[95] Cf. L. Daae, 1882. Besides the authorities mentioned by Daae, See “Scriptores rerum Danicarum,” ii. 563, where “Puthorse” is mentioned as “pirata Danicus” together with “Pynning.” Cf. also Grönl. hist. Mind., iii. pp. 473, ff.
[96] This was the usual representation at that time; cf. Ziegler’s map of 1532.
[97] A. A. Björnbo, Berlingske Tidende, Copenhagen, July 17, 1909; Björnbo and Petersen, 1909, p. 249.
[98] Monumenta Historiæ Danicæ, ed. Holger Rördam, i. Copenhagen, 1873, p. 28; L. Daae, 1882.
[99] Cf. G. Storm [1886]. B. T. de Costa [1880, p. 170] points out that Hakluyt says that the voyage of this navigator is mentioned by Gemma Frisius and Girava. Gemma Frisius published amongst other works a revised edition of Petrus Apianus’s “Cosmographicus Liber” in 1529. Girava published in 1553 “Dos Libros de Cosmographia,” Milan, 1556. I have not had an opportunity of referring to these authorities; the former, if this be correct, may have given information about Scolvus earlier than Gomara. De Costa also says that on the Rouen globe [i.e., the L’Ecuy globe, see [p. 131]] in Paris, of about 1540, there is an inscription near the north-west coast of Greenland stating that Skolnus [Scolvus] reached that point in 1476.
[100] Cf. R. Collinson, 1867, pp. 3, f.
[101] Lelewel’s conjecture [1852, iv. p. 106, note 50, 52] that Scolvus’s name was Scolnus and that he came from a little Polish inland town near the frontier of East Prussia, is, as shown by Storm [1886, p. 400], improbable.
[102] Storm [1886, p. 399] thought that Wytfliet might have borrowed from Gomara, and himself invented and added the date 1476, in order to disparage the Spaniards and Portuguese as discoverers; but Storm was not aware that this date, as we have seen, is mentioned in an earlier English source.
[103] Cf. Harrisse, 1892, pp. 286, ff., 658. The inscription reads: “Quii populi ad quos Johannes Scovvus danus pervenit. Ann. 1476.”
[104] Just as the above is at press, I have received a sheet of Dr. Björnbo’s new work [1910, pp. 256, ff.], from which it appears that the inscription mentioned above is already found on Gemma Frisius’s globe engraved by Gerard Mercator, probably 1536-1537 (found at Zerbst, and reproduced for the first time in Björnbo’s work). The inscription is placed on the polar continent, to the north-west of Greenland, and reads: “Quij populi ad quos Jōēs Scoluss danus peruenit circa annum 1476.” Björnbo translates it: “Quij, the people to whom the Dane Johannes Scolvuss (Scolwssen ?) penetrated about the year 1476.” (The interpretation of the word “Quij” as the name of a people may be probable, especially as the same word occurs, as pointed out by Björnbo, as the name of a people on Vopell’s map of the world of 1445.) This is therefore the oldest notice of Scolvus’s voyage at present known, and it may seem possible, though not very probable, that he reached a land to the west of Greenland. The L’Ecuy or Rouen globe (of copper) is evidently a copy of the Frisius-Mercator globe, and has the same inscriptions. It may be to the same source (or to a contemporary work of Gemma Frisius) that Hakluyt referred (cf. above, [p. 129, note 2]), and several statements in the English document of about 1575 ([p. 129]) seem also to be derived from it. As Gomara calls Joan Scolvo “piloto,” which is not on the globe (but on the other hand is found in the English document!), and as, further, he has not the dates, he may possibly have had a somewhat different authority. It is interesting to note, as shown by Björnbo, that the Frisius-Mercator globe seems to betray Portuguese associations, and thus its information about Scolvus may also have come from Portugal.