Ostrich-Egg Globe Believed Oldest To Show New World

The National Post is carrying a report of an exciting discovery for cartographic historians: an ostrich-egg globe purchased last year at the London Map Fair is now believed to be the oldest to show any part of the New World. "In a lengthy essay published in the latest issue of The Portolan, the peer-reviewed journal of the Washington Map Society, Belgian map collector and historical researcher Stefaan Missinne argues that the ostrich-egg globe not only predates the Hunt-Lenox Globe but was probably used as the model for casting the more famous copper object. If true, then the small, unnamed island shown to the far north in the 'Mundus Novus' portion of the egg-globe’s western hemisphere — a crude depiction of the 'New World' as it was understood just a few years after the discovery voyages of Christopher Columbus, John Cabot and others — is the earliest image of Newfoundland or any other part of Canada on any surviving globe in the world." More at the Washington Map Society's page.

Comments

that was

[ozduo]

one very clever ostrich

Re:that was

[Ira Sponsible]

Yes indeed. This is yet more evidence of Intelligent Design. How else could such a marvellous thing get crapped out of an animal so clearly showing what man had not yet learned about the shape of our planet?

Re:Colombus discovering America is a myth.

[Quasimodem]

About the same time "Christopher Columbus" discovered the what he mistook to be Cathay, the island natives of Guanahani (Bahamas) discovered a Portuguese pretending to be an Italian in a Spanish sail boat whom they mistakenly welcomed.

It was not a great day for clarity.