NICHOLAS OF LYNN. ZENO. MEDIEVAL NAUTICAL INSTRUMENTS
There was dwelling in Oxford, when Chaucer was young, a scholar known
as courteous Nicholas. He lodged with an old carpenter who had married
a very young wife. He had a room to himself, and was devoted to the
study of astrology and mathematics. On shelves at his bed head he had
several books, including the _Almagest_ of Ptolemy, as well as an
astrolabe, and _angrim_ stones used in numeration.
The poet Chaucer and the scholar Nicholas had tastes in common. Both
loved music and both studied what was then known of the sphere and the
means of fixing positions. Chaucer wrote a treatise on the astrolabe
addressed to his little son Lowys in 1391 and called it “brede and
milke for children.” In this treatise Chaucer mentions Nicholas with
great respect. We shall not be far wrong either in assuming Nicholas
the scholar to have been a friend of Chaucer, or in identifying him
with the Carmelite monk Nicholas of Lynn, who would take his place as
England’s first Arctic explorer if his work had not been lost--a loss
which is almost a national calamity.
In 1360 Nicholas of Lynn undertook an expedition to Norway and the
isles beyond towards the pole, beginning from 54° N. and fixing the
latitudes with an astrolabe. Hakluyt quotes Gerard Mercator as writing
that an English monk and mathematician of Oxford had been in Norway and
the islands in the north, describing all those places and determining
their latitudes by an astrolabe. He is said to have written a work
on his expedition entitled _Inventio Fortunata_, which is lost; and
another work is attributed to him, _De Mundi Revolutione_. Dr Dee wrote
that Nicholas made five voyages into the northern parts, and left an
account of his discoveries.
Dr Nansen is the first writer I know who treats Nicholas of Lynn
seriously. He shows that the work of Nicholas was known to Las Casas,
who had read it, and also to Martin Behaim, who on his globe places
isles all round the pole which are not shown on any older map and,
Nansen thinks, are evidently taken from Nicholas of Lynn. The maps
of Claudius Clavus, one of them quite recently brought to light, and
other medieval maps, also probably derived their information from our
forgotten Nicholas. One would give a good deal to know which were the
northern islands that he visited. Evidently his work had an influence
on the productions of the cartographers through the next century.
[Illustration: The Zeni map.]
We owe much to the cartographers, and it is deeply interesting to watch
their gradual acquisition of fresh knowledge, and their treatment of
uncertain and disputed points. But there have been cartographers of
a different kind who have invented and knowingly led students and
navigators astray. If such men gain a hearing, the injury they do may
endure for a century or more. Such a man was Niccolo Zeno.
This Niccolo Zeno, of a noble Venetian family, published what professed
to be an account of the voyage of two of his ancestors in the far north
in the service of a northern chief named Zichmni. Niccolo himself
lived in the 16th century (1515–1565) and the voyages of his ancestors
were supposed to have been made in the 14th century. The narrative
was accompanied by an extraordinary map covered with names. It showed
Greenland brought round to join Norway, Iceland, a large island called
Friesland between Iceland and Greenland, lands to the west near America
called Estotiland and Drogeo, and another large island in the Atlantic
called Icaria. Niccolo Zeno was accepted as an authority by Mercator in
his map of the world (1569) and by Ortelius (1570) and the narrative
found a place in Ramusio (1574). Meanwhile the false information
continued to mislead travellers and navigators. On the first English
globe by Molyneux in 1572 Zeno’s Friesland and Drogeo are shown. As
late as 1631 Luke Fox has “Frisland” on his polar card. The false
information held its ground for a hundred years.
Among modern writers there were differences of opinion. In 1784, J.
Reinhold Foster fully accepted all Zeno’s story as true, and identified
Zichmni with Sinclair, Earl of Orkney. Maltebrun accepted the story,
and Humboldt was inclined to accept it. Lelewel accepted it. Mr Major
gave whole-hearted credence to Zeno’s statements, and wrote a standard
work on the subject (1873). Desimoni (1878) claimed that Major had
settled the question.
