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![Maps, Myths, and Men: The Story of the Vinland Map](http://img.images-bn.com/static/redesign/srcs/images/grey-box.png?v11.9.4)
![Maps, Myths, and Men: The Story of the Vinland Map](http://img.images-bn.com/static/redesign/srcs/images/grey-box.png?v11.9.4)
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Overview
The "Vínland Map" first surfaced on the antiquarian market in 1957 and the map's authenticity has been hotly debated ever since—in controversies ranging from the anomalous composition of the ink and the map's lack of provenance to a plethora of historical and cartographical riddles. Maps, Myths, and Men is the first work to address the full range of this debate. Focusing closely on what the map in fact shows, the book contains a critique of the 1965 work The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation; scrutinizes the marketing strategies used in 1957; and covers many aspects of the map that demonstrate it is a modern fake, such as literary evidence and several scientific ink analyses performed between 1967 and 2002. The author explains a number of the riddles and provides evidence for both the identity of the mapmaker and the source of the parchment used, and she applies current knowledge of medieval Norse culture and exploration to counter widespread misinformation about Norse voyages to North America and about the Norse world picture.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780804749626 |
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Publisher: | Stanford University Press |
Publication date: | 06/02/2004 |
Edition description: | 1 |
Pages: | 480 |
Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d) |
About the Author
Kirsten A. Seaver is an independent historian, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, London, a novelist, and a translator. She is the author of The Frozen Echo (Stanford, 1996).
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations | xiii | |
Acknowledgments | xv | |
Note to the Reader | xxi | |
1. | An American Place Named Vinland | 1 |
America and the Medieval Norse | 1 | |
The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation | 2 | |
The Vinland Map | 3 | |
Sources for the Vinland Map | 8 | |
Guaranteeing Authenticity | 13 | |
Showing the Map to a Wider World | 16 | |
Father Time and Daughter Truth | 17 | |
2. | The Norse in and near North America | 19 |
A Flawed Source of Information | 19 | |
Who Were the Norse? | 21 | |
Voyaging to New Lands | 23 | |
Far North Was Far Away | 25 | |
No Help from the Norse | 26 | |
Eirik the Red, Mariner and Merchant | 28 | |
Nordrseta: The Northern Hunting Grounds | 31 | |
Norse Relations with Arctic Natives | 33 | |
From Arctic Greenland to Arctic North America | 35 | |
The Vinland Voyages | 36 | |
L'Anse aux Meadows | 38 | |
Grapes and Grain | 41 | |
Abandoning Vinland | 42 | |
Continued American Connections | 47 | |
The Literary Aftermath | 53 | |
Disputed American Destinations | 54 | |
Sustaining Life in Norse Greenland | 59 | |
Everyday Life | 63 | |
How Cold Was It? | 64 | |
Did Hard Times Become Harder in Greenland? | 66 | |
Tusks, Tithes, and Other Troubles | 71 | |
The Many Names of a Much Loved Child | 75 | |
The Cod Wars Begin | 78 | |
Did a New Beginning Become an End? | 80 | |
3. | The Black Hole of Provenance | 87 |
A Child of Unknown Parentage | 87 | |
Early Misgivings About the "Private Collection" | 89 | |
The Spanish Connection | 91 | |
An English Sojourn | 93 | |
The Map's Provenance No Clearer by 1974 | 96 | |
A Muddied Pond | 98 | |
A Companion to the Vinland Map Volume | 99 | |
Where Did the Profits Go? | 105 | |
4. | Creating Matter from Wormholes | 108 |
The Joy of Discovery | 108 | |
General Description of the Two Volumes | 110 | |
Scrutiny by Experts | 113 | |
Who Ordered the "Improvements"? | 116 | |
The Bindings | 117 | |
The Handwriting | 120 | |
A Widening Inquiry | 122 | |
Watermarks | 124 | |
The Speculum Pastedowns and the Council of Basel | 129 | |
Why the Council of Basel? | 135 | |
Wormholes | 139 | |
5. | A Star Is Born | 144 |
The Vinland Map Reaches Yale | 144 | |
The Big Secret | 145 | |
The Big Names | 147 | |
The Big Launch | 149 | |
The Big Discussion | 152 | |
Dissidents Need Not Apply | 157 | |
The Cost of Public Stargazing | 158 | |
6. | Portrait of the Vinland Map | 164 |
A Map with No Equal | 164 | |
Immediate Visual Appearance | 165 | |
The Map Parchment and Its Flaws | 168 | |
The Handwriting | 172 | |
Delineacio prima pars ... | 173 | |
The Wormholes on the Map | 177 | |
European Medieval Ink | 182 | |
The Vinland Map Ink Debate | 186 | |
Modern Anatase | 198 | |
7. | The Vinland Map as a Cartographic Image | 205 |
A Flat Earth--or a Globe? | 205 | |
Was Skelton a Reluctant Commentator? | 208 | |
Many Cartographical Traditions--and None | 210 | |
Adam of Bremen | 213 | |
Inventio Fortunata | 219 | |
The Influence of Claudius Ptolemaeus | 222 | |
Claudius Clavus Niger | 226 | |
Leading up to Circa 1440: The European View | 230 | |
A Subtle Composite | 234 | |
Northern Geographical Conventions | 236 | |
Snorri Sturluson's Universe | 244 | |
Ginnungagap and the Birth of a Cartographic Myth | 247 | |
Navigating by the Vinland Map | 253 | |
8. | The Vinland Map as a Narrative | 256 |
The Roman Church at the "End of the World" | 256 | |
A Haphazard Quest | 260 | |
Luka Jelic | 262 | |
The Land "Our Brothers" Saw | 264 | |
The 1245-47 Carpini Visit to the Mongols | 267 | |
Mounting Troubles | 271 | |
Which Way to the Caspian Sea? | 273 | |
Room for Prester John | 277 | |
"A New Land" | 279 | |
"Tartars, Mongols, Samoyeds, and Indians ..." | 282 | |
Adding to the Vinland Myth | 284 | |
Who "Discovered" Vinland? | 286 | |
Missionary to the Samoyeds | 289 | |
Further Ambiguities | 293 | |
Searching for the Author | 295 | |
9. | The Vinland Map as a Human Creation | 297 |
Father Josef (Joseph) Fischer, S.J. (1858-1944) | 297 | |
Scholarly Connections | 300 | |
America's "Baptismal Certificate" and Its 1516 Sibling | 305 | |
The Norse Discovery of America | 313 | |
An Active Life | 325 | |
Public Recognition | 337 | |
Returning to the Norse | 338 | |
A Moravian Castle Library | 343 | |
Father Fischer's Choice | 353 | |
Annus horribilis--1933 | 354 | |
Retirement | 358 | |
Last Return to Wolfegg | 368 | |
A Map Without a Home | 371 | |
Notes | 377 | |
Bibliography | 439 | |
Index | 463 |
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