Volume Ii Part 4 (1/2)

[26] Blaeu, J. Le grand Atlas ou Cosmographie Blaviane. Amsterdam, 1663-1671. 12 Vols. Practically the same work in the Latin, the Dutch, and the Spanish languages. A bibliographical list of Blaeu's princ.i.p.al geographical publications is given in Stevenson, op. cit., pp. 65-67, in Phillips, op. cit., and in Tiele, op. cit.

[27] Stevenson, op. cit., p. 25.

[28] Genard, P. M. N. J. Les globes de Guillaume Blaeu. (In: Bulletin Societe Geographie d'Anvers. Anvers, 1883. Vol. VIII, pp.

159-160.); Baudet, op. cit., pp. 35-52; Stevenson, op. cit., pp. 15, 43-50.

[29] The Mercator globe has a diameter of 41 cm. and the Van Langren a diameter of 32 cm.

[30] Fiorini, op. cit., p. 242.

[31] Baumgartner, J. Zwei alte Globen von Blaeu. Erdkugel von 1599 und Himmel-Globis von 1603. (In: Das Ausland. Stuttgart, 1885. No.

15, pp. 299-300.)

[32] (In: Hakluyt Society Publications, Ser. II, Vol. XVIII, pp.

187, 189.)

[33] Kastner, A. G. Geschichte der Mathematik, Vol. III, p. 86.

[34] Catalogus librorum, tam impressorum, quam ma.n.u.scriptorum, Bibliothecae publicae Universitatis Lugduno-Batavae. Lugduni apud Batavos, 1716. p. 500.

[35] Van der Noort sailed in the year 1598.

[36] See reference in note 32 above.

[37] Compare the austral land on this globe with that on Mercator's globe of 1541, on the Hondius globe of 1600, on the Spano globe of 1593, et al.

[38] Photographs of these globes were reproduced in Stevenson, Willem Janszoon Blaeu. p. 44.

[39] See II, 13.

[40] There was much discussion throughout these years as to the proper location of the prime meridian.

[41] Asher, G. M. Henry Hudson the Navigator. (In: Hakluyt Society Publications. London, 1860. Ser. I, Vol. 27.)

[42] Drake, Sir F. The World Encompa.s.sed, with introduction by Vaux, W. S. W. (In: Hakluyt Society Publications. London, 1854. First Series, 16.)

[43] Stevenson and Fischer. World Map of Jodocus Hondius. The evolution of a knowledge of the Great Lakes region and its cartographical representation should prove to be a topic of absorbing interest.

[44] Brown, A. The Genesis of the United States. Boston and New York, 1891. Vol. I, p. 229.

Historians of this period in American history, with scarcely an exception, have taken it for granted that the expression ”from sea to sea” means from the Atlantic to the Pacific, apparently not stopping to inquire as to the geographical notions entertained at the time of the granting of the Charter concerning the regions in question. The interpretation here offered takes into consideration the fact that Jodocus Hondius, perhaps the most distinguished geographer and map maker of his day, was much in favor in England at the time of the formation of the London Company and was much consulted concerning the geography of the New World. What he thought of the Virginia region to the ”west and northwest” he has laid down in his large world map. It seems all but proven that the statement ”from sea to sea west and northwest” means from the Atlantic to the great but indefinite inland sea ”Mare Septentrionale Americae.”

To interpret this expression as meaning from the Atlantic to the Pacific shows the historian, as Freeman has stated it, ”in bondage to the modern map.” Here is a striking ill.u.s.tration of the importance attaching to the study of historical geography, and to its subordinate branch, historical cartography. Blaeu, Plancius, Greuter, and others, if not so clear and emphatic in their presentation of this region, evidently entertained practically the same geographical notion as Hondius.

[45] Fiorini, op. cit., p. 257.

[46] Letter to the author signed and dated, D. Fana, 28/1/1914.