Chapter II: Pre-Columbian Explorations (3)

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]

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]

Lelewel (pl. 43), in a map made to show the Portuguese views at this time,[759] which he represents by combining and reconciling the Ptolemy maps of 1511 and 1513, still places the “Gronland” peninsula in the northwest of Europe, and if his deductions are correct, the Portuguese had as yet reached no clear conception that the Labrador coasts upon which they fished bore any close propinquity to those which the Norse had colonized. Ruysch, in 1508, made a bold stroke by putting “Gruenlant” down as a peninsula of Northeastern Asia, thus trying to reconcile the discoveries of Columbus with the northern sagas.[760] This view was far from acceptable. Sylvanus, in the Ptolemy of 1511, made “Engroneland” a small protuberance on the north shore of Scandinavia, and east of Iceland, evidently choosing between the two theories instead of accepting both, as was common, in ignorance of their complemental relations.[761] Waldseemüller, in the Ptolemy of 1513, in his “Orbis typus universalis,” reverted to and adopted the delineation of Henricus Martellus in 1490.[762]

In 1520, Apian, in the map in Camer’s _Solinus_, took the view of Sylvanus, while still another representation was given by Laurentius Frisius in 1522, in an edition of Ptolemy,[763] in which “Gronland” becomes a large island on the Norway coast, in one map called “Orbis typus Universalis,” while in another map, “Tabula nova Norbegiæ et Gottiæ,” the “Engronelant” peninsula is a broad region, stretching from Northwestern Europe.[764]

This Ptolemy was again issued in 1525, repeating these two methods of showing Greenland already given, and adding a third,[765] that of the long narrow European peninsula, already familiar in earlier maps—the variety of choice indicating the prevalent cartographical indecision on the point.

NOTE.—This fac-simile accompanies a paper appearing in the _Videnskabsselskabs Forhandinger_ (1886, no. 15) _and separately as Die ächte karte des Olaus Magnus vom jahre 1539, nach dem exemplar der Münchener Staatsbibliothek_ (Christiania, 1886). In this Dr. Brenner traces the history of the great map of Archbishop Olaus Magnus, pointing out how Nordenskjöld is in error in supposing the map of 1567, which that scholar gives, was but a reproduction of the original edition of 1539, which was not known to modern students till Brenner found it in the library at Munich, in March, 1886, and which proves to be twelve times larger than that of 1567. Brenner adds the long Latin address, “Olaus Gothus benigno lectori salutem,” with annotations. The map is entitled “Carta Marina et descriptio septentrionalium errarum ac mirabilium rerum in eis contentarum diligentissime elaborata, Anno Dni, 1539.” Brenner institutes a close comparison between it and the Zeno chart.]

Kohl, in his collection of maps,[766] copies from what he calls the Atlas of Frisius, 1525, still another map which apparently shows the southern extremity of Greenland, with “Terra Laboratoris,” an island just west of it, and southwest of that a bit of coast marked “Terra Nova Conterati,” which may pass for Newfoundland and the discoveries of Cortereal.

This map, here reproduced on a somewhat smaller scale, is called: _Regnorum Aquilonarum descriptio, hujus Operis subiectum_.]

Thorne, the Englishman, in the map which he sent from Seville in 1527,[767] seems to conform to the view which made Greenland a European peninsula, which may also have been the opinion of Orontius Finæus in 1531.[768] A novel feature attaches to an Atlas, of about this date, preserved at Turin, in which an elongated Greenland is made to stretch northerly.[769] In 1532 we have the map in Ziegler’s _Schondia_, which more nearly resembles the earliest map of all, that of Claudius Clavus, than any other.[770] The 1538 cordiform map of Mercator makes it a peninsula of an arctic region connected with Scandinavia.[771] This map is known to me only through a fac-simile of the copy given in the _Geografia_ of Lafreri, published at Rome about 1560, with which I am favored by Nordenskjöld in advance of its publication in his _Atlas_.

