Hernando Colón, Christopher Columbus’ illegitimate son, had a quest: to collect all the printed knowledge in the world. He amassed a library of about 15,000 volumes and employed an army of people to read the books and write summaries. Many of those books have been lost to time, but the catalogue of summaries recently turned up in Copenhagen. Marco Werman interviews historian Edward Wilson-Lee about the book, Colón, and his quest.
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