Page:Legendaryislands00babcuoft.djvu/61

 BEH AIM'S GLOBE OF 1492 47 BEHAIM'S GLOBE OF 1492 About the same period a Catalan map 23 of unknown author- ship, without copying details, adopted the same expedient of duplicating the Azores by adding the new slanting series. It is quite independent in details, however, omitting mention of "St. Brandan" in particular, though Ateallo (Antillia?) is given in the second group but not in the corresponding place. This may possibly indicate some confusion of Antillia with St. Bran- dan's Island, such as is more evident in the transfer of the tradi- tional outline of the former to the latter, little changed, by Be- haim on his globe of 1492. As it stands, this globe undoubtedly gives an original and unique representation of St. Brandan's Island far west of the Cape Verde group and emphasizes it by showing Antillia inde- pendently in a more northern latitude and less western longitude and also of quite insignificant size and form. But Ravenstein, who made a very thorough study of the matter, tells us 34 that this globe has been twice retouched or renovated and that the only way to ascertain exactly what was originally delineated is to treat it as a palimpsest and remove the accretions. In particu- lar, he relates the story of an expert geographer who found the draftsmen about to transpose St. Brandan's Island and Antillia; but they yielded to his protest. Of course, it is impossible to be quite certain that these map figures are such and in such place as Behaim intended or that they bear the names he gave. The presumption favors the present showing, generally accepted as authentic. It gives the saint only one island, but this a very large one, set in mid-ocean between Africa and South America. Possibly this location may be suggested by an undefined coast line shown by Bianco's map of 1448, previously mentioned, and, like Behaim's island, set opposite the Cape Verde group. In Venetian Italian it bears an obscure inscription, which calls it an "authentic island" and is variously interpreted as saying that M Ibid., Portfolio 13, PI. 5. 59-
 * E. G. Ravenstein: Martin Behaim, His Life and His Globe, London, 1908, p.