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In response to the inquiry of Barry Rudeman of Rudeman Antique Maps, Inc.
I have never seen a map or globe with the name "the Strait of Victoria"
which was the name of the only one of the 5 ships to complete the
circumnavigation on September 8, 1522 without Magellan of course who died in
the Far
East.
My book entitled The Magellan Myth: Columbus, Vespucci and the
Waldseemueller Map of 1507 contains two highly detailed tables -- Table A
lists
all pre-Magellan maps/globes/globe gores (nearly 20) that show a southern
water passage and/or a western coastline for the new Southern continent
(South America)
Table B lists all maps/globe/globe gores made between 1523 and 1590
that give a name for the strait that is different from the Strait of
Magellan or which continue to provide no name for the strait after the return
of
the Victoria in 1522. The last map/globe I could find which continued to
provide no name dates to 1536.
My list runs to about 45 entries including the date of the map/globe and
current owners of examples of each. There may be other examples that I do
not know about.
The earliest name for the strait referred to "San Antoni" -- the name
of the ship which ironically the mutineers who defied Magellan at the
mouth of the strait used to sail back to Spain and then defame him in his
absence. This name "the Cape of San Antoni" is on the map of 1524 made by
Juan
Vespucci, the nephew of Amerigo. In 1526 Juan Vespucci changed the name
to "the Strait of San Antoni". In 1524 Antonio Pigafetta who was on the
voyage published a famous book and used "The Strait of Patagonia".
Pigafetta quoted Magellan referring to an earlier discovery of a strait
which he saw on a map prepared by Martin Beheim (who died in Lisbon 1506) for
King Manuel. Magellan whom the King did not like as a royal page was
banished to the position of a clerk in the Casa de Mina/India where the young
Magellan had superb access to maps/charts from 1496 to 1505.
There was a struggle within the Spanish maritime bureaucracy in the
1520s and early 1530s as to what to name the strait with an anti-Magellan
faction in the Casa de Contratacion (Vespucci and Sebastian Cabot) and a
pro-Magellan group of Portuguese exiles (Cristobal de Haro who not only
financed Magellan's voyage entirely on his own but financed many expeditions
beyond the Rio de la Plata as early as 1501) which dominated the newer Casa de
Espericias (Spices).
Diogo Ribeiro was in the second group with de Haro and Ribeiro's
manuscript maps with the "Strait of Magellan" were the first of that kind in
1525-1529 and his lead in this regard was followed by other cartographers in
Northern Europe by the mid-1530s so that by 1540 it was beginning to win
out over the various alternative names being used -- though I found two as
late as the 1580s using "the Strait of Martin Beheim"".
All this and much more can be found in my book.
It was known inside the Spanish bureaucracy in the 1520s and 1530s
that Magellan was NOT the first to discover the strait -- an achievement which
he always denied was his. He was telling the truth.
The myth which became later a false narrative among scholars is that
Magellan was their claim that Magellan was a liar and he really was the first
discoverer. However, he was NOT a liar and my multidisciplinary dossier
(including some 25 dots of internally consistent evidence) which I shall
rename the Magellan-Vespucci Dossier proves that as Magellan claimed there was
a pre-1507 Portuguese discovery of the strait and also some exploration of
the west coast -- see the Lenox Globe (circa 1505-1507), Waldseemueller's
globe gores of 1507 and the Rosselli map of 1508 just for starters.
No one has been able or even had the courage to attempt to counter,
refute or falsify my Multidisciplinary Magellan-Vespucci Dossier to which I
shall add/cite John Hessler's stealth essay on the extent of Vespucci's
knowledge of the southern continent on his first voyage for Portugal in
1501-1502.
Of course I would love to know of more examples of alternative names
in the 1500s for the Strait of Magellan and if Rudeman knows of any, or
suspects any, I wish he would he would say more.
Meanwhile, I reiterate my willingness to debate any serious scholar
who thinks he can defeat me in a public debate in front of an audience that
is not staked with partisans from the Cartographic Establishment which
clings to the flawed scholarship of the past, this false narrative that has
its
origins when in the late 1530s the proliferation of printed
maps/globes/globe gores (see especially Mercator) using the phrase "the Strait
of
Magellan" drove out the true narrative of what really happened which you can
now
enjoy when you read my book.
Peter Dickson
Arlington, Virginia
Phone: (703) 243-6641
Email: [email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected])
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