For work, I have been reading the multi-volume Repertorium Columbianum series. The following comes from Nicolò Scillacio (c. 1494) speaking of Columbus gifting an image of the Virgin Mary, instructing them to give the image (not Mary [the heavenly prototype] herself) religious adoration:
6.2.19. Once this had been done, the
admiral set out to go to see the king, who lived about ten miles from the sea.
Accompanied by one hundred of the more distinguished Spaniards, he set out on
the third day in the direction where many roofs and the smoke of a village should
be see. . . . The admiral, weighed down with so many gifts from Guacanagarí,
adorned him with an under-tunic sewn in the African style, reversible and
brightly colored. He also presented him with a larger hand-basin made of yellow
copper, and several tin rings; finally he reverently unwrapped an image of the
blessed Virgin Mother, and taught the king that it must be piously
worshipped [postremo beatae Virginis Matris reverenter explicat imaginem,
quam religiosius adorandam esse docet]. (Nicolò Scillacio, c. 1494, repr.
Italian Reports on America, 1493-1522: Accounts by Contemporary Observers,
ed. Geoffrey Symcox, trans. Luciano Formisano [Repertorium Columbianum 12; Turnhout:
Brepols, 2002], 43)
Further
Reading:
Answering
Fundamentalist Protestants and Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox on Images/Icons
