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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Review by Harvey Greenberg - August 10, 2008, August 13, 2008
CODEX 632 - THE SECRET IDENTITY OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, a Novel, written by Jose Rodrigues Dos Santos. Reviewed by Harvey Greenberg
Who was Christoper Columbus. Was he an uneducated Genoese silk-weaver, who had very little education and who suddenly became a great mariner (as the standard story goes), or was he actually Krishtobal Colon (Portuguese pronunciation), a Portuguese Jew who was educated and already an experienced seafarer, when he sailed the ocean blue for Spain in 1492. Was he an Italian, or could he have been a Jew?
CODEX 632, THE SECRET IDENTITY OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, written by Portuguese journalist and Lisbon University professor Jose Rodrigues dos Santos, is a wonderful historic novel and a really fun book to read. Columbus was an enigmatic person, who never actually told people where he was born, and kept many things about himself and his family secret. This book is about many of those secrets. Columbus, who always called himself Krishtobal Colon, and never Columbus, may have been something other than Italian. Many books have been written purporting that Columbus was actually a Jew, and there is much circumstantial evidence and otherwise to show this to be the case. In this novel, the author uses mostly known facts, but also much conjecture to give a great story.
The story starts as a Professor Toscano, from a university in Lisbon, dies suddenly in Rio de Janeiro, while researching Columbus' roots for an obscure New York-based historic institution. Tushcano has kept his conclusions from the institution, and he died mysteriously prior to giving the institution his conclusions. The historic institution enlists Professor Thomas Noronha, also of Lisbon, to complete Toscano's work. The New York institution offers to pay Noronha $5,000 per week and $500,000 if he succeeds in solving the mystery. How can Noronha say no? He doesn't.
Professor Noronha is a specialist in teaching about ancient codes and cyphers. During his research, Noronha travels to Rio, Jerusalem, New York, as well as numerous places in Portugal. Noronha gets into jams worthy of a spy thriller (Noronha has a damaging affair with a student, and his daughter has Downes Syndrome).
Dos Santos' wonderful story finds Noronha meeting with Kaballist Rabbis in Jerusalem. The Rabbis conclude that Columbus' signature contained Secret Marrano Jewish Code (this is probably factual and is mentioned in Encyclopedia Brittannica - my late father showed it to me in his edition). Noronha meets Professor Toscano's aging wife, who lets Noronha borrow and copy Toscano's personal notes. Mrs. Toscano tells Noronha that Toscano's most secret papers are in his safe, but she has only a cryptic code indicating the safe's combination (remember - codes are Noronha's specialty). Mrs. Toscano tells Noronha that he should visit Prof. Toscano's old friend, a Count in Tomar, for some hints regarding the code and otherwise. You won't believe what startling facts Noronha learns from The Count. You need to read the book to find out - The Count tells Noronha shocking and amazing things!!!!!
When Columbus received nautical charts from Abraham Zacuto (a Portuguese Jew), were they written in Portuguese, or in Hebrew?? When Columbus corresponded with the famous Italian Scientist, Toscanelli, why did they correspond in Latin, rather than Tuscan (the italian written language of the day - weren't they both supposed to be Italian?? Odd, huh??????). Why did Toscanelli write to Columbus that "you who are of great courage, and the whole Portuguese nation, which has always distinguished itself in all great enterprises, are now inflamed to take this voyage" if Toscanelli considered CC anything but Portuguese? If Columbus was just an undeducated silk-weaver, how could he have corresponded with Toscanelli (In Latin, rather than in Italian - Columbus, like Toscanelli, was Italian, wasn't he, or was he at all?). And, why did Toscanelli write an uneducated silk-weaver back? Was Columbus really some sort of Royalty from Portugal (hmmmmmmmmm - interesting possibility, huh?)
Why do all the quoted sources of the day state that CC spoke Spanish with Portuguese artifacts and dialect?? These allusions are factual - curious, isn't it???? Did CC speak or write in Italian at all??? NO eveidence exists at all of his even knowing Italian!!!! Odd for an Italian, huh????????
I have read many of the sources referred to by the author in Codex 632. In SAILS OF HOPE, Simon Wiesenthal asserts with much evidence that Columbus was a Portuguese Jew. In Salvador de Maderiaga's CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS - BEING THE LIFE OF THE VERY MAGNIFICENT LORD, DON CRISTOBAL COLON, the author devotes the entire book to proof of Columbus' Jewish origins, and offers much tangible proof of this thesis. These two books are only an example of two of the numerous texts to which our author alludes in Codex 632. My personal historic interest is coincidentally Columbus being a Jew - I have read these and other books, and I recognize many of Dos Santos' allusions as being based on factual evidence, much of which is from Weisenthal and de Maderiaga's sources. Dos Santos weaves these bits of information and proof together in thrilling fashion, and that's not all.
Besides this book being a great read and a thrilling story, Jose Rodrigues Dos Santos gives readers helpful primers in many important historical subjects, including: Kabbalah, Linguistics, Codes and Cyphers, The History of the Iberian Peninsula (Portugal and Spain), Anthropology, Archaeology, Information on the Discovery of The Rosetta Stone and its contents, History of The Templar Knights, Classical Literature, The Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition and Forced Conversion and Expulsions of the Jews, and long sections describing the Marranos (also known as Neuvo Christianos - New Christians and/or Conversos). Codex 632 gives the reader so much!!!!!!!
So anyway, let's ask again: Who was Christopher Columbus? Was he an Italian from Genoa, as the old story goes, or, was he someone else altogether - perhaps a Jew from the Portuguese town of Cuba ?
You need to read Codex 632, by Jose Rodrigues Dos Santos to find out.
Enjoy!!!!!!!
Harvey Greenberg
August 10, 2008
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
History lessons in fiction , July 26, 2008
Sometimes fiction is the best way to get people who would otherwise discount anything with the slightest hint of looking like a history textbook to stop and take time to read and learn. Yes, the book wasn't full of action and adventure like Dan Brown's books, but it was still clever and interesting. I found the qestions it posed about Christopher Columbus to be thought provoking; and the use of code to be engaging. I admit a bias to historical novels; and am a big fan of people like Shaara, Eco, and B. Cornwell. This fact does not mean I don't enjoy a good story, and this was a good story. It could have used some more character depth and action scenes; but it was still enjoyable. Don't sell the reading public short. I'm not the only one who enjoys a book that challenges me to think.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A thriller of ideas, April 13, 2008
I was advised by a friend who also loves historical mysteries that this novel was a must-read, but the criticism I read here got me worried. Nevertheless, I trusted my friend and read the book - and I'm glad.
I guess there is some kind of misunderstanding concerning this book: it seems to me that this is not a thriller, at least not in the traditional sense of the genre. If you're looking for an action-packed novel, you're bound to be disappointed. There are no shootings, no chases, no last-minute escapes.
So, why did I enjoy so much the novel? Well, precisely because it's not an action thriller. If it's a thriller, let's call it a thriller of ideas. What is thrilling here is not the physical action, but the mystery around Columbus - and we are talking here about a true mystery, not a fictional one. The real action is thus not set in the character's plot, but in the way the characters question and unveil the past.
Believe me, here the book is one of the best thrillers I've ever read. It surely beats Dan Brown. Some of the things it reveals are really mind boggling and did change my understanding of the process that lead to the discovery of our continent.
This is a novel for people who seek understanding, not for people who seek blood.
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