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Legendary islands of the Atlantic; a study in medieval geography

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Autolocus
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« Reply #15 on: July 19, 2009, 02:22:15 am »

THE ZENO STORY

It has been alleged that two Venetian brothers, Antonio and
Nicold Zeno, in the service of an earl of the northern islands, took
part with him about 1400 A. D. in certain explorations west-
ward, he being incited thereto by the report of a fisherman, who
claimed to have spent many years as a castaway and captive in
regions southwest of Greenland. The Zeno narrative, dealt with
later (Ch. IX), was accompanied by a map (Fig. 19), which
exercised a great influence during a long period on all maps that
succeeded it, adding several islands never before heard of. Both
map and narrative are recognized as spurious or at best so cor-
rupted by misunderstandings and transformed by rough treat-
ment and a post-Columbian attempt at reconstruction as to be
wholly unreliable. It is, indeed, possible that a fisherman of the
Faroes made an involuntary sojourn in Newfoundland and else-
where in America from about 1375 or 1380 onward and that his
story induced the ruler of certain northern islands to sail west-
ward and investigate. But both features are very dubious, and
at any rate nothing was accomplished except the confusion of
geography.

PORTUGUESE DISCOVERY

This brings us down to the rise of Portuguese nautical en-
deavor, which seems to have begun earlier than has generally
been supposed but became most conspicuous under the direction
of Prince Henry the Navigator. Its achievements included the
rediscovery of Madeira and the Azores, which in many quarters
had been forgotten, the exploration of the African coast, the
accidental discovery or rediscovery of South American Brazil by
Cabral, and the voyage of Vasco da Gama to India around the
Cape of Good Hope. Perhaps we might insert in the list the
discovery of Antillia. At any rate, it got on the map with a
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