This makes sense given the popular knowledge at the time. The reason Columbus set sail wasn’t because he was a genius that knew the Earth was round when everyone else didn’t. We knew the Earth was round since antiquity. I can’t remember who1, but some ancient Greek had calculated the circumference of the Earth using the angle of a shadow, distance to a equinox solstice, and simple trigonometry. They guy was less than 5% off with his rudimentary calculation, which is impressive considering that he paid some dude to measure the distance between two towns by walking it. Anyways, the Western Europeans thought that Japan was farther east, somewhere around where the words “Terra florida” are on this map if I recall correctly from memory. When the Niña, Pinta, and Santa Marimba (party boat! jk, it was Santa Maria named after the “virgin”) landed on the most beautiful land that human eyes had ever seen, they knew they hadn’t landed on Zipangri/Cipangu/Japan. Instead, they thought they had landed on some island off of India, which is why they called the locals “Indios” (Indians). Anyways part 2, they thought that Japan was much further east than it was. I imagine that since they hadn’t found it for this map yet, they though it must be right out of sight of the western coast of North Vespucci (America).
What I’m curious about is that 7448 inflating archipelago. Anyone have an idea on what that’s about?
I’m not an avid reader, but I’m a huge fan of a book called Over the Edge of the World by Lawrence Bergreen. That detailed Magellan’s voyage around the world. A few takeaways:
Spices really were the thing everyone in Europe wanted. If a sailor managed to smuggle a backpack full of cloves, it would be enough to buy a modest house. Only one of 5 ships made it back, but it was filled with top quality cloves and that was enough that the trip was STILL a financial gain.
Nobody really knew where the spices came from. India was a nebulous semi-mythical place, and some believed there were a few "India"s
Magellan, while Portuguese by birth, basically moved to Spain when Portugal wouldn’t pay for him to try to find the spice Islands
The treaty of Tordesillas roughly divided the new world between Spain and Portugal. The land east of whatever meridian was Portugal’s, and west was Spain’s. But there were still issues, like longitude not really being measurable at the time and no clear idea who had claim 180° past that meridian. But it would have been to Spain’s benefit to find the spice islands past that meridian
Bonus fact: the first human to sail around the world was Magellan’s slave, Enrique (last name escapes me). He was brought from Indonesia(?) to Europe, then set sail on this round-the world journey, eventually going near his native homeland. Magellan had it in his will that Enrique be freed upon his death, but when he was killed on that voyage (basically by his own who) nobody was aware of that.
I had guessed it was Sri Lanka since it is also shown just off the coast of India. Then I figured it was more likely Indonesia given it’s surrounded by so many other islands and not that close to India. But yeah, now that I know that the name meant Japan I’m wondering if it’s depiction on the map is a conflagration of accounts of Indonesia and Japan.
Before seeing your comment and searching myself, I wondered if it was California as well, since it was thought that California was an Island for some time.
Anyone know what Zipangri is? Could that be Baja California, or what?
Edit: Japan. Is apparently just off the coast of Mexico
This makes sense given the popular knowledge at the time. The reason Columbus set sail wasn’t because he was a genius that knew the Earth was round when everyone else didn’t. We knew the Earth was round since antiquity. I can’t remember who1, but some ancient Greek had calculated the circumference of the Earth using the angle of a shadow, distance to a
equinoxsolstice, and simple trigonometry. They guy was less than 5% off with his rudimentary calculation, which is impressive considering that he paid some dude to measure the distance between two towns by walking it. Anyways, the Western Europeans thought that Japan was farther east, somewhere around where the words “Terra florida” are on this map if I recall correctly from memory. When the Niña, Pinta, and Santa Marimba (party boat! jk, it was Santa Maria named after the “virgin”) landed on the most beautiful land that human eyes had ever seen, they knew they hadn’t landed on Zipangri/Cipangu/Japan. Instead, they thought they had landed on some island off of India, which is why they called the locals “Indios” (Indians). Anyways part 2, they thought that Japan was much further east than it was. I imagine that since they hadn’t found it for this map yet, they though it must be right out of sight of the western coast of North Vespucci (America).What I’m curious about is that 7448 inflating archipelago. Anyone have an idea on what that’s about?
1: The dude was Eratosthenes. Thanks, @[email protected]!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth's_circumference#Eratosthenes
I’m stealing this! 😂
lol, I updated it with a silly link for more even fun 😋
It’s not “inflating”, it’s “insularum” (they also used to use the tilde as a shorthand for m and n), using the old long s
The El Niña weather event, the Piñata and the Santa Claus.
perfect! 😆
I’m not an avid reader, but I’m a huge fan of a book called Over the Edge of the World by Lawrence Bergreen. That detailed Magellan’s voyage around the world. A few takeaways:
Spices really were the thing everyone in Europe wanted. If a sailor managed to smuggle a backpack full of cloves, it would be enough to buy a modest house. Only one of 5 ships made it back, but it was filled with top quality cloves and that was enough that the trip was STILL a financial gain.
Nobody really knew where the spices came from. India was a nebulous semi-mythical place, and some believed there were a few "India"s
Magellan, while Portuguese by birth, basically moved to Spain when Portugal wouldn’t pay for him to try to find the spice Islands
The treaty of Tordesillas roughly divided the new world between Spain and Portugal. The land east of whatever meridian was Portugal’s, and west was Spain’s. But there were still issues, like longitude not really being measurable at the time and no clear idea who had claim 180° past that meridian. But it would have been to Spain’s benefit to find the spice islands past that meridian
Bonus fact: the first human to sail around the world was Magellan’s slave, Enrique (last name escapes me). He was brought from Indonesia(?) to Europe, then set sail on this round-the world journey, eventually going near his native homeland. Magellan had it in his will that Enrique be freed upon his death, but when he was killed on that voyage (basically by his own who) nobody was aware of that.
Apparently Japan’s shape wasn’t well known either
I had guessed it was Sri Lanka since it is also shown just off the coast of India. Then I figured it was more likely Indonesia given it’s surrounded by so many other islands and not that close to India. But yeah, now that I know that the name meant Japan I’m wondering if it’s depiction on the map is a conflagration of accounts of Indonesia and Japan.
Given the lack of shape, it could be just about anything - I wonder if it was one report, or hearsay with no details and they filled in something
They were generally working with very, very rough, incomplete, conflicting, or confusing info, yes.
It’s pretty astounding to me that this is even remotely as accurate as it is.
That explains the pearl harbour
Before seeing your comment and searching myself, I wondered if it was California as well, since it was thought that California was an Island for some time.