It had been known since the Greeks that the world was round, but its girth was greatly underestimated by Columbus - luckily. The error sustained him through the incredible rebuffs and delays at the hands of the Portuguese and French authorities. The Spanish queen Isabella is rightly credited with sponsoring him, but not till she had turned him down several times like all the others, while committees argued: he was a braggart, a bore, and a bit cracked. God would not have hidden land for so long if He had meant it to be found.
- Jacques Barzun, From Dawn to Decadence
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