[243] The famous Roger Bacon is said to have already made an attempt, before Ptolemy’s Geography was known, to draw a map according to mathematical determinations of locality; but the map is lost [Roger Bacon, Opus majus, fol. 186-189]. The title of Nicholas of Lynn’s book is said to have been: “Inventio fortunate qui liber incipet a gradu 54, usque ad polum” (i.e., which book begins [in its description] at 54° [and goes] as far as the pole) [cf. Hakluyt, Princ. Nav., 1903, p. 303]. This may show that degrees were already in use at that time (1360) for geographical description.
[244] On Claudius Clavus see in particular Storm’s work of fundamental importance [1880-1891], and the valuable monograph by Björnbo and Petersen [1904, 1909], also A. A. Björnbo [1910]. Cf. further Nordenskiöld [1897, pp. 86, ff.], v. Wieser [Peterm. Mitteilungen, xlv. 1899, pp. 119, ff.], Jos. Fischer [1902, cap. 5], and others.
[245] Cf. Axel Olrik, “Danske Studier,” 1904, p. 215.
[246] This “secundum” in the MS. must doubtless have been inserted by a copyist. Björnbo and Petersen think the original had “ij,” which the copyist took for a Roman numeral and replaced by “secundum.” As it might seem strange that the man lived “‘in’ a river of Greenland,” Axel Olrik thought that the word might have been “wit” (by, or near); but then it becomes more difficult to understand how and why the word should have been replaced by “secundum,” unless the copyist had some knowledge of Danish.
[247] “Danske Studier,” 1907, p. 228.
[248] Many vain searches were afterwards made (in 1451 and 1461) in the monastery of Sorö for this MS. of Livy, and there may therefore be grounds for doubting the statement to be true [cf. Björnbo and Petersen, 1909, pp. 197, f.].
[249] Cf. the maps on pp. [223], [224]. As we certainly do not know nearly all the maps that were in use at that time, I regard it as probable that Claudius or his draughtsman had older maps, now lost, of this or a similar type, which resemble the Nancy map even more closely than these two known maps. But of course it is wiser to confine ourselves as far as possible to those we know.
[250] Storm [1891, p. 16] was the first to hold that Clavus made use of Italian compass-charts as his model for the delineation of the south coast of Scandinavia, and that he also took names from them. Björnbo and Petersen have rejected this view, as the names in Clavus’s text are principally taken from other sources, and the Baltic has been given quite a different shape. But the necessity of this change seems to have escaped them, as it was caused by Clavus retaining Ptolemy’s outline for the South coast of the Baltic.
[251] If we assume that the names “Wildhlappelandi,” “Pigmei,” etc., on the Nancy map are due to Clavus himself, he may have had some authority like that of the anonymous letter to Pope Nicholas V. (of about 1450), which Michel Beheim may also have used (see later). From this source he may have obtained the information about the land connection between the land to the north-east of Norway and Greenland. As will be mentioned later ([p. 270]), it is possible that this source was Nicholas of Lynn.
[252] Storm [1891, p. 15] also maintains that on the Nancy map Thule has been incorporated with Norway, but Björnbo and Petersen [1904, p. 194; 1909, p. 158] think that this must be regarded as “one of the unfortunate results of his desire to reduce all Clavus’s contributions to a single one”; why, we are not told. According to my view there can be no doubt that Storm is right. Clavus has made the south coast of Thule into the southernmost coast of Norway, with its south-eastern point due north of the island of Ocitis, and its south-western point north of the west side of Orcadia, exactly as on Ptolemy’s map. In addition, this coast has the same latitude and longitude as the South coast of Ptolemy’s Thule.