Interesting Early Maps Discussion

[Himself]

Fans of "Vineland" (and alternative history theories in general) may enjoy
the discussion now underway at on the Map History list, available through
http://www.maphist.nl

"The theory is that an unknown Portuguese explorer or explorers rounded the
southern tip of South America before
Magellan, sailed north as far as Acapulco and brought secret information on
the South and Central American west coast back to Portugal."

I have reproduced two of the recent posts below...

Regards,
Richard Ryan
New York City

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2002 09:52:58 +0100
From: F.Herbert at RGS.ORG
Subject: RE: [MapHist] Portuguese Waldseemueller

Bill:

Peter Dickson - unless this is too early on a Monday morning, and my mind is
not functioning as well (?) as it occasionally does - has presented two very
interesting and thought-provoking papers on Columbus [et al.] at Annual
Meetings of the Society for the History of Discoveries in the late 1990s
(see http://www.sochistdisc.org).

Francis
f.herbert at rgs.org
http://www.rgs.org [see 'Collections'/'Unlocking the Archives']

- -----Original Message-----
From: WJWarren at aol.com [mailto:WJWarren at aol.com]
Sent: 07 October 2002 02:23
To: Maphist at geog.uu.nl
Subject: [MapHist] Portuguese Waldseemueller


Today's (Sunday, October 6th) Los Angeles Times carries an article by Thomas

H. Maugh II regarding a theory held by amatuer historian and retired CIA
analyst Peter W. Dickson. Dickson will apparently be explaining his theory
at
a Library of Congress lecture this coming Thursday as well, and in an
upcoming issue of Mercator's World. The theory is that an unknown Portuguege

explorer or explorers rounded the southern tip of South America before
Magellan, sailed north as far as Acapulco and brought secret information on
the South and Central American west coast back to Portugal. The information
was treated as top secret, but somehow was leaked to Waldseemueller, who
incorporated it into his map.
Unfortunately, the website www.latimes.com requires registration and a
password to read the article, why do newspapers carry on this silly charade?

Anyway, I'm sure we will hear more as the week progresses. The article
includes comments from John Hebert, Ken Nebenzahl and David Woodward.
Presumably the report of the lecture on this interpretive discovery will
fill
in the rest of the blanks so Mr. Dickson's theory can be rationally debated.


Bill Warren
1109 Linda Glen Drive
Pasadena, CA 91105
(626) 792-9152
fax (626) 568-4945
wjwarren at aol.com
_______________________________________________________________
MapHist: E-mail discussion group on the history of cartography hosted by the
Faculty of Geographical Sciences, University of Utrecht. The statements and
opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do not
necessarily reflect those of the University of Utrecht. The University of
Utrecht does not take any responsibility for the views of the author. List
Information: http://www.maphist.nl
_______________________________________________________________
MapHist: E-mail discussion group on the history of cartography
hosted by the Faculty of Geographical Sciences, University of Utrecht.
The statements and opinions expressed in this message are those of
the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the University of
Utrecht. The University of Utrecht does not take any responsibility for
the views of the author.
List Information: http://www.maphist.nl

------------------------------

Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2002 10:24:57 +0100
From: "tony campbell" <t.campbell at ockendon.clara.co.uk>
Subject: Re: [MapHist] Portuguese Waldseemueller

Peter Whitfield has also commented on the curious fact that the Pacific is
represented on the 1507 Waldseemüller map before it had been 'discovered'.

His talk at the British Library in July 2001 is reproduced in an abridged
form on the Stanford's site <
http://www.stanfords.co.uk/newsletter/current/archive/september_letter/htm/s
pecial-feature.htm >, under the heading 'The European Discovery of the
Pacific - A Cartographic Mystery'.

Incidentally, this is one of about 500 links given on the web bibliography
for the history of cartography < http://ihr.sas.ac.uk/maps/webtexts.html >,
arranged by geographical region and theme.

Please do not respond to me personally about the Whitfield hypothesis.

Tony Campbell
t.campbell at ockendon.clara.co.uk



_______________________________________________________________
MapHist: E-mail discussion group on the history of cartography
hosted by the Faculty of Geographical Sciences, University of Utrecht.
The statements and opinions expressed in this message are those of
the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the University of
Utrecht. The University of Utrecht does not take any responsibility for
the views of the author.
List Information: http://www.maphist.nl