The Voyages of the Venetian Brothers, Nicol and Antonio Zeno, to the Northern Seas in the XlVth Century
Comprising the latest known Accounts of the Lost Colony of Greenland; and of the Northmen in America before Columbus
Edited by
RICHARD HENRY MAJOR
First published by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Founded in 1846, the Hakluyt Society seeks to advance knowledge and education by the publication of scholarly editions of primary records of voyages, travels and other geographical material. In partnership with Ashgate, and using print-on-demand and e-book technology, the Society has made re-available all 290 volumes comprised in Series I and Series II of its publications in both print and digital editions. For information about the Hakluyt Society visit www hakluyt.com
ISBN 13: 978-1-4094-1317-2 (hbk)
WORKS ISSUED BY
The Hakluyt Society.
THE VOYAGES OF NICOL AND ANTONIO ZENO.
THE
VOYAGES
OF THE VENETIAN BROTHERS,
NICOL & ANTONIO ZENO,
TO THE NORTHERN SEAS,
IN THE XIVTH CENTURY,
COMPRISING
THE LATEST KNOWN ACCOUNTS OF
THE LOST COLONY OF GREENLAND;
AND OF
THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA
BEFORE COLUMBUS.
TRANSLATED AND EDITED,
WITH NOTES AND AN INTRODUCTION,
BY
RICHARD HENRY MAJOR, F.S.A., &c.
T. RICHARBDS, 37, GREAT QEEN STREET
COUNCIL
OF
THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY.
W. A. TYSSEN AMHURST, ESQ.
REV. DB. GEORGE P. BADGER, D.C.L.
JOHN BARROW, ESQ., F.R.S.
VICB-ADMIHAL COLLINSON, C.B.
CAPTAIN COLOMB, R.N.
W. E. PRERE, ESQ.
EGERTON VERNON HARCOTJRT, ESQ.
JOHN WINTER JONES, ESQ., F.S.A.
R. H. MAJOR, ESQ., F.S.A., SEC.R.G.S.
SIB W. STIRLING MAXWELL, BABT.
SIB CHARLES NICHOLSON. BABT., D.C.L.
VICE-ADMIRAL ERASMUS OMMANNEY, C.B., F.R.S.
RBAK-ADMIRAL SHERARD OSBORN, C.B., F.R.S.
THE LOBD STANLEY OF ALDEBLEY.
EDWARD THOMAS, ESQ., F.R.S.
THB HON. FREDERICK WALPOLE, M.P.
CLEMENTS R. MARKHAM, ESQ...B., F.R.S., SEC.R.G.S., HONOBARY SECRRTARY.
- VICE-PBBSIDKNTS.
THE nucleus of this small volume is, in respect of quantity, remarkably small; but the material which envelopes it and which supplies it with bulk enough to constitute a volume, is devoted to the purpose of showing that, if small in quantity, it is far from being insignificant in quality.
The very object of our Society being to deal with the Geography of the Past, by printing rare or unpublished ancient texts of travels, it is clearly a duty in Editors to supply their readers with full information as to the position, in regard both of time and importance, which the documents that they produce occupy, or ought to occupy, in the history of Geography. But it is equally clear that the proportion which the illustrative matter may bear to the extent of the original text, must vary very much according to the circumstances of each case. In the present instance, we have the peculiar phenomenon of a most true and authentic narrative, which must henceforth, it is hoped, hold a high position among ancient historical records of travel, having been, in conjunction with the map that accompanies it, the cause of a vast amount of error and misconception, and the subject of so much discredit as to have been finally condemned as false and a tissue of fiction. To track the causes of such misconceptions and to free the document, if possible, from the discredit under which it laboured, became my duty as Editor. That I have succeeded in so doing will, I trust, be acknowledged not as a matter of opinion only, but of unanswerable fact. I advert to that fact here solely with the view of explaining why the illustrative matter in the volume should be so large in comparison with the text.
