Maps, Myths, and Men: The Story of the Vinland MapThe "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. |
Contents
An American Place Named Vínland | 1 |
The Norse in and near North America | 19 |
No Help from the Norse | 26 |
Copyright | |
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Adam of Bremen anatase Arctic authenticity Baynes-Cope binding Bishop Eirik Bjarni Bjørnbo BLML BMMD Bridia British Museum Carpini cartographic church Claudius Clavus coast Council of Basel Danish early Eastern Settlement Eila Campbell English Europe European evidence Ferrajoli fifteenth century Frozen Echo geographical German Ginnungagap Helen Wallis Historia Norvegia Ibid Iceland island Josef Fischer L'Anse aux Meadows land later Leif letter Library London map legend Map volume mapmaker mare Marston McCrone medieval Norse modern Nikolsburg Norse discovery Norse Greenlanders North America northern Norway Norwegian noted observed ocean Oslo Painter parchment pastedowns Ptolemy quires quote reason Recurrent file-Vinland Map region Saga scholars Seaver Shailor Skeat Skelton sources Speculum Historiale Speculum volume Stella Matutina suggests Tartar Relation text manuscripts Thule tion translation Vietor Vikings Vínland Map voyages Waldseemüller Wallis walrus Washburn Wieser Witten Wolfegg world map wormholes wrote Yale book Yale University Yale's