CH. VII] 
Zeno 
55 
This Niccolo Zeno, of a noble Venetian family, pub- 
lished what professed to be an account of the voyage of 
two of his ancestors in the far north in the service of 
a northern chief named Zichmni. Niccolo himself lived 
in the 16th century (1515-1565) and the voyages of his 
ancestors were supposed to have been made in the 14th 
century. The narrative was accompanied by an extra- 
ordinary map covered with names. It showed Greenland 
brought round to join Norway, Iceland, a large island 
called Friesland between Iceland and Greenland, lands 
to the west near America called Estotiland and Drogeo, 
and another large island in the Atlantic called Icaria. 
Niccolo Zeno was accepted as an authority by Mercator 
in his map of the world (1569) and by Ortelius (1570) 
and the narrative found a place in Ramusio (1574). 
Meanwhile the false information continued to mislead 
travellers and navigators. On the first English globe 
by Molyneux in 1572 Zeno's Friesland and Drogeo are 
shown. As late as 1631 Luke Fox has "Frisland" on 
his polar card. The false information held its ground for 
a hundred years. 
Among modern writers there were differences of 
opinion. In 1784, J. Reinhold Foster fully accepted all 
Zeno's story as true, and identified Zichmni with Sinclair, 
Earl of Orkney. Maltebrun accepted the story, and 
Humboldt was inclined to accept it. Lelewel accepted 
it. Mr Major gave whole-hearted credence to Zeno's 
statements, and wrote a standard work on the subject 
(1873). Desimoni (1878) claimed that Major had settled 
the question. 
There were other writers who were more or less 
sceptical. Washington Irving rejected the story. Crantz 
and Graahj eminent Danish travellers and writers, were 
doubtful, and more or less incredulous. Admiral Zarht- 
mann of Copenhagen rejected both narrative and map, 
as did the learned Danish writer Steenstrup. 
All this was before the discovery of medieval maps 
which exposed the whole imposition. These were, espe- 
cially, the large map of Olaus Magnus (Venice 1539), 
found in the Munich library in 1886, and the Zamoiski 
map (1467), discovered at Warsaw in 1888 ; also a map 
of North Europe and Greenland in the MS. Ptolemy at 