The great _Historia_ of Olaus Magnus, as for a long time the leading authority on the northern geography, as well as on the Scandinavian chronicles, gives us some distinct rendering of this northern geographical problem. It was only recently that his earliest map of 1539 has been brought to light, and a section of it is here reproduced from a much reduced fac-simile kindly sent to the editor by Dr. Oscar Brenner of the university at Munich.[A] Nordenskjöld, in giving a full fac-simile of the Olaus Magnus map of 1567,[772] of which a fragment is herewith also given in fac-simile, says that it embodies the views of the northern geographers in separating Greenland from Europe, which was in opposition to those of the geographers of the south of Europe, who united Greenland to Scandinavia. Sebastian Münster in his 1540 edition of Ptolemy introduced a new confusion. He preserved the European elongated peninsula, but called it “Islandia,” while to what stands for Iceland is given the old classical name of Thyle.[773] This confusion is repeated in his map of 1545,[774] where he makes the coast of “Islandia” continuous with Baccalaos. This continuity of coast line seemed now to become a common heritage of some of the map-makers,[775] though in the Ulpius globe of 1542 “Groestlandia,” so far as it is shown, stands separate from either continent,[776] but is connected with Europe according to the early theory in the _Isolario_ of Bordone in 1547.

Reproduced from the fac-simile given in Nordenskjöld’s _Studien_ (Leipzig, 1885).]

We have run down the main feature of the northern cartography, up to the time of the publication of the Zeno map in 1558. The chief argument for its authenticity is that there had been nothing drawn and published up to that time which could have conduced, without other aid, to so accurate an outline of Greenland as it gives. In an age when drafts of maps freely circulated over Europe, from cartographer to cartographer, in manuscript, it does not seem necessary that the search for prototypes or prototypic features should be confined to those which had been engraved.

The original measures 12 × 15½ inches. Fac-similes of the original size or reduced, or other reproductions, will be found in Nordenskjöld’s _Trois Cartes_, and in his _Studien_; Malte Brun’s _Annales des Voyages_; Lelewel’s _Moyen Age_ (ii. 169); _Carter-Brown Catalogue_ (i. 211); Kohl’s _Discovery of Maine_, 97; Ruge’s _Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen_, p. 27; Bancroft’s _Central America_, i. 81; Gay’s _Pop. Hist. U. S_., i. 84; Howley’s _Ecclesiast. Hist. Newfoundland_, p. 45; Erizzo’s _Le Scoperte Artiche_ (Venice, 1855),—not to name others.]

With these allowances the map does not seem to be very exceptional in any feature. It is connected with northwestern Europe in just the manner appertaining to several of the earlier maps. Its shape is no great improvement on the map of 1467, found at Warsaw. There was then no such constancy in the placing of mid-sea islands in maps, to interdict the random location of other islands at the cartographer’s will, without disturbing what at that day would have been deemed geographical probabilities, and there was all the necessary warranty in existing maps for the most wilfully depicted archipelago. The early Portuguese charts, not to name others, gave sufficient warrant for land where Estotiland and Drogeo appear.

Mention has already been made of the changes in this map, which the editors of the Ptolemy of 1561 made in severing Greenland from Europe, when they reëngraved it.[777] The same edition contained a map of “Schonlandia,” in which it seems to be doubtful if the land which stands for Greenland does, or does not, connect with the Scandinavian main.[778] That Greenland was an island seems now to have become the prevalent opinion, and it was enforced by the maps of Mercator (1569 and 1587), Ortelius (1570, 1575), and Gallæus (1585), which placed it lying mainly east and west between the Scandinavian north and the Labrador coast, which it was now the fashion to call Estotiland. In its shape it closely resembled the Zeni outline. Another feature of these maps was the placing of another but smaller island west of “Groenlant,” which was called “Grocland,” and which seems to be simply a reduplication of the larger island by some geographical confusion,[779] which once started was easily seized upon to help fill out the arctic spaces.[780]

From _Theatri orbis Terrarum Enchiridion, per Phillipum Gallæum, et per Hugonem Favolium_ (Antwerp, 1585).]

It was just at this time (1570) that the oldest maps which display the geographical notions of the saga men were drawn, though not brought to light for many years. We note two such of this time, and one of a date near forty years later. One marked “Jonas, Gudmundi filius, delineavit, 1570,” is given as are the two others by Torfæus in his _Gronlandia Antiqua_. They all seem to recognize a passage to the Arctic seas between Norway and Greenland, the northern parts of which last are called “Risaland,” or “Riseland,” and Jonas places “Oster Bygd” and “Wester Bygd” on the opposite sides of a squarish peninsula. Beyond what must be Davis’ Straits is “America,” and further south “Terra Florida” and “Albania.”

