FIFTEENTH CENTURY MAPS 



where in the existing French translation there is mention 

 of "lieux champestres de Venmarche " (the plains of Fin- 

 mark). ^ Thus we are here again led to the lost work of Nicholas 

 of Lynn, " Inventio f ortunata " (1360) as the possible source. 

 That it really was this work that was used seems also to result 

 from the fact that the countries about the North Pole on 

 Behaim's globe bear a remarkable resemblance to Ruysch's 

 map of 1508, where this note is given at the North Pole: 



" In the book ' De Inventione fortunata ' it may be read that there is a 

 high mountain of magnetic stone, 33 German miles in circumference. This 

 is surrounded by the flowing 'mare sugenum,' which pours out water like a 

 vessel through openings below. Around it are four islands, of which two are 

 inhabited. Extensive desolate mountains surround these islands for 24 days' 

 journey, where there is no human habitation." 



What is new in Behaim's picture of the North is chiefly 

 this circle of land and islands around the North Pole, which 

 he evidently took from Nicholas of Lynn, and which is not 

 represented on any older map known to us. It consists of 

 a continuous mass of land proceeding from his Greenland- 

 Lapland to the north of Scandinavia, and extending east- 

 ' ward nearly to the opposite side of the Pole, where the Arctic 

 Ocean (" das gefroren mer septentrional ") to the north of 

 the continent becomes an enclosed sea. On the other side 

 of the Pole are two large islands and a number of smaller 

 ones. On one of the large islands is a picture of an archer 

 in a long dress attacking a polar bear (which may be connected 

 with myths about Amazons?), and on the other side is 

 written: "Hie fecht man weisen valken" ("Here they catch 

 white falcons"). It might be supposed that this was derived 

 from statements about Scandinavia or Iceland [cf. e.g., the 

 legends of the compass-charts] ; but, as assumed by Raven- 

 stein [1908, p. 92] and Bjornbo [1910, p. 156], it is more 

 likely to come from Marco Polo's travels, where the arctic 

 coast of Siberia is spoken of. The many correct names, in 

 a German form, in Martin Behaim's Scandinavian North 

 point to the possibility of his also having received oral infor- 

 1 Cf. Storm, 1899, p. 5. 



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