A 19th-century artist’s imagination of medieval viking voyages.Summer in the Greenland coast circa year 1000, Carl Rasmussen.
Chiesa had tracked down the one existing copy of a manuscript known asCronica universalis.
The book’s history is complicated.
A 19th-century artist’s imagination of medieval viking voyages.“Summer in the Greenland coast circa year 1000,” Carl Rasmussen. (Photo:Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Somehow, it found its way to New York.
The book was written by a medieval Dominican named Galvano Fiamma.
The private collector let Chiesa photograph the book for research.
The Skálholt Karte manuscript, from 1560, displaying the Skálholt Map. The map shows Markland (Labrador), the region mentioned in the medieval text “Cronica universalis.” (Photo:Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
There are also green trees, animals and a great quantity of birds.
Chiesa calls this passage astonishing.
This fascinating sentence raises several questions.
Recreation of a Viking Village, Newfoundland, Canada. (Photo:Wikimedia Commons,CC BY 2.0)
How widespread was knowledge of Markland?
Why do no Italian maps of the period show what we now call North America?
And lastly, since Columbus was from Genoa, did he have an inkling what lay to the west?
The Skalholt Karte manuscript, from 1560, displaying the Skalholt Map.
The map shows Markland (Labrador), the region mentioned in the medieval text Cronica universalis.
Recreation of a Viking Village, Newfoundland, Canada.
