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Since I remember always was taught that Christopher Columbus was a trader from Genoa which arrived to America believing that he arrived to the old Cipango (Japan) and Cathay (China) and furthermore he arrived by chande. Moreover it is said that he was cartographer and he did know Marco Polo's history and he did want to arrive to Cipango by the West, since as he believed that the Earth was more little that is in reality. He offered the project to the king of Portugal who did turn down it and later he offered the project to the Catholic Kings, who accepeted it and they helped him to subsidize it. So he embarked to Asia and he did find America.
Basically this is the story and so I did believe it for a long time (in fact this is the official story). But long taime ago, in the beginnig of the 90's, when it was talked about the conmemoration of the America discovery's V centenary, it arrived to my hands a newspaper article where the journalist talked about Juan Manzano, Columbus scholar, and who defended the hypothesis that the sailor knew already America's existence before "discrovered" it. According to him it arrived to the mariner the America's knowledge through an unknown pilot. Columbus was married with a noble portuguesse and he went to live to the Madeira island where her father was gobernor. When he was there arrived dying an unknowun pilot. There is who says, like the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega in his Comentarios reales de los incas (translated complete into English in 1961 as The Incas) who says that this pilot was the mariner Alonso Sánchez de Huelva. On the other hand there are who say that the Inca Garcilaso de la Vega just did write a story that he heard to some saylors about Columbus when he was child and the pilot's real name is unknown.
According with Juan Manzano, studing Columbus diary you can see that from the Canari Islands the distances doesn't coincide, but if you go down to the Green cap islands, the distances coincide. Furthermore the sea streams can transport the ships even without wind (like some occasions according with Columbus diary). On the other hand Manzano also said that Columbus followed the sea streams that go to America on the way out and the streams that go to Europe to return. Avoiding the Sargasso sea where there is almost no ship motion because the Sargasso sea characteristic, which is surrounded by two big streams that cross the Atlantic

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Regardless of the circumstances is seems very interesting that Columbus live is an enigma. From his pictures all are identikit pictures. He never did pose for a picture. If no, why any picture is different?

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But, how is possible that somebody could manage to make good contacts with the nobility and even with the royalty? Besides to obtain a deal about something that in theroy was not discovered already.
In the head of the Santa Fe Agreement says:
"The things implored and that Your Highness give and bestow to Mrd Christopher of Columbus, in any satisfaction of that what discovered in the Oceans and the travel that now, with God's help, he has to make by it to Your Highness service, are the ones that are below:"

But if nothing was discovered yet, why it is writted "of that what discovered"? Columbus did know that there was something, and it was not Cathay.
The fact that Columbus had a previous knowledge from the lands to "discover" is not new. From a long time more people worked with this idea. But Juan Manzano was the first to use tangible proofs. From the information that I did read about the topic, I did like the more the one form José Antonio Hurtado, who proves that Columbus had a Templar origin's map (that is writted just in Spanish) and in his web about Columbus he set out that he had previous knowledges about America because he was cartographer and cartographer descendant (that could include some kind of lodge). Even set out very clear how wrong were made the Ptolemy maps when it was tryed to interpret it and how doing well done the calculations you can see very clear that everything was well cartographyed and not the distort maps showed from the ancient times.



If you pay attention to the map above, on the very left side there are islands aligned ones above the others in the Atlantic. Impossible that island are the Canary Islands because they are not ones above the others. But if you pay attention to the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea, you will see that those are aligned. Those are the Fortunate Island that said Ptolemy.

A lot of people said that there was this previous knowledge. The problem, like several things, is that there is an agreement to don't move anythind and left it like is known now. Not to make any kind of revision.