In the Summer of 1492 Christopher Columbus, a Genovese navigator, looks at the contracts he has just concluded with the queen of Castile. On first reading, these documents seem to be ordinary commercial contracts. The navigator agrees to explore, in the service of his contracting partners, new trade routes on the vast and uncharted waters of the Atlantic. His contracting partners will finance the venture. In return for his services the navigator will get a fair share of the future profits and extensive privileges over the unknown lands that he might discover on his voyage. Similar contracts are known, yet none would have such far reaching consequences as the contracts between the navigator Christopher Columbus and his contracting partners, the Catholic Kings Isabel of Castile and Leon and Fernando of Aragon.