Freiburger historische Bestände - digital

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good deal about the inhabitants of the Western Sahara,
among whom his informant, Joao Fernandez, had spent a
couple of years (1445-7), but Ca da Mosto is the earliest
traveller who furnished information of a nature sufficiently
precise to be laid down upon a map. From Arguin, the
Portuguese factory on the coast, he reckons six days'
journey for camels to Oden (Waden), and six days more to
Tegazza, whence rock salt is exported to Tombuto, a
journey of forty days on horseback. From Tombuto to
Melli he reckons thirty days. Melli exports gold to
Cochia,1 on the road to Cairo; to Tunes, by way of
Tombuto and Tuet; and to Oran, Morocco, Fessa (Fez),
and Mezza by way of Oden. It appears thus that he
supposed Melli to lie to the west or south-west of
Tombuto. More important is the information communicated
by Diogo Gomez to Martin Behaim. According to
him the road from Adem (Waden) to Tambucutu crosses
the Abofar Mountains, which extend as far as Gelu (Jalo),
south of Cantor on the Gambia, and separate the rivers
flowing west, such as the Senega and Gambia, from those
flowing to the east. He also describes a route leading
from Cantor eastward through Cerekule2 to Quioquia,
the residence of Ber Bormelli, on a River Emin, which
exports gold to Cairo, Tunes and Fez. A lake is near it.
Caravans going from Tunes to Tambucutu cross a sea
of sand—Mar arenosa—during 37 days. The Moses3 of
my map are inserted to the east of Tombutu, on the
authority of Bemoyn, King of the Jalof, who was at
Lisbon in 1488 ; King Ogane, according to J. A. d'Aveiro
(1485). This prince, the King thought, might turn out to
be Prester John. The remaining names on the map are
taken from A. Benincasa's map of the Mediterranean.

If now we turn to the globe we shall find that not
any of the above information has been utilised by its
author. There is a king Mormelli and a king Organ, but
the sites assigned to them are evidently from some other
source. Neither Odan (Wadan), Tombuto, nor Cantor
on the Gambia, are indicated, and yet they were places
of interest in the Portugal of Behaim's time. The
valuable information given by Gomez respecting the divide
between the rivers flowing west and east is absolutely
ignored.

Miscellaneous Sources.

Foremost amongst these rank the maps in the Ulm
edition of Ptolemy (1482), of which Dominus Nicolaus, a
German residing in Italy, was the author.4 Of these

1 The ruins of Kukiya (Cochia, Quiquia) were discovered by Lieut.
Desplagne 95 miles to the south of Goa, on the right bank of the Niger
(Rev. col., 1904, Sept.).

2 The Serekhule, on the south bank of the Senegal above the rapids.

3 Barros, ' Da Asia,' Dec. I., liv. 3, c. 7 ; Ruy de Pina, c. 37.

4 Of these maps there are three sets or versions in MS. The first set
was bought by the Duke Borso d'Este, about 1464; the second set (with
three modern maps) was dedicated to Pope Paul II. (1464-71) ; a third
version with five modern maps is now the property of Prince Waldburg.
These last are the maps published at Ulm in 1482.

maps that of Scandinavia is a curtailed version of one
drawn in 1423 by Claudius Clavus Swartho (Niger), a
Dane who lived,at Rome. His map shows the actual
Greenland as extending from Europe to beyond Iceland.
On the map of Nioolaus published in 1482, though not in
an earlier edition - Greenland is omitted.

Bartolomeo of Florence, who is said to have travelled
for twenty-four years in the East (1401-1424), but whose
name and reputation are otherwise unknown, is quoted at
length on the spice trade.5

Behaim's laudable reticence as to " mirabilia mundi "
has been referred to already (p. 59), but he does not
disdain to introduce long accounts concerning the
" Romance " of Alexander the Great, the myth of the
*' Three Wise Men " or kings, the legends connected with
Christian Saints, such as St. Thomas, St. Matthew, St.
Apollonius, and St. Brandan or St. Patrick, or the story of
Prester John, all of which were popular during the Middle
Ages. He quotes Genesis (instead of Kings ii. 13) in connection
with Ophir, and refers to St. Jerome's introduction
to the Bible.

Sources not traced.

If the reader will refer to the map illustrating the
" Sources of Behaim's Globe," or to the " Nomenclature "
which follows, he will find that I have been unable to
trace the origin of many features and names met with. 1
believe that if we were in possession of the materials at
Behaim's command whilst he was at Nuremberg, we
should find a solution for many questions which now
puzzle us, not only with reference to this globe, but also
in connection with many maps of the same period. At
Nuremberg he was able to associate not only with men of
travel, like his patron and fellow worker George Holzschu-
her, but also with others who took an interest in geographical
work, such as Dr. Hieronymus Miintzer or Monetarius,
Dr. Hartmann Schedel, and Bernhard Walther. From
these he may have learnt all about the missions upon
which Frederick III. sent Nicholas Poppel to Russia, in
1486 and 1488, for Poppel came to Nuremberg on the
return from his first journey, and rendered an account of
his mission to the assembled " Reichstag."6

Of H. Schedel we know that he took an interest if not
an actual share in the making of the globe. We learn
this from a memorandum in Schedel's hand discovered
by Dr. R. Stauber7 on a blank leaf of an edition of

6 G. Uzielli, ' Vita e i tempi di Toscanelli,' Raccolto Col., V., identifies
this Bartolomeo of Florence with Nicold di Conti, whom Enea Silvio
(Pius II.) describes as a Venetian! See also W. Sensburg, ' Poggio
Braciolini und Nicol6 di Conti' (Mittlen. Vienna g. Soc., 1906). Nicold
travelled 1415-40, Bartolomeo 1401-29!

' Hormayr's ' Arehiv fiir Geographic,' etc., Vienna, 1829, No. 47.

' R. Stauber, 'Die Schedel'sche Bibliothek' (Freiburg, 1908), p. 60,
a commentary by Dr. H. Grauert, ib., p. 257. About one half of
Schedel's memorandum is borrowed, without acknowledgment, from the
' Historia rerum' of Pope Pius II., especially lamentation on the want of
appreciation of honest work. Does this refer to critics in Behaim's native
town? (See Appendix VIII.)