Columbus’s Sigla has nothing mysterious about it!
By Manuel Luciano da Silva, Medical Doctor
August 25, 2005-08-29

The navigator Cristóvão Colon, usually  known as Columbus, could foresee before  his death, that the Spanish Royal Authorities were going to make life miserable for his heirs, so in order to present that  tragedy from happening he resolved, while he was still alive, to do two very important things:

(1) To compile in a book all the 44 documents he has obtained from the Spanish Monarchs concerning the ten per cent profits of the lands he discovered in the New World. The title of this book was “The Book of Privileges” “Cartas  Previlegios Cédulas y otras Escrituras de Don Xpoval Colon Almirante mayor  del Mar Oceano Vicorey y Governador de las Islas y tierra Firme”  which was carefully examined by attorneys and notaries, on January 5, 1502, in his house in Seville , Spain.

       (2)     Another important decision the navigator left was his strong recommendation how he wanted his heirs to write on all documents his Trade Mark or Sigla. Here are his own words written in Spanish:

Trade Mark or sigla

“…. firme de mi firma la cual agora acostumbro, que es una X com una S em cima y una M com una A romana en cima, y en cima dela una S y despues una Y griega con una S en cima con sus rayos y virgulas, como yo agora fajo; y se parecerá  por mis firmas de las cuales se hallaram muchas y por esta parecera…”

Let us note that this statement has 3 words in Portuguese. AGORA instead of  “ahora” and two words COM with M when in Spanish it is with one N “con”.

The navigator stresses emphatically the way he want s his Trade Mark or Sigla to be written. Here is the translation of his message:

“ … The firmness of my trade mark or signature that now I am used to do, consist of one X (capital), with on S (capital) above it, and one M (capital) with one S (capital) above it, and one M (capital) with a Roman A (capital) on top of it, and above this another S (capital) and after that a Greek Y (capital) also with another S (capital) on top of it, together with dots and virgule, as I am now accustomed doing it; if there were in the past other forms of  my Sigla this one should be the standard.”

For several years I have been observing that the historians all over the world NEVER paid attention to this declaration by the navigator, in which he explains in the detail the composition of his Sigla.

These same historians – to cover their ignorance – have invented cabalistic interpretations and other fantasies. Why? Because they do not know the history, nor the meaning  of the punctuation signs or dots and virgule, For a person not to know is human. But if someone does not know and does to want to learn, he or she is a jackass! It is inadmissible!

Unfortunately ,many university professors of the World History all over the world, do not known the history and the meaning of the punctuation signs because they isolate themselves inside of their “ivory towers”. They are indeed a very unhappy bunch!

  The history and the meaning of dots and virgule

It is well known that the Phoenicians invented the consonants. But the Greeks invented the five vowels. But it was Pythagoras (born in Somos, Greece in 582 ad died in 500 before Christ) who was a great mathematician and he invented the punctuations signs. Everyone knows the importance of Pythagoras’ Theorem. And everyone should read “Golden Verses” by Pythagoras.  Pythagoras invented the punctuation signs to regulate the compass of he music. He invented the seven musical  notes: do, re, mi ,fa sol, la, si. As a philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras believed that everything in the universe had a rhythm and therefore this had to be express in numbers.  He was the one that established that number 60 could be divided by more parts than the number 100. This is the reason why today we have 60 minutes and 60 seconds.

Einstein analyze the universe by the numbers of electricity. Pythagoras was the Einstein of Antiquity.

It were the sings of punctuation – strange as it may seem – that Pythagoras crated the signs of punctuation to regulate the  cadency of poetry and prose!

Some historians want to give credit for the invention of the signs of punctuation to another Greek philosopher Aristophanes of the Library of Alexandria , around 200 years before Christ. 

In any event lets us analyze the sings of punctuation to be prepared to decipher Cristovão Colon or Columbus Sigla.

Period [ . ]

It is a compound word, “peri” + “hodos”. “Peri”  is a Greek prefix which means ‘going around, circle, space of time’. “Hodos”  means ‘path, street, length’ . Thus a period gives us a space of time ( e. g., lunar period, solar period, musical period, menstrual period) and a space of measure­ment (e. g., a sentence, perimeter, peripheral). But it also denotes repetition when it appears in front of a letter as in a musical stave.

