The voyage of Verrazzano : $b a chapter in the early history of maritime discovery in AmericaMurphy, Henry Cruse
History
The voyage of Verrazzano : $b a chapter in the early history of maritime discovery in America
Murphy, Henry Cruse
America -- Discovery and exploration -- French; Verrazzano, Giovanni da, 1485-1528
Lok's map represents on the Atlantic coast, in latitude 41 Degrees
N., the island alleged in the Verrazzano letter to have been named
after the king's mother, and gives it the name of Claudia. That it
is the same island is proven by note to the translation of the
letter given in the volume in which this map is found. Hakluyt puts
in the margin, opposite the passage where mention of the island
occurs in the letter, the words "Claudia Ilande." From whatever
source this name was derived by them, whether from Mercator or by
their own mistake, both Lok and Hakluyt here indirectly bear their
testimony to the fact, that the name of Luisia was not upon the old
map given to Henry VIII, which Lok consulted, and Hakluyt described.
It is thus to be concluded that the map delivered to the king showed
the western sea, but not any discoveries of Verrazzano on the
Atlantic coast.
In another work, as yet unpublished, Hakluyt affords some additional
information in regard to the old map, which though brief, is quite
significant. He remarks that it is "a mightie large olde mappe in
parchment, made AS IT WOULD SEEM by Verrazanus, now in the custodie
of Mr. Michael Locke;" and he speaks also of an "olde excellent
GLOBE in the Queen's privie gallery, at Westm'r, w'h ALSO SEEMETH
to be of Verrazanus making." [Footnote: MS. in possession of the
Maine Historical Society, cited in Mr. Kohl's Discovery of Maine, p.
291, note.] Both the map and the globe are thus mentioned as the
PROBABLE workmanship of Verrazzano, from which it is probable that
there was no name upon them to determine that question positively.
The great size of the chart, the material upon which it was made,
and the authorship of the map and globe by the same person, are
circumstances which go to prove that they were both the work of a
professed cosmographer, and embraced the whole world; and
consequently that the map was not a chart made by the navigator,
showing his discoveries, but possibly the map of Hieronimo in its
original form. The construction of this old map, whoever was the
author, is fixed certainly BEFORE 1529, by the statement of Hakluyt,
that it was presented to Henry VIII by Verrazzano, the navigator,
inasmuch as Verrazzano came to his death in 1527. The Verrazzano
map, in its present phase, not claiming to have been made before the
year 1529, could not, therefore, have furnished the original
representation of the western sea, or have been the one used by Lok.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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