It is one of three copies known to still exist.Īs world-changing as it was, it’s only one letter in the Library’s stunning collection of correspondence that has helped shape the world as we know it, stretching back more than a thousand years. The Library’s scribal copy of the letter, a papal bull known by its Latin name of Dudum siquidem, is from around 1502. Many scholars believe it is the first written reference to the New World, and it lays out the deadly course of colonialism that Europeans were to inflict on the peoples of the Americas. Written in the wake of Christopher Columbus’ 1492 voyage to the west, the letter from Pope Alexander VI to the Spanish monarchy gives them papal authority to forever claim “all islands and lands, discovered and to be discovered, toward the west and south, that were not under the actual temporal rule of any Christian powers.” It is one of the top treasures of the Library, sealed away in a secure cocoon. It is one of the most consequential missives in world history. The letter, written on vellum, is more than 500 years old. This article also appears in the Library of Congress Magazine. She wrote conductor Leonard Bernstein afterwards, in a letter now at the Library. Jacqueline Kennedy at the memorial service for Robert Kennedy.
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