If this description is compared with the key of Stephanius’ map, next to be mentioned, while we remember that both represent the views prevailing in the north in 1570, it is hard to resist the conclusion that Vinland was north even of Davis’ Straits, or at least held to be so at that time.

The second map, that of Stephanius, is reproduced herewith, dating back to the same period (1570); but the third, by Gudbrandus Torlacius, was made in 1606, and is sketched in Kohl’s _Discovery of Maine_ (p. 109). It gives better shape to “Gronlandia” than in either of the others.

Reproduced from the _Saga Time_ of J. Fulford Vicary (London, 1887), after the map as given in the publication of the geographical society at Copenhagen, 1885-86, and it is supposed to have been drafted upon the narrative of the sagas. Key:

“_A._ This is where the English have come and has a name for barrenness, either from sun or cold.

_B._ This is near where Vineland lies, which from its abundance of useful things, or from the land’s fruitfulness, is called Good. Our countrymen (Icelanders) have thought that to the south it ends with the wild sea and that a sound or fjord separates it from America.

_C._ This land is called Rüseland or land of the giants, as they have horns and are called Skrickfinna (Fins that frighten).

_D._ This is more to the east, and the people are called Klofinna (Fins with claws) on account of their large nails.

_E._ This is Jotunheimer, or the home of the misshapen giants.

_F._ Here is thought to be a fjord, or sound, leading to Russia.

_G._ A rocky land often referred to in histories.

_H._ What island that is I do not know, unless it be the island that a Venetian found, and the Germans call Friesland.”

It will be observed under the _B_ of the Key, the Norse of 1570 did not identify the Vinland of 1000 with the America of later discoveries.

This map is much the same, but differs somewhat in detail, from the one called of Stephanius, as produced in Kohl’s _Discovery of Maine_, p. 107, professedly after a copy given in Torfæus’ _Gronlandia Antiqua_ (1706). Torfæus quotes Theodorus Torlacius, the Icelandic historian, as saying that Stephanius appears to have drawn his map from ancient Icelandic records. The other maps given by Torfæus are: by Bishop Gudbrand Thorlakssen (1606); by Jonas Gudmund (1640); by Theodor Thorlakssen (1666), and by Torfæus himself. Cf. other copies of the map of Stephanius in Malte-Brun’s _Annales des Voyages, Weise’s Discoveries of America_, p. 22; _Geog. Tidskrift_, viii. 123, and in Horsford’s _Disc. of America by Northmen_, p. 37.]

It is not necessary to follow the course of the Greenland cartography farther with any minuteness. As the sixteenth century ended we have leading maps by Hakluyt in 1587 and 1599 (see Vol. III. 42), and De Bry in 1596 (Vol. IV. 99), and Wytfliet in 1597, all of which give Davis’s Straits with more or less precision. Barentz’s map of 1598 became the exemplar of the circumpolar chart in Pontanus’ _Rerum et Urbis Amstelodamensium Historia_ of 1611.[781] The chart of Luke Fox, in 1635, marked progress[782] better than that of La Peyrère (1647), though his map was better known.[783] Even as late as 1727, Hermann Moll could not identify his “Greenland” with “Groenland.” In 1741, we have the map of Hans Egede in his “Grönland,” repeated in late editions, and the old delineation of the east coast after Torfæus was still retained in the 1788 map of Paul Egede.

NOTE.—The annexed map is a reduced fac-simile of the map in the _Efterretninger om Grönland uddragne af en Journal holden fra 1771 til 1788_, by Paul Egede (Copenhagen, 1789). Paul Egede, son of Hans, was born in 1708, and remained in Greenland till 1740. He was made Bishop of Greenland in 1770, and died in 1789. The above book gives a portrait. There is another fac-simile of the map in Nordenskjöld’s _Exped. till Grönland_, p. 234.]

In the map of 1653, made by De la Martinière, who was of the Danish expedition to the north, Greenland was made to connect with Northern Asia by way of the North pole.[784] Nordenskjöld calls him the Münchhausen of the northeast voyagers; and by his own passage in the “Vega,” along the northern verge of Europe, from one ocean to the other, the Swedish navigator has of recent years proved for the first time that Greenland has no such connection. It yet remains to be proved that there is no connection to the north with at least the group of islands that are the arctic outlyers of the American continent.

Extracted from the “Carte de Grœnland” in Isaac de la Peyrère’s _Relation du Groenland_ (Paris, 1647). Cf. Winsor’s _Kohl Maps_, no. 122.]