Septentrionalium Partium Nova Tabula

The first state of Ruscelli’s version of the Zeno map.

One of the most influential and controversial maps of the North Atlantic produced during the Renaissance, Girolamo Ruscelli’s Septentrionalium Partium Nova Tabula presents his 1561 interpretation of the famous Zeno map. Covering Greenland, Iceland, the British Isles, Scandinavia, and the northern Atlantic, the image is best known for its inclusion of several phantom islands and speculative lands that would shape European cartography for more than a century. Among these are Frisland, Estotiland, and Drogeo, all of which occupy an important place in the history of geographic misconceptions and early theories regarding pre-Columbian exploration.

The map is based on an account first published in Venice in 1558 by Niccolo Zeno, who claimed that his ancestors had voyaged across the North Atlantic in the late fourteenth century. The narrative suggested that Venetian sailors may have explored parts of the northern seas nearly one hundred years before Columbus reached the Americas. Although modern historians generally regard the account as heavily embellished or entirely apocryphal, it was widely accepted by contemporary geographers and quickly found its way onto some of the period’s most influential maps.

Ruscelli’s engraving helped popularize several enduring cartographic myths. Frisland, a large island shown south of Iceland, would continue to appear on maps well into the seventeenth century despite never having existed. Likewise, Estotiland and Drogeo, depicted west of Greenland, have long been interpreted as possible references to Newfoundland and mainland North America, contributing to Renaissance speculation about early transatlantic contact.

Sources: Burden #29, Cornell University; David Rumsey Map Collection;