Freiburger historische Bestände - digital

— 77

December 6, 1461, and January 22, 1462, by Diogo
Affonso, a gentleman in the household of D. Fernando,
the King's brother, who is credited by Barros with the
discovery of Cabo branco and mentioned by Azurara
(cc. 32-36). They were granted to D. Fernando by a
decree of September 12, 1462.1

Antilia.

Insula antilia—septe ritade (B 22). Antilia—sete cidades.

Murr already read " ritade " and translated " septem
reticulae."

als man zelt nach crifti gepurt 734
jor als gam hifpania von de heiden
auf affrica gewonen tourdt do wurdt
bewont di obgefchriben Jnfula antilia
genant Septe ritade von einem erz-
bifchoff von porto portigal mit fechs
andern bifchoffe und andern criften
man vnd frawen dj zu fchiff von
hi/panie dar geflohen kolken mit
Jrem vieh hab und gut anno 1414
iji ein fchiff aus hi/pania vngefert
darbei geweft am negften.

In the year 734 of Christ, when the
whole of Spain had been won by
the heathen (Moors) of Africa, the
above island Antilia, called Septe
citade (Seven cities), was inhabited
by an archbishop from Porto iu
Portugal, with six other bishops,
and other Christians, men and
women, who had fled thither from
Spain, by ship, together with their
cattle, belongings and goods. 1414
a ship from Spain got nighest it
without being endangered.

An imaginary island of Antilia has found a place upon
the charts since the fourteenth century and was at an
early date identified by the Portuguese with the equally
imaginary Ilha de sete cidades, the island of the seven cities,2
whither the Archbishop of Oporto with his six bishops is
imagined to have fled after the final defeat of King
Roderick of the Visigoths on the Guadalete (711) and the
capture of Merida (712) by the Arabs.

Galvao3 reports that in 1447 a Portuguese vessel,
driven westward by a storm, actually arrived at the island,
the inhabitants of which still spoke the Portuguese
tongue ; other voyages to this island in the time of Prince
Henry are referred to in the ' Historie' of Fernand
Colombo. These voyages, however, are purely imaginary,
or, at all events, led to no actual discoveries. It is certain,
however, that Fernao Telles, in 1475, and Fernao Dulmo,
in 1486, were authorized to sail in search of this imaginary
island.4

Antilia on the ancient maps is a huge island,
quadrangular in shape, resembling in all respects the
Cipangu of Behaim's globe.5 The " Antilia " of the globe,
on the other hand, includes two islands, which seem to
represent the " ciertas islas " depicted on Columbus's chart.

1 ' Alguns Documentos,' pp. 22, 27, 31, 90. The latest work dealing
with the disputed history of the Cape Verde Islands, by Senna Barcellus,
was published at Lisbon in 1899-1900. Prof. H. Yule Oldham, in his
proposed work on Cadamosto, will no doubt deal fully with this question.

2 For instance, on the chart of Gratiosus Benincasa, in 1483. See
also Las Casas, ' Historia,' liv. I., c. 13.

3 ' The Discovery of the World.' London, 1862, p. 72.

* 1 Alguns Documentos,' pp. 41, 58, 62.

* See inset on Map 2, giving Antilia according to Graciosus
Benincasa (1482) and Cipangu according to Behaim.

but vainly searched for on September 25, whilst Cuba, on
October 23, is identified with Zipangu.6

.it. Brandan's Island.
Jnfula de /ant brandan (A 7), St. Brandan's Island.

nach crift gepurt 565 ham S. brandon
mit feinen fchiff auf dife Jnful der
dofelbst vil winder besah und uber
fiben Jar darnoeh wider in fein land
zeg.

In the year 565 after Christ, St.
Brandon in his ship came to this
island where he witnessed many
marvels, and seven years afterwards
he returned to his country.

The legend of the Irish abbot St. Brandan, who, after
a seven years' peregrination over a sea of darkness, penetrated
to an Island of Saints—a terra repromissionis
sanctorum—was very popular during the Middle Ages.
A German version of the legend—' Sant Brandon's buch '
—was printed by A. Sorg at Augsburg in 1476, and
St. Brandon's Island retained a place upon the maps,
notwithstanding Vincent of Beauvais' disbelief in the
legend, until the days of Ortelius (1570) and Mercator;
and as recently as 1721 the Governor of the Canaries sent
out a vessel to search for this imaginary island. St.
Brandan's Island is generally associated with the Canaries,
as on the Hereford map (1280), but Dulcert's " Insulla
Scti Brandani sive puellarum " (1339) lies further north,
whilst Pizzigani's " San Brandany y ysole Pouzele " lie far
to the west (1367).7

Continental Europe.
Scandinavia.

Scandinavia is almost wholly copied from a map in
the Ulm edition of Ptolemy published in 1482.8 The
author of the globe was well aware that the three
northern kingdoms, since the Union of Calmar (1397),
were ruled by the King of Denmark, for the standard of
that kingdom flies at the mouth of the Elbe, at the
westernmost point of Norway and on Iceland.

tenmark (E 59), Denmark and coppenhagen, with a
miniature of the king.

nordwege (E 63), Norway.

bergri (E 64), Bergen, the well-known trading town.

thyle (E .63), an island on the coast of Norway
(Telemarken) is undoubtedly meant to represent the
Thule of Pytheas of Massilia, although that island is more
correctly identified with Shetland, known to sailors
(according to Caspar Peucer, b. 1525, d. 1602) as
Thillensell. SeeMiillenhoff, 'Deutsche Altertumskunde,'I.

6 See Mark! Yarn's translation, London, 1893. pp. 28-56.

7 On St. lirandan see De Goeje, ' La legende de Saint Brandon,'
Leiden, 1890 ; A. Jubinal,' La legende latine de S. Brandan,' Paris, 1836 ;
Kretschmer, ' Die Entdeckung Amerikas,' Berlin, 1892, p. 186.

8 On the origines of this map see Nordenskiold's Facsimile Atlas,
pp. 49, 54, 66.