Legendary islands of the Atlantic; a study in medieval geography

yo ISLAND OF THE SEVEN CITIES

The name Antillia had appeared on the maps much earlier.
As Atilae, or Atulae, it is doubtfully found in an inscription on
that of the Pizigani (1367 ; 7 Fig. 2), identifying a "shore," not
drawn, on which a colossal statue of warning had been erected.
The location seems to be somewhere in the region where Corvo
of the Azores should appear.

We meet the island name, for the first time unmistakably,
on the map of Beccario (Becharius) of 1435* (Fig. 20). It is ap-
plied to the chief of a group of four large islands, comparable to
nothing actually in the western Atlantic except the Greater An-
tilles, or three of them with Florida (Bimini). They are collec-
tively designated "Insulle a Novo Repte" the "Newly Reported
Islands." Antillia itself is shown as an elongated quadrilateral
having its sides indented by seven two-lobed bays of identical
form, beside another and larger bay in the southern end. Several
subsequent maps repeat the delineation with little change, and
the map of Benincasa (1482; Fig. 22) supplies local names for
the bays or the regions adjoining excepting only the lowest but
one on the eastern side, which bay is opposite the middle of the
island name Antillia. The other names as read by Dr. Kretsch-
mer are Aira, Ansalli, Ansodi, Con, Anhuib, Ansesseli, and An-
solli. It will be observed that five of them borrow the first sylla-
ble of Antillia. Nobody has explained these names, and they seem
mere products of linguistic fancy. But again the coincidence in
number is impressive, although somewhat offset by the fact that
the next largest island in the group, Saluaga, has a similar ar-

in Possession of His Catholic Majesty. Written by His Own Son, transl. from
the Italian and contained in "A Collection of Voyages and Travels, Some Now First
Printed from Original Manuscripts, Others Now First Published in English," by
Awnsham Churchill and John Churchill (6 vols., London, 1732), Vol. 2, pp. 501-
628; reference on p. 512.

7 [E. F.] Jomard: Les monuments de la geographic, ou recueil d'anciennes cartes
europeennes et orientales Paris, [1842-62], PI. X, i.

8 Gustavo Uzielli: Mappamondi, carte nautiche e portolani del medioevo e dei
secoli delle grandi scoperte marittime construiti da italiani o trovati nelle biblio-
teche d'ltalia. Part II (pp. 280-390) of "Studi Bibliografici e Biografici sulla Storia
della Geografia in Italia," published on the occasion of the Second International
Geographical Congress, Paris, i8?5.by the Societa Geografica Italiana, Rome, 1875;
reference on PI. 8 (the second edition, Rome, 1882, does not contain the plates).

Kretschmer, atlas, PI. 4, map i.