Other Maps
It may seem strange that certain other notable maps, for example Giraldi 1426,[263] Valsequa 1439,[264] and Fra Mauro 1459,[265] show nothing of Antillia and its neighbors. Perhaps the makers were not interested in these far western parts of the ocean, or the narratives on which Beccario and the rest based their maps had not reached them; more likely they were skeptical and unwilling to commit themselves.
It is also true that the Antillia of Beccario and others is made to extend nearly north and south instead of east and west; that I in Mar is placed north of its greater neighbor instead of east; and that the whole chain of islands is moved into considerably more northern latitudes than the group which we suppose them to represent. Thus the eastern, or lower, end of Cuba is actually in the latitude of the lower part of the Sahara, and a point above the upper end of Florida would be in the latitude of the upper part of Morocco; whereas in the maps discussed the average location of the chain from the lower end of Antillia to the most northerly island, I in Mar, would run from the latitude of northern Morocco to that of southern France. There are slight individual differences in this matter of extension, but I believe Antillia always begins below Gibraltar and ends above northern Spain and a little below Bordeaux. But some dislocation, of course, is to be looked for in mapping exploration in an unscientific period. The changes of direction and extension are not greater than in the American coast line of Juan de la Cosa’s very important map of 1500,[266] not to mention even more extravagant instances of later date; and the shifting of latitudes may partly be accounted for by ignorance of the southward dip of the isothermal lines in crossing the Atlantic westward. Thus a Portuguese sailor on reaching a far western island or shore having what seemed to him the climate and conditions of Gascony would be likely to suppose that it was really opposite Gascony, though in fact it might be more nearly opposite the Canaries; and the same cause of error would apply all down the line. Cuba is not really directly opposite Portugal but may easily have been believed so.