Antilia ( Antillia ) - a ghost island , depicted on maps of the XV century ( portulans ) in the form of a rectangle stretched from north to south in the Atlantic Ocean west of the Iberian Peninsula .
The large rectangular island of Antilia first appears on the portulana of the Venetian cartographer Giovanni Pizzigano in 1424 . Subsequent cartographers, changing the composition and names of the “newly discovered islands” lying around, gave Antilia itself a coast cut by seven bays, each of which was depicted in the city (see Seven Overseas Cities ). Before the Spaniards discovered America, Antilia was portrayed the size of Portugal , 200 miles west of the Azores . Subsequently, this name was assigned to the Antilles , adopted by the Spanish discoverers for the legendary island.
The regular appearance of Antilia on the 15th century sea charts led to the assumption that this island could represent the American continent . Because of this, Antilia is often mentioned by modern scholars of pre-Columbian transoceanic contacts between Europe and America .
Content
The Problem of Etymology
The word Antilia was probably derived from the Portuguese Ante-Ilha (“Island of the Other,” “Island of the Opposite”). It was believed that the island was directly "opposite" to mainland Portugal . Its original size and rectangular shape was almost a mirror image of Portugal itself. It is also believed that the word "Ante-Ilha" is connected in meaning with another Latin word "Aprositus" ("Inaccessible", Ptolemy so called one of the Blessed Isles ) [1] .
Others consider this version incorrect, because the root “Ante-” means that the island is opposite the other island, and not the mainland. As a result of alternative theories about the origin of the word abound. Some even argue that Antilia is an incorrectly transcribed reference to Plato's Atlantis [2] .
According to another recent hypothesis, "Antilia" means "before Tula ." And since the legendary island of Thule was probably a semi-mythical reference to Iceland, Antilia could be Ireland. But this theory looks unfounded, since Ireland (Hibernia) in the 15th century was well known and depicted on maps [3] .
Antilia on the maps
Some historians are trying to make out the mention of Antilia on the map of Pizzigani in 1367. One of the inscriptions on this portulan was translated by nineteenth-century historians as “statues on the banks of Atulia” (ante ripas Atulliae), for which sailors should not swim. Behind the mysterious Atulia, it was tempting to see Antilia. However, it was subsequently proved that the correct reading is “statues of Hercules” (Arcules), i.e. it is a reference to the pillars of Hercules , not to Antilia.
For the first time, Antilia appears on the portulan of the Venetian cartographer Giovanni Pizzigano (1424) as part of a group of four islands lying far in the Atlantic Ocean about 750 miles west of Portugal. Pizzigano portrayed Antilles as a large rectangular island the size of Portugal with seven bays. To the north of it was the legendary island of Satan (Satanazes), crowned by a small island of Saya (Saya). To the west of Antilles was the island of Royllo . These islands are united in the so-called Antilia group. As a rule, the subsequent cartographers depicted these three islands together with Antilia, arbitrarily varying their names and relative positions.
23 cartographic images of Antilia are known, the last of which dates back to 1508 (a map of Johannes Ruysch, where the island of Satan was replaced by the island of Demons ). Several expeditions were conducted to find the island, and even Columbus planned to make a stop on this island on the way to Asia [4] . After 1492 , when America was discovered and the globe “ Earth apple ” was created, Antilia appears less and less on maps. In the XVI century, it begins to be identified with the Azores island of San Miguel (although their outlines are not at all similar).
See also
- Brazil
- Satan Island
Notes
- ↑ Gaffarel (1882: p.204 )
- ↑ Babcock (1922: p . 148 ). D'Avezac (1845: p . 27 ) "
- ↑ Barreto (1992: p.163) seems to be the only source of this hypothesis.
- ↑ Henry Vignaud, Paolo del Pozzo Toscanelli. Toscanelli and Columbus: The Letter and Chart of Toscanelli on the Route to the Indies by Way of the West, Sent in 1474 to the Portuguese, Ferman Martins, and Later on to Christopher Columbus . Ayer Publishing, 1971. ISBN 9780836957174 . Pages 202-207.
Links
- R. Ramsey. Discoveries that never happened. Chapter 5. Various islands, some of them are diabolical
- A. M. Kondratov. Atlantic without Atlantis