its place in late medieval geoethnography, its central
purpose was to describe the mechanics of the natural
world and to chart out the motion of the machina mundi
over time. (The “machine of the world” in motion rep-
resented apocalyptic time unfolding.) By this method,
Peter Aliacus hoped to discern the historical status of
the religious crisis at hand in relation to the rise of the
Antichrist and the dawning of the end of time. This
eschatological work illustrates the union of Christian
theology and Aristotelian science, that characterized
intellectual production in the Latin West between the
twelfth and seventeenth centuries. Columbus owes much
of his thought to this tradition.
See also Joachim of Fiore
Further Reading
Casas, B. de las. Historia de las Indias. 3 vols. Ed. C. Agustín
Millares. México, 1992.
Columbus, C. The “Libro de las Profecías” of Christopher
Columbus: An ‘en face’ Edition. Ed. and trans. D. C. West.
Gainesville, Fla., 1992.
Columbus, F. The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by
his Son Fernando. Ed. and trans. B. Keen. New Brunswick,
N. J., 1959.
Flint, V.J. The Imaginative Landscape of Christopher Columbus.
Princeton, N. J., 1992.
Milhou, A. Cristóbal Colón y su mentalidad mesiánica en el
ambiente franciscanista español. Valladolid, 1983.
Rosa y López, S. de la. Libros y autógrafos de Cristóbal Colón.
Sevilla, 1891.
Nicolás Wey-Gómez
COMMYNES, PHILIPPE DE
(ca. 1447–1511)
A member of the Flemish nobility, Commynes was fi rst
an important offi cial of Charles the Bold of Burgundy
and then afterward served as chamberlain, counselor,
and confi dant of Louis XI of France. His experiences in
both capacities are the subject of his Mémoires, written
between 1489 and 1498. Commynes’s memoirs are one
of the fi rst examples of the memoir-as-history, a genre
that was to be highly popular in the Renaissance.
Commynes was the son of Colard van den Clyte, a
functionary of the dukes of Burgundy. Commynes took
his name from Comines near Lille, the holding of his
uncle, who raised him from the age of seven. From 1464,
he was an intimate adviser of the future Duke Charles
the Bold. In July 1472, Commynes defected from the
Burgundian side, perhaps for mercenary motives, and
entered the service of the king of France, who compen-
sated him with new titles and the holding of Talmont
(a territory with 1,700 dependent fi efs), a pension, and,
upon his marriage in 1473, the territory of Argenton.
The relationship between Louis and Commynes was
close; contemporaries noted that he was like the king’s
alter ego, and as Louis lay paralyzed on his deathbed,
Commynes was the only person able to interpret his
gestures and noises.
After the death of Louis in 1483, however, Com-
mynes’s position deteriorated; he was driven from the
court and, between 1487 and 1489, imprisoned. He
lost both Talmont and Argenton. In prison, Commynes
underwent the religious conversion that explains the
moralist tone of his memoirs. Commynes began com-
posing them while still in exile, completing the fi rst fi ve
books by 1490. After his rehabilitation, he continued
working, completing Book 6 in 1493. Between 1494
and 1495, he accompanied Charles VIII on his disastrous
Italian campaign, which became the subject of Book 7.
The last book was completed shortly after the death of
Charles VIII in 1498.
The Mémoires are an eyewitness account of a turbu-
lent and crucial period of French and Flemish history,
when the Burgundian dukes were attempting to establish
their independence of the kings of France, and the kings
were struggling to consolidate and centralize their politi-
cal control. Commynes’s intent was to present events as
moral lessons about proper governance; his work is a
mirror for princes. He wanted to see rational government
and, to that end, to have diplomacy replace reliance on
military might. No ruler in this violent age, therefore,
was wholly admirable, not even Louis, whom Com-
mynes loved. Commynes deliberately altered events to
suit his didactic purposes; the Mémoires are factually
treacherous. But they do shed light on rapidly changing
15th-century politics and political ideas.
Both the frank and factual quality of the Mémoires
and its larger philosophical concerns have ensured the
popularity of the work. Six manuscripts survive (only
one of which contains Book 8), while the fi rst printed
edition was published in 1524, only twenty-six years af-
ter Commynes laid down his pen. This has been followed
by more than a hundred editions and translations.Further Reading
Commynes, Philippe de. Mémoires, ed. Joseph Calmette and
Georges Durville. 3 vols. Paris: Champion, 1924–25.
——. Philippe de Commynes: Mémoires, ed. Bernard de Mandrot.
2 vols. Paris: Picard, 1901–03.
——. The Memoirs of Philippe de Commynes, ed. Samuel Kinser,
trans. Isabelle Cazeaux. 2 vols. Columbia: University of South
Carolina Press, 1969–73.
Dufournet, Jean. La destruction des mythes dans les “Mémoires”
de Philippe de Commynes. Geneva: Droz, 1966.
——. La vie de Philippe de Commynes. Paris: Société d’Édition
d’Enseignement Supérieur, 1969.
——. Études sur Philippe de Commynes. Paris: Champion,
1975.
Leah ShopkowCOLUMBUS, CHRISTOPHER