Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 1 (of 8): Aboriginal America
History
Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 1 (of 8): Aboriginal America
America -- Discovery and exploration; America -- History; United States -- History
A few years later, or perhaps about the same time, and before 1471,
the earliest engraved map which shows Greenland is that of Nicolas
Donis, in the Ulm edition of Ptolemy in 1482. It will be seen from the
little sketch which is annexed that the same doubling of Greenland is
adhered to.[753] With the usual perversion put upon the Norse stories,
Iceland is made to lie due west of Greenland, though not shown in the
present sketch.
At a date not much later, say 1486, it is supposed the Laon globe,
dated in 1493, was actually made, or at least it is shown that in some
parts the knowledge was rather of the earlier date, and here we have
“Grolandia,” a small island off the Norway coast.[754]
[Illustration: CLAUDIUS CLAVUS, 1427.]
We have in 1489-90 a type of configuration, which later became
prevalent. It is taken from an _Insularium illustratum Henrici Martelli
Germani_, a manuscript preserved in the British Museum, and shows, as
seen by the annexed extract, a long narrow peninsula, running southwest
from the northern verge of Europe. A sketch of the whole map is given
elsewhere.[755]
This seems to have been the prevailing notion of what and where
Greenland was at the time of Columbus’ voyage, and it could have
carried no significance to his mind that the explorations of the Norse
had found the Asiatic main, which he started to discover. How far this
notion was departed from by Behaim in his globe of 1492 depends upon
the interpretation to be given to a group of islands, northwest of
Iceland and northeast of Asia, upon the larger of which he writes among
its mountains, “Hi man weise Volker.”[756]
As this sketch of the cartographical development goes on, it will be
seen how slow the map-makers were to perceive the real significance
of the Norse discoveries, and how reluctant they were to connect them
with the discoveries that followed in the train of Columbus, though
occasionally there is one who is possessed with a sort of prevision.
The Cantino map of 1502[757] does not settle the question, for a point
lying northeast of the Portuguese discoveries in the Newfoundland
region only seems to be the southern extremity of Greenland. What was
apparently a working Portuguese chart of 1503 grasps pretty clearly the
relations of Greenland to Labrador.[758]
[Illustration: FRA MAURO, 1459.]
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