Moderator message--well, really editorial message-- sorry--As this message states it was also sent to the map history list. There was an immediate reply on that list which disagrees with the conclusions of Dr. Thompson. The presence and meaning of the numerous 'islands' found on early maps of the Atlantic has been discussed at great lengths in the literature for many years. It appears that discussion will continue.-------------Johnnie ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Greetings, Please excuse me for cross-posting on Map-L and Maphist and for this long message, but I hope this will be of interest to many of you. Dr. Gunnar Thompson of the University of Hawaii at Manoa has made another "discovery". Since he has only recently gotten "online" and hasn't yet subscribed to the listserves, I am forwarding this press release with his permission. Please feel free to respond by also cc-ing to Dr. Thompson's email address which is included in the press release which follows. As a side note, the 1413 Mecia Viladestes map that is mentioned in the press release is reproduced in color in the book _Sea Charts of the Early Explorers_, by Michel Mollat du Jourdin; translated by L. le R. Dethan. New York : Thames and Hudson Inc., c1984. Furthermore, the "Book of the Knowledge" was translated and edited by Sir Clements Markham, K.C.B. London : Hakluyt Society, 1912. Both items are in the collections of the University of Hawaii's Hamilton Library. Aloha, Ross Togashi University of Hawaii Library Map Collection [log in to unmask] ************ Press release ************************************** DATE: March 15, 1996 FROM: Multicultural Discovery Project University of Hawaii - Wist Annex 121 - CE 1776 University Ave. Honolulu, HI 96822-2463 USA CONTACT: Gunnar Thompson, Project Director (808) 988-5581; 956-7904; FAX (808) 956-3814 [log in to unmask] SUBJECT: Discovery - Irish Settlement in America by 1350 AD HONOLULU - The Irish beat Columbus to America. That is what Professor Gunnar Thompson announced at a College of Education Colloquium held at the University of Hawaii Manoa campus. Thompson found evidence of an Irish settlement in North America on a map by the Majorcan cartographer Mecia Viladestes dated to 1413. This map has two places identified as Ireland. One is the island west of England that we normally think of as Ireland. On the Viladestes map it is called "Irlanda." The other isle is called "Ibernia" which is an ancient name for Ireland. However, Ibernia on this map is located west of Greenland. Other Medieval maps show lands west of Greenland that were later identified as North American territories. However, placement of an isle on a map is not sufficient proof of an Irish settlement in the New World. Several ancient sources tell of Irish isles in the North Atlantic. The Arabian geographer Al-Idrisi mentioned "Irlanda-al-Kabirah" or "Great Ireland located "beyond Greenland" in his atlas of 1154 AD. Norse sagas from the 11th century mentioned an Irish territory called "Vitramanland" or "Ireland The Great" that was situated near the Norse Wineland colony in the vicinity of modern-day Massachusetts. And 16th-century Danish maps showed a land called "Estotiland" or "Albania" on the North American mainland. The names Estotiland or Escotiland were commonly given to settlements of a Gaelic tribe from Northern Ireland. Since these maps were all made after the Columbus voyage, historians have assumed that they represented belated attempts to deprive the Spaniard of his rightful fame as discoverer of the New World. "The issue of priority," says Thompson, "is settled by the travel log of an anonymous Spanish Franciscan who traveled on Atlantic seas during the mid-14th century." It was the friar's travelog that convinced Thompson that Ibernia represents an Irish Settlement in North America. the travelog, called "The Book of Knowledge," was written circa 1350 and deposited in a Spanish archive - so there is no question that it predates the Columbus voyage. The book is an accounting of all the nations in the world along with a description of their flags. It was written to aid Christian travelers who could identify the religion and national loyalty of the places they intended to visit. Thompson says that "several features of the Ibernia described in the friar's book are sufficient to establish an Irish settlement in America. According to the friar, Ibernia had forests and fat game birds that were delicious either boiled or roasted." Thompson points out that the only forested lands west of Greenland were on mainland North America. Furthermore, there were no fat game birds in other northern isles like Greenland or Iceland. He believes the friar's travelog contains the first historical mention of the American turkey. "The clincher," he says, "is the flag. The Franciscan's account tells us that Ibernians flew the Norwegian flag. During the 14th century, the king of Norway claimed sovereignty over all the territories between the Baltic Sea and Nova Scotia. That explains why an Irish settlement near Nova Scotia flew a Norwegian flag." Thompson is a specialist in ancient cartography and transoceanic exploration. He is the head of an international consortium of scholars working on the Multicultural Discovery Project. He is also an instructor in the counselor education program at the University of Hawaii. His discovery of a 1414 survey map of North America by the English friar Nicholas of Lynn, was reported in the prestigious journal, _Cartographica Helvetica_, in January. ********** End of Press Release ********************************