At the same time another Irish mythical conception has found its way on to the map of 1325, and faithfully attends the isle of “Brazil” on its progress through all the compass-charts of later times; this is the fortunate lake, “lacus fortunatus,” with its islands, “insulle sc̄i lacaris” [Lough Carra or Lough Corrib ?], which were so numerous that there was said later to be one for every day of the year. On Perrinus Vesconte’s map of 1327 the same lake with its many islands is found, and as far as I can read the greatly reduced reproduction in Nordenskiöld’s Periplus (Pl. VII.) the words are: “gulfo de issolle CCCLVIII.[226] beate et fortunate” (the gulf of the 358 blessed and happy islands), as also found on some later maps.[227] I have not had an opportunity of examining the map of the British Isles in the same draughtsman’s atlas of 1321, to see whether this happy lake and the isle of Brazil are given there; the gulf with the 358 islands is stated to be on Vesconte-Sanudo maps [cf. Harrisse, 1892, pp. 57, f.], which I have also had no opportunity of consulting.

Dulcert’s (Dalorto’s) map of 1339

Angellino Dulcert’s (Dalorto’s) map of 1339[228] differs somewhat from the map of 1325 (1330 ?) in its delineation of the North, in that Norway is given a narrower and more rectangular form, with only those four headlands on the south side which are largest on the map of 1325, while the country with the smaller headlands to the west of these is cut away, whereby the narrower shape is brought about.[229]

Dalorto’s maps of 1325 and 1339 furnish the prototype for the representation of the North in later compass-charts; and this persists without important alteration until well into the fifteenth century. But while later Italian charts (cf. Pizigano’s of 1367) more closely resemble the Italian Dalorto map of 1325, the Majorca map of 1339 represents the type of the later Catalan charts. In the one preserved at Modena, and dating from about 1350,[230] the Catalan compass-chart is combined with the representation of the world of the wheel-maps. We find the picture of the North to be the same in all its main outlines; but here a new feature is added, in that Iceland appears as a group of eight islands in the far north-west, out on the margin of the map, with the note: “questas illes son appellades islandes” (these islands are called Icelands). The southernmost island is called “islanda,” the others have incomprehensible names (“donbert,” “tranes,” “tales,” “brons,” “bres,” “mmau...,” “bilanj” [?]); but the name of Greenland is not found. In the ocean to the north of Norway there is “Mare putritum congelatum” [the putrid, frozen sea]. This is evidently the idea of the stinking Liver Sea (as in Arab myths, cf. [p. 51]), combined with that of the frozen sea. On the approximately contemporary Catalan compass-chart (see the reproduction, [pp. 232-233]), preserved in the National Library at Florence (called No. 16), we find the same group of islands called “Island,” with a long inscription (see [p. 232]; cf. also Björnbo and Petersen, 1908, p. 16), which is partly illegible, but wherein it is stated that “the islands are very large,” that “the people are handsome, tall and fair, the country is very cold,” etc. The name of Greenland does not occur on this chart either.[231]

North-western Europe on the wheel-shaped compass-chart at Modena (circa 1350).
The network of compass-lines, names and legends omitted. Mountains indicated by shading

[Larger Image]

North-western Europe on the anonymous Catalan mappamundi of the middle of the fourteenth century, in the National Library
at Florence. Reproduced mainly from a tracing of the original made by Dr. A. A. Björnbo. The text of the names and legends has
been somewhat enlarged to render it legible in the reduced reproduction. In the legend on the Baltic the erroneous “gronlandia”
is given, while the original has “gotlandia” (according to O. Vangensten)