a quello operaio, & ſimilmente a molti Cittadini, moſtrando parte del ſuo diſegno, gli riduſſe che ſi deliberarono a fare allogazione di queſta opera o a lui o a uno di que’ foreſtieri. Per la qual coſa, inanimiti i consoli e gli operai & quei Cittadini, ſi ragunarono tutti inſieme, & gli Architetti diſputarono di queſta materia; ma furon, con ragioni aſſai, tutti abbattuti & vinti da Filippo, dove ſi dice che nacque la diſputa dell’uovo in queſta forma. Egli arebbono voluto che Filippo aveſſe detto l’animo ſuo minutamente, & moſtro il ſuo modello, come avevano moſtri eſsi modelli e diſegni loro il: che non volſe fare, ma propoſe queſto a’ maeſtri & foreſtieri & terrazzani, che chi fermaſſe in ſur un' marmo piano un' uovo ritto, quello faceſſe la cupola, che quivi ſi vedrebbe lo ingegno loro. Fù tolto uno uovo, & da tutti que’ maeſtri provato a farlo ſtar ritto, neſſuno ſapeva il modo. Fù da loro detto a Filippo che’ lo fermaſſe & egli con grazia lo preſe, & datoli un colpo del culo in ſul piano del marmo, lo fece ſtar' ritto. Romoreggiando gl’artefici che ſimilmente arebbono fatto eſsi, ripoſe loro Filippo ridendo che egli averebbono ancora ſaputo voltare, la Cupola, vedendo il modello, o il diſegno. Et coſi fù riſoluto che egli aveſsi carico di queſta opera, & ne informaſſe meglio i Conſoli, & gli operai." Pages 307-308. Le vite de' più eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori italiani, da Cimabue insino a' tempi nostri. Seconda parte; "Filippo Brunelleschi Scultore et Architetto,' pages 291-332. Firenze: Lorenzo Torrentino, 1550.
Available via Google Books @ https://books.google.it/books?id=aHFUAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA307#v=onepage&q&f=false Available via Wikisource @ https://it.wikisource.org/wiki/Le_vite_de'_più_eccellenti_pittori,_scultori_e_architettori_(1550)/Filippo_Brunelleschi

Vasari, Giorgio. "Quello dunque, che Filippo non haveva potuto fare nel Magistrato, cominciò a trattar in disparte, favellando hor'a queſta Conſolo, hora a quello operaio & ſimilmente a molti cittadini; moſtrando parte del ſuo diſsegno, gli riduſſe, che ſi deliberarono a fare allogazione di queſta opera, o a lui, o a uno di que'ſoreVtieri. Per la qual coſa inanimiti i Conſoli, & gli Operai, & que'cittadini, ſi ragunarono tutti inſieme, & gli Architetti diſputarono di queſta materia; ma furon con ragioni aſſai tutti abbattuti, & vinti da Filippo: dove ſi dice, che nacque la diſputa dell'uovo in qſta forma. Eglino harebbono voluto, che Filippo haveſſe detto l'animo ſuo minutamente, & moſtro il ſuo modello, come haucuano moſtro eſſi, il loro: il che non volle fare, ma propoſe queſto a'maeſtri, & foreſtieri, & terrazzani, che chi fermaſſe in ſur un marmo piano, un'uovo ritto, quello faceſſe la Cupola, che qui vi ſi vedrebbe l'ingegno loro. Tolto dunque un'uovo, tutti que'maeſtri ſi provarono, per farlo ſtar ritto, ma neſſuno trovò il modo. Onde eſſendo detto a Filippo, che'lo fermaſſe, egli con grazia lo preſe, e datoli un colpo del culo in ſul piano del marmo, lo fece ſtar ritto. Romoreggiando gl'artefici, che ſimilmente harebbono ſaputo fare eſſi, riſpoſe loro Filippo ridendo, che gli harebbono ancora ſaputo voltare la Cupola, vedendo il modello, o il diſegno. Et coſi fu riſoluto, ch'egli haveſſe carico di condurre queſta opera, e dettoli, che ne informaſſe meglio i Conſoli, e gli Operai." Pages 309-310. "Vita di Filippo Brunelleschi Scultore e Architetto," pages 301-326. Le vite de' piu eccellenti pittori, scvltori, et architettori. Primo volume, seconda parte. Fiorenza: Appresso i Giunti, 1568.
Available via Internet Archive @ https://archive.org/details/levitedepiveccel01vasa/page/309/mode/1up

Woodmere Art Museum. "Johann Geyer, Colombus and the Egg. Mary Shelly, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and other authors make reference to a once well-known story about Italian explorer Christopher Columbus and the egg. Upon returning from his expedition to the New World, Columbus was invited to a banquet given by the Grand Cardinal of Spain, Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza. Some noblemen who were present suggested that Columbus’s arrival in the New World was no great accomplishment. In response, Columbus asked that eggs be brought to the table and wagered that no one could make an egg stand on its end. None were able to do so. Columbus then tapped the end of an egg against the table, breaking it slightly such that it could stand on its own. The moral of the story is that a seemingly impossible task can be simple once it is understood. Geyer portrays a confident Columbus surrounded by nobles, the egg upright on the table. Figures around the table react in astonishment." Woodmere Art Museum > Explore Online > Collection.
Available @ https://woodmereartmuseum.org/explore-online/collection/colombus-and-the-egg

Earth and Space News

Thursday, January 19, 2023

Christopher Columbus Analogized First Indies Voyage to Egg Balancing

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