This Niccolo Zeno, of a noble Venetian family, published what professed to be an account of the voyage of two of his ancestors in the far north in the service of a northern chief named Zichmni. Niccolo himself lived in the 16th century (1515–1565) and the voyages of his ancestors were supposed to have been made in the 14th century. The narrative was accompanied by an extraordinary map covered with names. It showed Greenland brought round to join Norway, Iceland, a large island called Friesland between Iceland and Greenland, lands to the west near America called Estotiland and Drogeo, and another large island in the Atlantic called Icaria. Niccolo Zeno was accepted as an authority by Mercator in his map of the world (1569) and by Ortelius (1570) and the narrative found a place in Ramusio (1574). Meanwhile the false information continued to mislead travellers and navigators. On the first English globe by Molyneux in 1572 Zeno’s Friesland and Drogeo are shown. As late as 1631 Luke Fox has “Frisland” on his polar card. The false information held its ground for a hundred years. Among modern writers there were differences of opinion. In 1784, J. Reinhold Foster fully accepted all Zeno’s story as true, and identified Zichmni with Sinclair, Earl of Orkney. Maltebrun accepted the story, and Humboldt was inclined to accept it. Lelewel accepted it. Mr Major gave whole-hearted credence to Zeno’s statements, and wrote a standard work on the subject (1873). Desimoni (1878) claimed that Major had settled the question. There were other writers who were more or less sceptical. Washington Irving rejected the story. Crantz and Graah, eminent Danish travellers and writers, were doubtful, and more or less incredulous. Admiral Zarhtmann of Copenhagen rejected both narrative and map, as did the learned Danish writer Steenstrup. All this was before the discovery of medieval maps which exposed the whole imposition. These were, especially, the large map of Olaus Magnus (Venice 1539), found in the Munich library in 1886, and the Zamoiski map (1467), discovered at Warsaw in 1888; also a map of North Europe and Greenland in the MS. Ptolemy at Florence, and the edition of Ptolemy published at Ulm in 1482--the earliest printed map showing Greenland. Most of the names on the Zeno map were supposed to be original; due to their discoveries, and not existent on any earlier map. The discovery of these earlier medieval maps, however, has disposed of that delusion. Of the 19 Zeno names on Iceland, 12 are in the Zamoiski map, 3 in the Florence map, and the others in that of Olaus Magnus. On the Cantino map in 1502 appears Frisland, placed due north of Scotland. It is a clerical error in copying Stillanda from the Cosa map. This is the way Zeno got hold of the name Frislanda. The whole was concocted by Niccolo Zeno and his publisher Marcoloni in 1558, from materials on maps then existing.