Original

De sorprendente puede calificarse el hecho de que Cristoforo Colombo,  nacido en la Liguria italiana en 1451, escribiera en castellano al Banco de San Giorgio de Génova, al igual que mantuviera una extensa correspondencia en esta misma lengua con  Nicolás Oderigo, embajador genovés en Castilla, y con su gran amigo y protector, también italiano, fray Gaspar Gorricio. A sus hermanos Bartolomé y Diego, supuestamente  genoveses, les escribía en castellano y hasta en caracteres desconocidos. ¿Cómo puede explicarse que   Cristoforo Colombo o el Colón ligur [expresión utilizada por Pietro Martire  d'Anghiera], que hasta los 22 o 25 años residió casi permanentemente en Génova y Savona ya utilizara el castellano en Portugal, tres años antes de llegar a Castilla?

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This is a project close to my heart: I wrote this translation on a voluntary basis for my old friend Nito Verdera, who has produced a very convincing set of arguments to back his theory that the explorer known as Cristopher Columbus was born on Ibiza.

Translation

You might think it surprising that Cristoforo Columbo, born in the Italian Liguria in 1451, should write in Spanish to the Bank of San Giorgio in Genoa. He also participated in long relationships by letter in the same language with Nicholas Oderigo, the Genoese ambassador in Castille and with his great friend and protector, the Italian Father Gaspar Gorricio. He also wrote in Spanish (which included some unknown characters) to his brothers Bartolome and Diego, who are equally supposed to be from Genoa.

How can we explain the fact that Christoforo Colombo (the Ligurian Columbus as he is described  by Pietro Martire d’Anghiera), who lived for the first 22-25 years of his life in Genoa and Savona, was already  using the Spanish language in Portugal, three years before arriving in Castille?