An Unknown Piece of Ottoman Americana: a Short Sixteenth-Century Chronicle of Columbus’ Voyages from the National Library of Naples

Abstract This paper examines a previously unknown anonymous Ottoman chronicle of the discovery of America. Composed in the second half of the sixteenth century and based on Historia general de las Indias (1552) by Francisco López de Gómara, this short text is one of the earliest known Ottoman works on the New World to draw from contemporary Spanish discovery literature. Despite its brevity, the chronicle offers new insights into how information on oceanic exploration and geographical discoveries might have been collected, organized, and reinterpreted by a sixteenth-century Ottoman scholar. The article, in addition to discussing its sources and key features, includes an English translation and a Romanized transcription of the work.