strato. From this village of
Quezzi Domenico brought his wife, Susanna Fontanarossa, to Genoa, her
dowry consisting of a small property, a house or a field, at Ginestrato.

About the home of Domenico and his wife at Genoa during at least twenty
years there is absolute certainty. The old gate of San Andrea is still
standing, with its lofty arch across the street, and its high flanking
towers. A street with a rapid downward slope, called the Vico Dritto di
Ponticelli, leads from the gate of San Andrea to the Church of S.
Stefano; and the house of Domenico Colombo was in this street, a few
doors from the gate. It was the weavers' quarter, and S. Stefano was
their parish church, where they had a special altar. Domenico's house
had two stories besides the ground floor; and there was a back garden,
with a well between it and the city wall. It was battered down during
the bombardment of Genoa in the time of Louis XIV., was rebuilt with two
additional stories, and is now the property of the city of Genoa.

This was the house of the parents of Columbus, and at a solemn moment,
shortly before his death, Columbus stated that he was born in the city
of Genoa. No. 39 Vico Dritto di Ponticelli was therefore, in all
probability, the house where the great discoverer was born, and the old
Church of San Stefano, with its facade of alternate black and white
courses of marble, and its quaint old campanile, was the place of his
baptism. The date of his birth is fixed by three statements of his own,
and by a justifiable inference from the notarial records. He said that
he went to sea at the age of fourteen, and that when he came to Spain in
1485 he had led a sailor's life for twenty-three years. He was,
therefore, born in 1447. In 1501 he again said that it was forty years
since he first went to sea when he was fourteen; the same result--1447.
In 1503 he wrote that he first came to serve for the discovery of the
Indies--that is, that he left his home at the age of twenty-eight. This
was in 1474, and the result is again 1447. The supporting notarial
evidence is contained in two documents, in which the mother of Columbus
consented to the sale of property by her husband. For the first deed, in
May, 1471, the notary summoned her brothers to consent to the execution
of the deed, as the nearest relations of full age. The second deed is
witnessed by her son Cristoforo in August, 1473. He must have attained
the legal age of twenty-five in the interv