Susanna Fontanarossa
{{Short description|Mother of Christopher Columbus}}
{{Infobox person
| image = Lapide di Susanna Fontanarossa.jpg
| image_size = 230px
| caption = Plaque dedicated to Susanna Fontanarossa in Gorreto
| birth_date = 1435
| birth_place = Monticellu, Republic of Genoa
| death_date = {{death year and age|1489|1435}}
| father = Giacometti Fontanarossa
| spouse = {{marriage|Domenico Colombo|1445}}
| children = {{ubli|Christopher Columbus|Giovanni Pellegrino Colombo|Bartholomew Columbus|Giacomo Colombo|Bianchinetta Colombo}}
| relatives = {{ubli|Diego Columbus (grandson)|Ferdinand Columbus (grandson)}}
}}
Susanna Fontanarossa ({{langx|lij|Suzanna Fontann-arossa}}; 1435–1489) was the mother of navigator and explorer Christopher Columbus.
Biography
Susanna was born in the hillside village of Monticellu, on the then Genoese island of Corsica, to a wealthy Catholic family. She was the daughter of Giacomo "Giacometti" Fontanarossa.{{Cite book |last=Florentino |first=N. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2mAVAwAAQBAJ |title=The wife of Columbus |last2=Maney |first2=Regina |date=1893 |publisher=Рипол Классик |isbn=978-5-88278-802-4 |pages=49 |language=en}} Her family owned substantial real estate in Quezzi, a little village in the low-lying valley of Bisagno (part of the present-day city of Genoa).{{Cite book|title=The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia|last=Beding|first=Silvio A.|date=2016-02-08|publisher=Springer|isbn=9781349125739|pages=283|language=en}} She married Domenico Colombo in 1445{{Cite book |last=Fiske |first=John |author-link=John Fiske (philosopher) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r4V1AAAAMAAJ |title=The Discovery of America, with Some Account of Ancient America and the Spanish Conquest |publisher=Houghton, Mifflin Company |year=1895 |pages=347 |language=en |quote=Before 1445 {{sic}}, but how many years before is not known, Domenico married susanna Fontanarossa, who belonged to a family of weavers, probably of Quezzi, four miles northeast of Genoa.}} and bore him 5 children: Cristoforo, Bartolomeo, Giovanni, Giacomo, and a daughter named Bianchinetta.
File:Fontanarossa - Lapide di S Fontanarossa.jpg
A notarised document of sale in the {{ill|Archivio di Stato di Genova|lt=Genoa State Archive|it}} contains the Latinate text {{lang|la|Sozana, (quondam) de Jacobi de Fontana Rubea, uxor Dominici de Columbo de Ianua ac Christophorus et Pelegrinus filii eorum}}, which can be translated as "Susanna was (the daughter) of Giacomo from Fontanarossa of the Bisagno, wife of Domenico Columbus from Genoa, their sons are Cristoforo and Pellegrino."{{Cite book |last=Harrisse |first=Henry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5K_lkF6SZr4C |title=Christopher Columbus and the Bank of Saint George (Ufficio Di San Giorgio in Genoa): Two Letters Addressed to Samuel L. M. Barlow, Esquire |year=1888 |location=New York |pages=78 |language=en}} The {{ill|Val Bisagno|it}} was a significant inland district in the ancient Republic of Genoa including the valley of the Bisagno. Thus she was described as 'Susanna from Fontanarossa' within the Val Bisagno, rather than Suzanna Fontarossa.
Today, the hilltop village of Fontanarossa (frazione of Gorreto, Genoa, Liguria), in the Val Trebbia (31 km inland from Genoa, at {{coord|44|35|10.66|N|9|15|18.80|E|}}) and only 6 km beyond the watershed of the river Bisagno, has a marble stone with the inscription {{lang|it|In questo borgo nacque Susanna Fontanarossa, madre di Cristoforo Colombo}} ("Susanna Fontanarossa, the mother of Christopher Columbus, was born in this village").
Little is known about her after 1484. She died before her husband, Domenico.{{Cite book |last=Thatcher |first=John Boyd |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iJe_FXYuqDcC |title=Christopher Columbus, His Life, His Work, His Remains |date=1903 |publisher=Productivity Press |isbn=978-0-527-89350-7 |pages=258 |language=en}}
References
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Category:15th-century Genoese people
Category:People of Ligurian descent
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