A Milanese friar mentions North America in 1345 text, 150 years before Columbus

[Judi Lynn]

It's the first written evidence that proves someone outside northern Europe had heard of America before Columbus's 1492 voyage.

Tibi Puiu by Tibi Puiu December 13, 2022

Despite pervasive myths, Cristopher Columbus was not the first European to discover and explore North America. We know from the Sagas of Icelanders, confirmed by archaeological evidence, that Vikings traveled from Scandinavia to Newfoundland via Greenland from around 999 AD. Some more informed Europeans, including perhaps Columbus himself, weren’t oblivious to this fact.

In a new study, Paolo Chiesa of the department of literary studies at the University of Milan has documented the first written mention of America in the Mediterranean area. The researcher was stunned to come across a reference to a “terra que dicitur Marckalada,” found west from Greenland, in the work called Cronica universalis written by the Milanese friar Galvaneus Flamma in 1345.

“Galvaneus’s reference, probably derived by oral sources heard in Genoa, is the first mention of the American continent in the Mediterranean region, and gives evidence of the circulation (out of the Nordic area and 150 years before Columbus) of narratives about lands beyond Greenland,” Chiesa wrote in the study published in the Journal of the Society for the History of Discoveries.

Marckalada refers to Markland, the name Icelandic sources give to a part of the Atlantic coast of North America. The mention of Markland occurs in the third book, which discusses the third age of humankind from Abraham to David. At one point, the Middle Age author “inserts a long geographical excursus, mainly dealing with exotic areas: the Far East, Arctic lands, Oceanic islands, Africa,” Chiesa says.

In his texts, the Milanese friar employs a variety of sources, ranging from biblical to scholarly treatises, including the accounts of travelers the likes of Marco Polo and Odoric of Pordenone. Galvaneus ascribed his description of Markland to the oral testimony of sailors who traveled the seas of Denmark and Norway, which was most likely passed down to the friar by seafarers in Genoa. The port of Genoa was the nearest to Milan and was the city where the medieval scholar studied for his doctorate.

More:
https://www.zmescience.com/science/history-science/a-milanese-friar-mentions-north-america-in-1345-text-150-years-before-columbus/

[vanlassie]

1. I also didn't know they could text back then.

[jaxexpat]

3. Everybody texted back then.

It was called "Manibus aspicio Scripturam". They also had handheld calculators but the C, L, V, X and I buttons labels would always rub off so quickly the whole technology mortuus est. It lingered as a parlor trick until bird feathers were invented. So began the age of the quill pen replaced by the "bic" pen in 1964.

[vanlassie]

7. My education was definitely substandard!

[mrsadm]

8. LOL!!!

[Lonestarblue]

2. Columbus is a perfect example of how our history has been distorted.

Some early historians latched onto Columbus as a means of separating the young US from its early perception of being “discovered” by the British. Over the many decades, the fact that he did not discover North America and indeed never even set foot on the continent got lost. But we have known for decades that he played no role in our history, and we should just expunge him and use the truth instead of the myth. Indeed, if we teach about him at all, it should be to revile him for his brutality to the native island populations he encountered.

I have long wanted to remove Columbus Day as a national holiday and replace it with election day. I would call an election day holiday the John Lewis Voting Rights Day.

[jaxexpat]

5. Columbus did, however, invent he slave trade.

It became quite popular until 1915 when the movie, "Birth of a Nation", rewrote the facts of history to make the "Daughters of the Confederacy" appear legitimate.

early morning

[nightwing1240]

6. Great idea for a national holiday on voting day

And naming it for John Lewis. That would be perfect! Much could be debated about Columbus but I agree with your points.

[nightwing1240]

4. It was later but America got it's name from this man

Amerigo Vespucci (/vɛˈspuːtʃi/;[1] Italian: [ameˈriːɡo veˈsputtʃi]; 9 March 1451 – 22 February 1512) was an Italian merchant, explorer, and navigator from the Republic of Florence, from whose name the term "America" is derived.

Between 1497 and 1504, Vespucci participated in at least two voyages of the Age of Discovery, first on behalf of Spain (1499–1500) and then for Portugal (1501–1502). In 1503 and 1505, two booklets were published under his name, containing colourful descriptions of these explorations and other alleged voyages. Both publications were extremely popular and widely read across much of Europe. Although historians still dispute the authorship and veracity of these accounts, at the time they were instrumental in raising awareness of the new discoveries and enhancing the reputation of Vespucci as an explorer and navigator.

Vespucci claimed to have understood, back in 1501 during his Portuguese expedition, that Brazil was part of a continent new to Europeans, which he called the "New World". The claim inspired cartographer Martin Waldseemüller to recognize Vespucci's accomplishments in 1507 by applying the Latinized form "America" for the first time to a map showing the New World. Other cartographers followed suit, and by 1532 the name America was permanently affixed to the newly discovered continents.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerigo_Vespucci

I remember learning that in High School. Funny what we retain sometimes.

[wishstar]

9. On Vespucci's 1499 voyage over 200 Bahamian natives were captured and enslaved

and Vespucci's 1511 will included 5 enslaved individuals in his household

[nightwing1240]

10. Not disputing that

Simply listing where we got our nations name

[Warpy]

11. It's pretty well known that the Vikings came here farely frequently

from Greenland, although they gave up on the idea of a permanent colony pretty quickly. They visited here to cut timber and trap fur animals to take home with them to Greenland, so a 1345 reference doesn't surprise me a bit.

That's during the years of the Black Death in Europe, one thing that helped kill off the Greenland colony. Trade with Europe had been handled mostly through Bergen in Norway and the population there pretty much collapsed, taking trade and the means to supply the colony with it. Only the old remained on Greenland, younger people had started to emigrate when the climate turned much colder, starting decades before the collapse.

[wnylib]

12. Another source of information about Markland

was apparently the Catholic Church and Medieval popes, which would explain knowledge in Italy of the Greenland expeditions to Markland.

According to the following Wikipedia article, Leif Erickson became a Christian on a trip to Norway around 1000 CE. He returned to Greenland with 2 priests. This article refers to Greenland as America when it says that the establishment of a church in Greenland was the first church in " the America." In the rest of the article, it distinguishes between Greenland and North America.

In the History section of the article it says that in 1121 CE a bishop was sent to be part of an expedition to rediscover the eastern coastline of North America that Greenlanders had found 100 years earlier.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_in_Greenland