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Yale Map of 1440 AD
By Vincent J. Mooney Jr.
vincentj@erols.com
Monday November 09, 1998

Readers should know about a recent publication, a Yale map book. Its title is The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation, by R.A. Skelton, et al. The description is a classic of historical cartography. The book presents and discusses a map dated about 1440 AD showing the American coast, a legend describing its discovery about AD 1000, by Leif Ericson and an account of a missionary's expedition to the Mongols from 1245 to 1247 (the Tartar Relation) within which the map was once bound. Very well illustrated. Published by the Yale University Press at $45, 9 in. by 11.5 in. Seller: Edward R. Hamilton, Bookseller, Falls Village CT 06031-5000 Order number 759600 for $ 19.95 plus $ 3.00 for shipping and handling.  Yale Press telephone order number. It is 1-800-987-7323 or 203-432-0940.

The seller is a company and the address is as given (no street, no PO Box). They also have a catalogue. Write to them for a free copy (but don't ask me how to get off the dang list!) So far as I know, the catalogue is NOT on-line and indeed it took a lot of fine print reading by me to find this book. The catalogue is in many sections; I found this in a history section.

I have two copies, one from Yale at $45 plus $ 5.50 S&H. I bought a copy from the seller to see if it was the same as from Yale and it was. Here is a review of the Vinland Map Of 1440.

In 1957, there was offered for sale by a Spanish antiquarian bookseller firm an otherwise unremarkable book on Vatican relations with the Tartars. Bound into the book was a world map circa 1440 AD with Iceland, Greenland (both as islands) and part of Canadian North American eastern coast which it named Vinland. Vinland is described as an island and the legend on the map states that the discoverers were Leif Eriksson and Byarni Herjolfsson. The area is north of Labrador and Newfoundland. The British Museum was asked to authenticate the map and concluded it was a fake. This is now very strongly disputed by many people and by Jacqueline Olin who retired in 1995 after 32 years with the Smithsonian Institute's Conservation Analytical Laboratory. She feels the map is genuine and explained her views at the 2066th monthly meeting of the Washington Philosophical Society at the Comos Club in Washington D.C. on Dec. 13, 1996.

Ms. Olin is a Harvard University degreed biochemist and spent much time examining the ink used for the map. In 1974 Dr. Walter McCrone found the chemical anatase on the map and claimed this was proof of forgery as that chemical was not introduced into inks until the 1920's. She explained that the process of making an ink in the 15th century often resulted in this chemical when the ore used was a titanium oxide of iron. She showed some slides of this chemical manufacturing process (as it was done in the 1400's) and the associated chemical equations, explaining that she had had doubts about Dr. McCrone's analysis for many years. Included were some very high magnification photos of anatase particle comparisons. Dr. McCrone still maintains that the entire map is a forgery. Several independent scholars have stated that the map is genuine based on their examination of the ink.

Scientists at the Crocker Nuclear Laboratory (University of California at Davis) have borrowed the map for an examination lasting 10 years. They found that the map has as much anatase as known authentic 15th century documents. Their conclusion was that it occurred naturally and that McCrone was mistaken. Ms. Olin stated that the McCrone methods and the Crocker lab methods were not comparable and that her work supported the Crocker analysis for authenticity. The anatase was not at all a sign of forgery, she insisted.

The handwriting on the map is a handwriting of the 15th century and the map is a very good copy of the Andre Bianco world map of 1436, with the addition of Vinland and some legends. It in not clear who made this map. Ms. Olin explained its history as a likely composite of Bianco's map and a Viking map and stated that her colleagues believed that this Vinland Map of 1440 AD had predecessors.

The paper used in the map has been traced exactly to a Swiss paper mill in Basle which made the paper in 1440. The watermark on the paper has been catalogued by antiquarian experts and historians who have shown that the paper run was manufactured for a conference in Basle in 1440. The map's author is thought to be someone from Switzerland but who it was is unknown.

She reported that the map's history has shown that the Spanish owners were connected to descendants of Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus). During the question and answer period, that subject came up often. She cautiously said that it deserves looking into carefully. As a explanation of how the map and book came up for sale, she reported that is not unusual that noble families of Spain and other European countries dispose of very old private library items to raise needed money. Further background on the map seems impossible to obtain. The map, because it was bound in a book of unrelated material, must not have seemed special.

The Tartar Relation book and the map have worm holes. As the book's holes and the map's holes do not match, this has been cited as evidence of forgery. The book was clearly rebound atsome time. Then a most unusual event happened. A book called the Speculum was offered for sale by the same Spanish seller at the same time the Tartar Relation was sold. It too had been rebound at some time. Since the word "speculi" appears on the map for no apparent reason, the map's owner (at the time, an American book dealer) decided to buy the Speculum. And the worm holes now matched. At first it was thought that the map must have been originally in the Speculum; now Ms. Olin is convinced that the Speculum and the Tartar Relation were once one book with a map casually inserted. The worm holes are in a complete and consistent path. One questioner pointed out that if the Vinland Map is a forgery, so too should the two books, but historians do not make that claim. After all, it was John of Plano Carpini's mission in the 13th century to the Tartars that is described and that event did indeed take place.

The objection that Greenland was depicted as an island was dealt with. Such authorities as Dr. Samuel Morison of Harvard and Eva Taylor in England cited this objection as proof of forgery. Ms. Olin noted that although it was not until the 19th century that Greenland was accepted as an island by cartographers, the map's description was very accurate on the east coast, the south and the south west. The accuracy of these areas were a cause for concern by some scholars who concluded that the Vinland Map was too accurate. In other words, it was drawn from modern maps. The northern Greenland areas were straight lines and gentle curved lines, indicating guesswork. And Vinland is not an island either yet that was how the map showed it. She did not find the island objection impressive at all. For example, the map is not a navigation chart; rather a map of the known world. A navigation
chart of Vinland would, as Ms. Olin pointed out, would be another marvelous find, has yet to be located. She also reviewed the climatology of the years 1,000 AD to 1,200 AD when the weather was much warmer than now and would have allowed a trip around Greenland as well as trip to northern Canada, named Vinland. Ms. Olin gave a short summary of why archaeologists knew that Vikings had been in North America. She reviewed the known sites in Canada only, mentioning that sites in the State of Maine were less certain. She also had slides of the sagas that told of visiting Vinland and cited the map as perfectly consistent with these sagas.

The book and map were sold to an American book dealer for $3,500 in 1957 and resold to Paul Mellon who donated it to Yale University, the current owner, for $1,000,000 tax valued deduction. It is now insured for $25,000,000. Yale published a book called "The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation" in 1965 and a new expanded edition in 1996 ($45.00 from the Yale Univ. Press). Ms. Olin urged readers to go through that text for a fuller story.