FIFTEENTH CENTURY MAPS 



are several peninsulas to the north of Scandinavia, some of 

 which proceed from Russia (see p. 285). 



The cartographer, Henricus Martellus, who succeeded Nico- 

 laus Germanus, again adopted Clavus's form of Greenland, 

 wholly or in part, on his maps dating from about 1490. 



In this way there arose on the maps of the close of the Mid- 

 dle Ages two types of the North: one with Greenland in a com- 

 paratively correct position to the west of Iceland, though far 

 too near Europe and connected therewith, and another type with 

 Engronelant as a peninsula to the north of Norway. The lat- 

 ter remained for a long time the usual one in all editions of Ptol- 

 emy, in other cartographical works, and on many globes. After 

 the rediscovery of Greenland we even get sometimes two de- 

 lineations of this country on the same map, one to the north of 

 Norway and the other in its right place, in the west. 



Greenland seems to have been given a wholly different 

 form on a Catalan compass-chart from Majorca, of the close 

 of the fifteenth century, where in the Atlantic to the west 

 of Ireland and south-west of Iceland (Fixlanda) there is 

 an island called "Ilia verde " (the green isle). It seems, as 

 assumed by Storm [1893, p. 81], that the name must be a 

 translation of Greenland, which is called in the " Historia 

 Norvegias " " Viridis terra." The representation of Iceland 

 (Fixlanda) on this map is incomparably better than on 

 all earlier maps, and gives proof of new information having 

 come from thence. As the place-names point to an English 

 source, it is possible that the cartographer may have received 

 information from Bristol, which city was engaged in the Iceland 

 trade and fisheries, and his island, Ilia verde, may be due 

 to an echo of reports about the forgotten Greenland in the west. 

 It is worth remarking that the island is connected with the 

 Irish mythical " Ilia de brazil," which lay to the west of Ireland 

 and which appears in this map twice over in its t5^ical 

 round form (cf. above, p. 228).^ If we remember that this 



1 Storm [1893], and following him J. Fischer [1902, pp. 99 f.], erroneously 

 regard this island of Brazil as Markland (see above, p. 229). 



279 



