COMPASS-CHARTS 



charts the image of the North shows certain typical features. 

 The coast of Germany and Jutland goes due north from 

 Flanders, thus coming much too near Britain, and the North 

 Sea becomes nothing but a narrow strait. Even on the earliest 

 charts (Dalorto's chart, p. 226) the shape of Jutland is quite 

 good. Norway, the coasts of which are indicated by chains of 

 mountains, is placed fairly correctly in relation to Jutland, 

 but is put too far to the west and too near to England. 

 It is also made too broad. The Skagerak appears more or less 

 correctly, but the Danish islands, including Zealand, usually 

 as a round island, are placed in the Cattegat to the north- 

 east of Jutland. This greatly distorts the picture. Sweden 

 is much too small, and is given too little extension to the 

 south; the Baltic has a curious form; it extends far to the 

 east and has a remarkable narrowing in the middle, through 

 the German coast making a great bend to the north towards 

 Sweden. Gotland lies in the great widening of its inner por- 

 tion. The Gulf of Bothnia seems to be unknown. The islands 

 to the north of Scotland : Shetland (usually called " scetiland," 

 " sialanda " or " stillanda "), the Orkneys, and often Caithness 

 as an island, come to the west of Norway, frequently placed in 

 a somewhat arbitrary fashion, and in the wrong order. 

 "Tille" (Thule), the round island off the north-east coast of 

 Scotland, is a characteristic feature on many compass-charts. 

 Its origin is uncertain, but possibly it may be connected with 

 the Romans having thought they had seen Thule to the north 

 of the Orkneys (?) (cf. Vol. I, p. 10 f.). The names in the North 

 are in the main the same on most of the compass-charts,^ and 

 one cartographer has copied another; by this means also many 

 palasographic errors have been introduced, which are after- 

 wards repeated. As an example: the Baltic is originally 

 called " mar allemania," this is read by Catalan draughtsmen 

 as " mar de lamanya," also written " de lamaya," and thus 

 we get "mar de la maya" (cf. pp. 231, 233). Another 



1 Bjornbo and Petersen [1908, tab. i, pp. 14 f.] give a comparison of these 

 names from the most important compass-charts. 



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