Universitätsbibliothek Freiburg i. Br., J 4554,d
Ravenstein, Ernst Georg
Martin Behaim: his life and his globe
London
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(PDF, 75 MB)
Bibliographische Information
Startseite des Bandes
Alte Drucke und Autorensammlungen

  (z. B.: IV, 145, xii)



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— 74 —

The Southern Atlantic is called oceanus meridionalis
(D 25 s). On the voyage thither, to the south of Cape
Verde and the Cape Verde Islands, we meet with the
following legend (C 4):—

es ift zu voifsen daz rnerr genant
oceanus alhier zwifchen den jnfeln
cabo verde und die/em landt faft
gerad vnder fich gegen mittag
fchnelliglich widerlaufft als herculefs
mit feinem fchiffen hieher gerunnen
wafs and alhier den ahfahl defs
mders fah kert er wider und fetzt die
feul welche durch fchrifft beweift, dafs
man merck dafs herculefs nit ferrer
fey Jcomen dann der ,diefes gefcriben
hat wurt von konik von portogall
ferner gefchikht, Anno, 1485.

Be it known that the sea called
Ocean, between the Cape Verde
Islands and the mainland, runs
swiftly to the south ; when Hercules
had got here with his ships and saw
the declivity (current) of the sea he
turned back, and set up a column,
the inscription upon which proves
that Hercules got no further.
Afterwards the writer of this was
sent further by the king of Portugal,
in the year 1485.

The Pillars of Hercules originally stood on the island
of Gades (Cadiz), outside the Straits of Gibraltar, but in
proportion as geographical knowledge extended so were
these columns pushed ahead.

On a Catalan map of 1450, published by Kretschmer
'Zeitsch. f. Erdk.' (1897), there are two small islands off
Cape Verde described as " Ilia de cades : asi posa ercules
does colones " (Cades Island where Hercules set up two
columns), and on Fra Mauro's famous map of 1459 a
legend to the south of Cabo rosso tells us that he had
heard from many that a column stood there with an
inscription stating that it was impossible to navigate
beyond.

Diogo Gomez, an old mariner, well known to Behaim,
to whom he presented his account ' De prima inventione
Guineae,"1 tells us that Joao de Castro, on his homeward
voyage in 1415, had to struggle against the current which
swept round Cabo de Non, upon which Hercules had set
up a column with the well-known legend, " quis navigat
ultra caput de Non revertetur aut non."

Gregory of Nyssa (died 395) already knew of the
existence of this current, which he ascribed to the excessive
evaporation caused by the great heat of the southern sun
and the absence of evaporation in the cool north.
Albertus Magnus (died 1280) (' Meteorologia,' II., tr. 3, c. 6)
ascribed the current to the same cause, namely, a difference
in the level of the ocean due to differences of evaporation,
but believed the current thus produced to be steady and
almost imperceptible. The actual velocity of the current
to the south of Cape Non varies from £ to 1| knots an hour.

Off the southern extremity of Africa, below a huge
fish, is written " oceanus maris asperi meridionalis ' (F 40 s),
perhaps with reference to the experience of Bartholomeu
Dias when within the influence of the " brave forties."

The Indian Ocean (Mare Jndicum, G 13, and oceanus
Jndicus, H 5) of Ptolemy, is divided into a Western Indian

Ocean, oceanus Jndicus occidentalis (H 20 s), an Ocean of
Upper India: oceanus Jndie fwperioris (K 17 s) off
Mangi; and an Eastern Indian Ocean, oceanus orientalis
(M 25 s) and oceanus orientis Jndies, or orientalis Indiae
(M 43), to the east of the meridian of Cipangu.

Behaim's Sinus arabicus (F 10) corresponds to our
Gulf of Aden, and this gulf as well as the das rod mer—
the Red Sea (F 20)—is coloured red.

Ptolemy's Sinus Persicus is called Da/z meer Perjia
(F 27) and his Hyrcanum mare, das hyrkani/che mer
(F 45).

The Islands of the Atlantic.
Iceland.

j/lant, eif landt, jfslandt (D 62).

jn eif landt ift fchon weifs volkh vnd
findt Chriften dafselbft ift gewonheit
daf man die hundt teler verkauft
vnnd ire kindt geben fy hinwegk den
kaufleutten vmb gots willen auf dafs
die andern brot haben (C 76).

jtem in jfslandt findt man menfschen
vo 80 jaren die nie kain brott gefsen
da wechft kain korn vnd an brot ftatt
ift man diirr fifch.

jn der Jnsel jfslandt fengt men den
ftock fifch den man Ml vnfer landt
bringt (D 76).

In Iceland are handsome white
people, and they are Christians.
It is the custom there to sell dogs
at a high price, but to give away
the children to (foreign) merchants,
for the sake of God, so that those
remaining may have bread.

Item, in Iceland are to be found
men eighty years of age who have
never eaten bread, for corn does not
grow there, and instead of bread
they eat dried fish.

In the island of Iceland they catch
the cod which is brought into our
country.

1 Published by Scbmeller ('Abhdlgn. d. phil. hist. CI. d. Ak. der
Wissenscheften,' IV., Munich, 1845) and G. Pereira ('Boletim Lisbon
G. ft* XVII., 1894).

The story of the Icelanders selling their dogs and
giving away their children is a fable invented by English
and Hanseatic pirates and merchants, who kidnapped
children, and even adults, and sold them into slavery.
As an instance may be mentioned the misdeeds of
William Byggeman, the captain of the ' Trinity,' who
was prosecuted in England in 1445, for having
committed this offence. (See Th. Thoroddsen, ' Ge-
schichte der islandischen Geographie,' Leipzig, 1897, I.,
pp. 87-89 ; Baasch, ' Die Islandfahrten d. Deutschen,' in
' Forsch. zur Hamburg. Handelsgesch.,' I., 1889 ; Andrew
Borde's ' Fyrst Boke ' (1547), republished in 1870 for the
English Text Society.

British Isles.

Scotlant (D 60).

Wildt fcotlant (D 62) on the north coast, the " wilde
Scotey" of Harding's chronicle, with a flag bearing

the mysterious inscription ^/prafa which Francis J.

Grant, Esq., Lyon Clerk, suggests may stand for " Johny
Groat's House," whilst the kneeling figure (only shown by
Ghil. and Jom. and no longer traceable on the original)
may refer to the Christian missionaries from Iona.

Orcanay (D 65) Orkneys. No islands visible on the
original.


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