Views differ on the number of letters written by Columbus. One view is that three letters were written: one (the Spanish letter) addressed to Luis de Santangel, 'Escribano de Racion', or Keeper of Accounts of Aragon; another (the Latin translation), which identifies the recipient as 'tesorero' Gabriel Sanchez, Treasurer of Aragon, and a third letter addressed to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, of which no known copy has survived. Another view is that all three were derived from a single manuscript sent to the King and Queen, from which copies were made and then sent to court officials.
There are a number of U.S. websites which provide further information on Columbus's voyages and the Letters:
- Christopher Columbus and early European exploration: a research guide provided by the New York Public Library.
- Columbus's First Letter a guide to the publishing history of the Letter provided by The Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education, University of Southern Maine.
- The Project Gutenberg edition of The Life of Christopher Columbus: from his own letters and journals and other documents of his time, by Edward Everett Hale.
- Christopher Columbus: man and myth part of the Library of Congress's exhibition '1492: an ongoing voyage'.
