The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation

Description: "Because evidence concerning the Viking discovery of North America in the tenth and eleventh centuries is so incomplete, investigation of this area of history will be substantially aided by the discovery of new documents. Such is the claim made for the previously unknown manuscripts here published for the first time. They are two documents copied about 1440 from much earlier originals, now lost. The first is an account of Friar John of Plano Carpini's mission to the Mongols in 1245~47. The second is a world map, including the western ocean, with delineations of Iceland, Greenland, and a land mass named Vinland which represents the North American mainland as known to the medieval Norsemen. This map is the earliest known and indisputable cartographic representation of any part of the Americas. Thomas E. Marston, Curator of Medieval and Renaissance Literature in the Yale University Library, describes the chance circumstances of the discovery of the two documents, which had become separated from a manuscript of Vincent de Beauvais into which they had been originally bound. Mr. Marston establishes the close association of the Vinland Map with the "Tartar Relation"~the account of the Mongols. George D. Painter, Assistant Keeper of Printed Books in the British Museum, who has edited the Tartar account, also analyzes the relationship of the three elements of the original Beauvais manuscript and reconstructs its bibliographical history. R. A. Skelton, Superintendent of the Map Room of the British Museum, describes the Vinland Map and its geography in relation to its sources and analyzes its historical importance. As the editors show, the Tartar Relation provides information on Mongol history and legend not to be found in any known source, and a portion of the Map represents the only surviving medieval example based on Norse cartography~ a conclusion with far~reaching implications for the history of cartography and of the Viking navigations." - from jacket description Illustrated with fold-out maps 290 pp

Price: 25 CAD

Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia

End Time: 2024-12-30T17:13:51.000Z

Shipping Cost: N/A CAD