R. H. M.
THE duties of an Editor of one of our Hakluyt volumes are almost always limited to the elucidation of a text, which though antiquarian and therefore demanding a peculiar kind of editorial care, is at least undisputed as to its authenticity. Such is not the case in the present instance. By far the hardest portion of the task of preparing this introduction has been the investigation of the perplexities which hang about the Zeno narrative and the map which accompanies it. It was truly said by the learned John Pinkerton in his History of Scotland (vol. i, page 261, Note) Zenos book is one of the most puzzling in the whole circle of literature. Unfortunately this perplexity, which up to the present time has baffled every commentator, has produced the mischievous but not unnatural effect of throwing discredit on the authenticity of a genuine and valuable narrative. It may even be said that this unlucky document has met with almost as injurious treatment from its advocates as from its enemies; since, from failing to detect the real solution of that which perplexed them, even friendly critics have been compelled to resort to random speculations, which have only made confusion worse confounded. The puzzle consisted in this, that it presented geographical information very far in advance not only of what was known by geographers in the fourteenth century, when the narrative was first written, but greatly in advance also of the geography of the sixteenth century, when it was published. At the same time the narrative, and the map which accompanied it, contained names of places which in the form of their spelling and the positions assigned to them, were so irreconcileable with all that geographers have been able to learn from other sources, that they have given rise to the wildest conjectures, have puzzled the patient out of their wits, and driven the impatient to condemn the whole thing as an imposture. The story in brief is as follows:
Towards the close of the fourteenth century Nicol Zeno, a member of one of the noblest and most ancient families in Venice, went, at his own expense, on a voyage rather of curiosity than discovery into the northern seas. For a long series of years before his time the Flanders voyage from Venice had been a matter of almost annual occurrence, but chance gave to this voyage a very peculiar interest. Nicol Zeno was wrecked on what he describes as the Island of Frislanda, which will presently be shown to be the Froe Group, and he and his companions were rescued from the wreckers by the chief of a neighbouring principality, named Zichmni, who happened to be there, and into whose service he entered in the capacity of pilot of his fleet. After remaining with this chieftain some time, during which is recorded the conquest of Frislanda by Zichmni, Nicol Zeno wrote home to his brother Antonio, inviting him to join him, which he did. Nicol survived his brothers arrival four years, and died in Frislanda. Antonio remained ten years more in the service of Zichmni, and then returned to Venice, where he died. It is from the above mentioned letter of Nicol to Antonio and subsequent letters from Antonio to a third brother Carlo (a very distinguished man in Venetian history) that the narrative of the movements of the two brothers is derived. After Antonios arrival the two brothers accompanied Zichmni in a victorious attack on what can be clearly shown to be the Shetland group, although named Eslanda. The narrative, however, fortunately treats at greater length on two much more important subjects; viz., a visit by Nicol Zeno to Greenland, which he calls Engroneland, and the observations of some fishermen in two parts of North America, called respectively Estotiland and Drogeo, showing the existence at that period, more than a century before the time of Columbus, of the remains of those old Scandinavian colonists mentioned by Adam of Bremen in the eleventh and Ordericus Vitalis in the twelfth century, and about whom we have learned so much in the present century from the Danish antiquaries C. C. Rafn and others. The whole story had been written out by Antonio Zeno, but a descendant of his, named Nicol Zeno, born in 1515, when a boy, not knowing the value of these papers, tore them up, but, some of the letters surviving, he was able from them subsequently to compile the narrative and publish it, as we now have it, in the year 1558. He found also in the palace a map, rotten with age, illustrative of the voyages. Of this he made a copy, unluckily supplying, from his own reading of the narrative, what he thought was requisite for its illustration. The first to do himself honour by vindicating the truth of the Zeno story, was the distinguished companion of Captain Cook, Johann Reinhold Forster, in his History of the voyages and discoveries in the North, published in
