Transcribing and detailing a, circa, 1345 document by a Milanese friar, Galvaneus Flamma, Medieval Latin literature expert Professor Paolo Chiesa has actually made an “amazing” discovery of an “extraordinary” passage describing an area we understand today as North America.
According to Chiesa, the ancient essay– first found in 2013– recommends that sailors from Genoa were currently aware of this land, identifiable as Markland/ Marckalada– mentioned by some Icelandic sources and recognized by scholars as part of the Atlantic coast of North America (normally assumed to be Labrador or Newfoundland).
Published in the peer-reviewed journal Terrae Incognitae, the discovery comes ahead of Columbus Day 2021, alternatively celebrated as Indigenous Peoples Day throughout lots of states in the United States. The findings add more fuel to the fire for the continuing question of what, exactly, did Columbus anticipate to discover when he set out throughout the ocean? and come following a period in which his statues have actually been beheaded, covered with red paint, lassoed around the head and pulled down, set on fire and thrown into a lake.
” We are in the presence of the first reference to the American continent, albeit in an embryonic form, in the Mediterranean location,” specifies Professor Chiesa, from the Department of Literary Studies, Philology and Linguistics at the University of Milan.
Galvaneus was a Dominican friar who resided in Milan and was connected to a household which held at the lordship of the city.
He wrote numerous literary works in Latin, mainly on historic subjects. His testament is important for details on Milanese contemporary realities, about which he has first-hand understanding.
Cronica universalis, which is examined here by Chiesa, is believed to be one of his later works– possibly the last one– and was left unperfected and unfinished. It intends to detail the history of the entire world, from Creation to when it was published.
In translating and evaluating the document, Professor Chiesa demonstrates how Genoa would have been a “gateway” for news, and how Galvaneus appears to hear, informally, of seafarers rumors about lands to the severe north-west for ultimate business benefit– along with details about Greenland, which he details precisely (for understanding of the time).
” These reports were too vague to discover consistency in cartographic or academic representations,” the teacher states, as he explains why Marckalada wasnt categorized as a colony at the time.
Regardless though, Chiesa states, Cronica universalis “brings unprecedented evidence to the speculation that news about the American continent, originated from Nordic sources, flowed in Italy one and half centuries prior to Columbus.”.
He adds: “What makes the passage (about Marckalada) remarkable is its geographical provenance: not the Nordic area, as when it comes to the other mentions, but northern Italy.
” The Marckalada explained by Galvaneus is rich in trees, not unlike the wooded Markland of the Grœnlendinga Saga, and animals live there.
” These details might be basic, as unique of any good land; however they are not minor, since the typical function of northern areas is to be bleak and barren, as actually Greenland is in Galvaneuss account, or as Iceland is described by Adam of Bremen.”.
Overall, Professor Chiesa states, we need to “trust” Cronica universalis as throughout the file Galvaneus declares where he has actually become aware of oral stories, and backs his claims with elements drawn from accounts (famous or real) coming from previous traditions on various lands, blended together and reassigned to a particular location.
” I do not see any factor to disbelieve him,” specifies Professor Chiesa, who adds, “it has actually long been discovered that the fourteenth-century portolan (nautical) charts drawn in Genoa and in Catalonia provide a more advanced geographical representation of the north, which could be achieved through direct contacts with those regions.
” These concepts about the north-west are likely to have actually pertained to Genoa through the shipping paths to the British Isles and to the continental coasts of the North Sea.
” We have no proof that Italian or Catalan seafarers ever reached Iceland or Greenland at that time, but they were certainly able to obtain from northern European merchant products of that origin to be carried to the Mediterranean area.
” The marinarii pointed out by Galvaneus can fit into this dynamic: the Genoese might have brought back to their city scattered news about these lands, some real and some fanciful, that they heard in the northern harbors from Scottish, British, Danish, Norwegian sailors with whom they were trading.”.
Cronica universalis, composed in Latin, is still unpublished; however, an edition is prepared, in the context of a scholarly and instructional program promoted by the University of Milan.
Reference: “Marckalada: The First Mention of America in the Mediterranean Area (c. 1340)” by Paolo Chiesa, 16 July 2021, Terrae Incognitae.DOI: 10.1080/ 00822884.2021.1943792.
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