Comma [ , ]

It is derived from the Greek “komma” which means “pause” in a sentence or musical composition. Unfortunately in Portugal they change its name to virgule, which has a complete meaning!

Colon [ : ]

In Greek means “member, parts, phallus (penis)”. Indeed, when we use a colon in punctuation it divides the sentence into parts or members.

Semicolon [ ; ] also divides a sentence into parts or members. Before we analyze Columbus ' Sigla , we should note that 500 years ago in Spain and Portugal colon [ : ] and semicolon [ ; ] were both called colons or separators of sentences. Colon [ : ] was called the perfect colon and semicolon [ ; ] was called imperfect colon. When a colon appeared at the beginning of the sentence it was to alert the reader that another colon or semicolon was going to appear at the end of the sentence, the same manner in which question marks were used. In elementary school in Portugal I was taught to use an inverted question mark at the beginning of a sentence to signify that the sentence was going to end in a question mark. Today, this rule still applies in Spanish. It is important in our analysis to remember these grammatical gymnastics between colon and semicolon, as it will allow us to correctly interpret Columbus ' Sigla.

“Virgule” [ / ]

It  is an “inclined line or dash” signifying that the “meaning of either word pertains” because “it has the same meaning”.  Virgule is the Latin diminutive of virga or vara, also the origin of the word virgin. When the virgule is vertical it symbolizes the external female genitals.

Analysis of the Sigla

Now we are ready to analyze Columbus ' Sigla. We only have to reaffirm that during Columbus ' lifetime his name was Cristóvão Colon in Portuguese and Cristóbal  Colon  in Spanish.

Here is the authentic name of the navigator as it appears on the cover title of his “Book of Privileges” ( 1502).

Don               Xpoval               Colon  

First, we will analyze the upper part of the Sigla because it is easy and there is general agreement as to its interpretation. Let us recall that the period in front of the letter [ . S . ] signifies repetition, as in musical notation.

Let us note that the letter [ X ] means cross breed, hence "son of”, and because 500 years ago the letter [ J ] did not exist in the Roman alphabet, the Greek [ Y ] was used for the initial letter of the name Joseph.

Interpretation of upper half of the Sigla

.Sanctus.

.Sanctus.     Altissimus   . Sanctus.

Son   of  Mary    and   Joseph

Now we will analyze  the lower part or base of the Sigla

On this line we see:

(1) [: ] Colon .

(2) [ Xpo ] with a line above, meaning Christ in Greek

(3)   FERENS. Let us note that the letter [ S ] has a turned up tail.

The [ Ss ] in the upper part of the Sigla do not have raised tails.

        (4)            [ . /  ] period and virgule are similar to a semicolon,  or Colon    

 

Synthesizing we have  [ : ] colon + Xpo =  in Greek meaning Christ + FerenS derived from the Latin verb FER which means to carry someone from one  margin of a river to the other side like a bridge connecting both sides  of the river.    In Portuguese the word span  of a brigde is translated into vão.     Making it Cristo + vão  = Cristovão. Plus  [  . / ] dot + virgule  which is the equivalent of  semi-colon or colon .

Conclusion:

So the lower line of the Sigla is read this way:  Colon Cristóvão Colon.

Why two Colons?  

Because the meaning of Colon is also religious “TO  WARD  OFF  THE  EVIL   EYE! “.

These two Colons serve as a protector ( like a parenthesis)  to the center name Cristóvão. The religious meaning of Colon is explained in another article in this website.  

Click here on this title: 

The Three meanings of Colon: (1) Punctuation, (2) Religious or Mythological 

 (3) Anatomical. 

We should note that the name Cristóvão Colon was his the Trade Name  --  as his Firma as he stated . He want to negotiate with the Spanish Monarchs not as an individual but as a company. He created his Trade Mark or his Sigla very ingeniously, like we see in so many trade marks throughout the world today!   

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