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Page 34
This mistake relates to a map which is found in several editions of
the geography of Ptolemy printed at Basle, supposed to represent the
western sea shortly after the Verrazzano discovery, and consequently
as derived from that source. Mr. Kohl, [Footnote: We are indebted
entirely to Mr. Kohl for our knowledge of the map of Agnese, which
he produces, on a reduced scale, in the Discovery of Maine, (chart
XIV), with an account of the map and its author (p. 292).] in a
chapter specially devoted to the consideration of charts from
Verrazzano, reproduces one (No. XV, a) which he describes as a
sketch of North America, from a map of the new world, in an edition
of Ptolemy printed in Basle, 1530. And he adds: "the map was drawn
and engraved A FEW YEARS AFTER VERRAZANO'S EXPEDITION. The plate
upon which it was engraved, must have been in use for a long time;
for the same map appears both, in EARLIER and much later editions of
Ptolemy. The same also reappears in the cosmography of Sebastian
Munster, published in Basle." Mr. K. finally observes in regard to
it: "this map has this particular interest for us, that it is
probably the first on which the sea of Verrazano was depicted in the
form given to it by Lok, in 1582. I have found no map PRIOR to 1530,
on which this delineation appears." [Footnote: Discovery of Maine,
pp. 296-7.] There is a little confusion of dates in this statement.
Mr. K. states, however, that he had not seen the map of Hieronimo de
Verrazano, and evidently derives his information, in regard to the
sea of Verrazano, from the map of Lok, who alone gives the western
sea the name of Mare de Verrazana, no doubt because he found the sea
laid down on the map presented by Verrazzano to Henry VIII, to which
reference will presently be made. Had Mr. K. seen the Verrazano map
with the absurd legend upon it, in effect declaring the western sea
to have been observed by Verrazzano, he must have arrived at
different conclusions, notwithstanding the map in Ptolemy of the
supposed early date. Mr. Brevoort, in his notes on the Verrazano
map, probably relying on the authority of Mr. Kohl, says, "that the
first published map containing traces of Verrazano's explorations,
is in the Ptolemy of Basle, 1530, which appeared FOUR YEARS BEFORE
THE FRENCH RENEWED THEIR ATTEMPTS AT AMERICAN EXPLORATION. It shows
the western sea without a name, and the land north of it is called
Francisca." [Footnote: Journal of Am. Geog. Soc. of New York, vol.
IV, p. 279.] The inference left to be drawn is that, the presence of
the French in this region, as denoted by the name, Francisca, four
years before the discoveries in that quarter, by Jacques Cartier,
and by the delineation of the western sea upon the Verrazano map,
establish the authenticity both of the voyage of Verrazzano and the
map.
All this is erroneous. There was no edition of Ptolemy published in
1530 at Basle, or elsewhere, known to bibliographers. The map to
which reference is made, and which is reproduced by Mr. Kohl, was
first printed in 1540 at Basle, in an edition of Ptolemy with new
maps, both of the new and old world, and with new descriptions of
the countries embraced in them, printed on the back of each,
accompanied by a geographical description of the modern state of the
countries of the old world by Sebastian Munster. [Footnote:
Geographia Universalis, vetus et nova, complectens Claudii Ptolemai
Alexandrini enarrationis libros VIII. * * * Succedunt tabulos
Ptolemaice, opera Sebastiani Munsteri nto paratos. His adjectos sunt
plurime novae tabulae, moderna orbis faciem literis & pictura
explicantes, inter quas quaedam antehac Ptolemao non fuerunt
additae. Sm. fol. Basiteae apud Henricum Petrum Meuse Martio Anno
MDXI.] In all the editions of Ptolemy, containing maps of the new
world, before the year 1540, North America was represented according
to the mistaken ideas of Waltzemuller on that subject in 1513, and
without regard to the discoveries which took place after his
edition. The maps of Munster constituted a new departure of the
Ptolemies in this respect, and were intended to represent the later
discoveries in the new world. They were reprinted several times at
Basle by the same printer, Henri Pierre (Lelewell II. 176, 208). In
the first edition, which is now lying before us, the map in
question, number 45, bears the title of Novae Insalae XVII. Nova
Tabula. It is an enlarged representation of the portion relating to
the new world of another map, No. 1, in the same volume, called
Typas Universalis, a map of the whole world, which appears here also
as a new map, and represents, for the first time in the Ptolemaic
series, the straits of Magellan in the south, New France in the
north, and the coast running continuously, north and NORTHEAST, from
Florida to Newfoundland.
Upon this map a deep gulf is shown, indenting America from a strait
in the north, which leads from the Atlantic to the Pacific, in the
region of Hudson's straits, in latitude 60 Degrees N. This gulf runs
southerly into the continent as far as latitude 40 Degrees N.,
approaching the Atlantic coast, and in that respect, alone, conforms
to the representation of the western sea on the maps of Verrazano
and Lok. It differs materially, however, from that sea, and
indicates an entirely different meaning and origin. It is simply a
gulf, or deep bay, like Hudson's bay, but reaching further south,
being land-locked on all sides, except the north, as high as
latitude 60 Degrees N.; whereas the western sea, on the other maps,
is, as already observed, an open sea, extending westerly from the
isthmus in latitude 40 Degrees, without intervening land,
uninterruptedly to India. The intention of the delineation of this
portion of the map, is not equivocal. For the first time, on any
map, there is found upon it the name of Francisca, which is placed
above the parallel of 50 Degrees N. latitude and above that of C.
Britonum, designated thus by name, in the proper position of Cape
Breton. It is placed between the river St. Lawrence, which also is
represented but not named, and the gulf before mentioned. This name,
Francisca, [Footnote: Called Francese in the discourse of the French
captain of Dieppe.] or the FRENCH LAND, and the position, indicate
the then recent discoveries in that region, which were due to the
French under Jacques Cartier, and which could properly belong to no
other exploration of the French. The gulf, no doubt, relates to the
great lakes or fresh water sea of which Cartier had heard from the
natives, as he himself mentions. (Hakluyt, III. 225.)
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