The Roselli Map of 1468
The Roselli map of 1468,[257] the property of the Hispanic Society of America, New York City, is nearly as complete as the Beccario map of 1435. It lacks only the western part of Reylla (a name here corrupted into “roella”), by the reason of the limitations of the material. These maps were generally drawn on parchment made of lambskin with the narrow neck of the skin presented toward the west, perhaps as the quarter in which unavoidable omissions were thought to do the least harm. Because of the island’s position on the very edge of the skin, its outline, although unmistakable, is faint and in a few decades of exposure of the original might have vanished altogether. This raises the question whether certain outlines, now missing but plainly called for, on other maps of the same period, have not met with the same fate. Probably this has happened. Antilia—spelled thus—is plain in name and outline; so is the island next above it, spelled Saluaega. The “I” is omitted from I in Mar, as was often done in like cases, and the words “in Mar” are uncertain, but seem as above. The island figure is correctly given by Beccario’s standard, and in general the representation of the island series is almost exactly the same. Perhaps the most discernible difference is a very slight northwestern trend given to Antillia, instead of the equally slight northeastern inclination in Beccario’s case.