There were other writers who were more or less sceptical. Washington
Irving rejected the story. Crantz and Graah, eminent Danish travellers
and writers, were doubtful, and more or less incredulous. Admiral
Zarhtmann of Copenhagen rejected both narrative and map, as did the
learned Danish writer Steenstrup.
All this was before the discovery of medieval maps which exposed the
whole imposition. These were, especially, the large map of Olaus Magnus
(Venice 1539), found in the Munich library in 1886, and the Zamoiski
map (1467), discovered at Warsaw in 1888; also a map of North Europe
and Greenland in the MS. Ptolemy at Florence, and the edition of
Ptolemy published at Ulm in 1482--the earliest printed map showing
Greenland.
Most of the names on the Zeno map were supposed to be original; due to
their discoveries, and not existent on any earlier map. The discovery
of these earlier medieval maps, however, has disposed of that delusion.
Of the 19 Zeno names on Iceland, 12 are in the Zamoiski map, 3 in the
Florence map, and the others in that of Olaus Magnus. On the Cantino
map in 1502 appears Frisland, placed due north of Scotland. It is a
clerical error in copying Stillanda from the Cosa map. This is the way
Zeno got hold of the name Frislanda. The whole was concocted by Niccolo
Zeno and his publisher Marcoloni in 1558, from materials on maps then
existing.
The Zeno imposture was first studied by Professor Storm, in the light
of the Zamoiski and Olaus Magnus maps, and he exposed the falsities
of the narrative, and the imposture of the map. The whole subject was
discussed in an exhaustive work by Mr F. W. Lucas, from which the above
details have been taken[26]. The mischief done by the Zeno forgery,
while it lasted, was very serious; causing confusion in the work of
cartographers as well as mistakes in the reports of navigators.
* * * * *
In the period of the beginning of English Arctic exploration, the
instrument mainly used for finding the latitude was the astrolabe. The
cross-staff had been invented, but was not in general use, nor was the
quadrant with a plumb-line, though it had been used by Columbus. The
astrolabe was a circular metal ring with inlet plates and discs. These
plates were fitted to drop into an inner depression of the ring, the
principal one being called the _rete_. It consisted of a circular plate
marked with zodiacs sub-divided into degrees, with narrow branching
limbs having smaller tongues terminating in points, each denoting the
position of a star. The plates, or “tables” as Chaucer calls them, were
differently marked for places having different latitudes. Within all
these scales of _Umbra recta_ and _Umbra versa_ there is a division
into 12 parts for taking and computing heights and distances by an
approximate method. The _alidada_ is a straight-edge across the ring
moveable with two sights, and a pin ties them all together.
[Illustration: Astrolabe in Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
(_early 14th century_)]
The _alidada_ is for taking the altitude of the sun, and the _rete_
adjusted to this altitude shows the hour of the day. To take an
observation the right thumb is put into the ring of the astrolabe, and
the left side is turned against the light of the sun. The _alidada_ or
rule is moved up and down until the rays of the sun shine through both
sights. Then the number of degrees the _alidada_ is raised from the
little cross placed to show the east line is the altitude of the sun,
read off on the outer ring. The Spaniards constructed their astrolabes
small and heavy, to prevent them from being blown about, not much over
five inches in diameter yet weighing 4 lbs. The diameter of the English
astrolabes was six or seven inches, sometimes more.
This instrument, invented by Hipparchus and developed by Ptolemy, was
in use until the days of Elizabeth. It has a peculiar interest for
those who are fond of studying the history of maritime discovery, but
it is by no means simple in construction and it is necessary to examine
the astrolabe itself to understand it and its uses[27].
Besides the astrolabe our earliest Arctic navigators were supplied
with large blank globes on which they puzzled out the navigation
problems, an armillary sphere, a great chart with all that was known
or conjectured on it, smaller navigation charts, compasses and
hourglasses, and the regiment of Medina, translated from the Spanish
at the instance of the Arctic navigator Burrough. With such slight and
rather unreliable help our brave seamen of the 16th century, in great
peril and difficulty, found their way over the trackless ocean, a way
now made easy for their descendants.