Slashdot Mirror
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.
I suppose the Native Americans didn't use maps or globes?
Everybody was fishing off the Grand Banks and trying to keep it a secret. Although throughout the beginning of the Age of Discovery maps were kept top secret.
Who used hard C? Try EVERYONE who spoke or wrote Latin in the Renaissance, which basically meant everyone with any education and literacy. K was only in use for a few rare words (kalendae, sometimes Karthago, but even that usually had a C). "Kanada" would be nigh impossible; "Canada" is exactly what you'd expect. Latin: it's why there's an "America" instead of an "Ameriga" today.
They may have traded as far away as the Gulf of Guinea, as Ming Dynasty ceramic has been excavated in the ruins of Timbuktu. An interesting book on the Chinese naval expeditions of the time is '1421, The Year China Discovered America' by Gavin Menzies. Although his conclusions are somewhat dubious the research he has done is quite interesting.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
An interesting book on the Chinese naval expeditions of the time is '1421, The Year China Discovered America' by Gavin Menzies.
I get sad whenever I see someone take Menzies seriously. He is a crank, nothing in his books can be trusted.
Menzies is an idiot, and Chinese ceramics in Timbuktu are much more easily explained by down-the-line trading than actual voyaging. not to downplay what the Chinese accomplished; Zheng Hei's fleet was certainly technically capable of making transoceanic voyages, but there is absolutely no evidence that they ever did.