IN NORTHERN MISTS 



simply from information he had derived from northern sources. 

 After this, we are to suppose that, in order to extend his geo- 

 graphical knowledge, he went back to Denmark; and since the 

 authors place reliance on Clavus's assertion (in his later text) 

 that he had seen the places himself, they even credit him with 

 having made a voyage of geographical exploration, first to Nor- 

 way (Trondhjem) and then to Greenland, And then he is sup- 

 posed to have drawn his later map, and written the text for it 

 (in Latin), in the North. 



I have come to an entirely different conclusion. His 

 older map must be based, in my opinion, not only on Ptolemy, 

 but to a great extent on Italian maps. His later map and text, 

 I consider, show beyond doubt that he cannot have been either 

 in Norway or Greenland, and I cannot find a single statement 

 in the Vienna text, or any coast-line in his later map, which 

 shows that he was outside Italy in the period between the two 

 works. Doubtless the delineation of Denmark, especially 

 Zealand, is more detailed in the second map; but the additions 

 do not disclose any more local knowledge than might be at- 

 tributed to Clavus, as a native of Fiinen, before his first map 

 was drawn, even though he had not then ventured to change 

 the form of Ptolemy's Scandia, which to him, of course, 

 became Zealand. After this first attempt, however, he may 

 have gained courage to launch out further with his knowledge. 

 He may also have discovered a few fresh pieces of information, 

 in the papal archives, for instance. Besides this, he may, 

 of course have received oral communications from people 

 from the northern countries; but even of this I am unable 

 to find sure signs. In consideration of the imaginative ten- 

 dencies shown by Clavus in his distribution of names, and to 

 some extent in the coast-lines on his map, which, perhaps, 

 may also have asserted themselves in his statement that he 

 had seen a complete MS. of Livy in Soro monastery,^ we shall 



1 Many vain searches were afterwards made (in 1451 and 1461) in the 

 monastery of Soro for this MS. of Livy, and there may therefore be grounds 

 for doubting the statement to be true [cf. Bjornbo and Petersen, 1909, pp. 197 f.]. 



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