Page:Legendaryislands00babcuoft.djvu/177

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BENINCASA MAP OF 1482 159 fading away. One doubts whether the loss might not still be retrieved by more powerful magnifying glasses and close study of the significant interval. Pareto is unmistakably disclosing the same series of islands as the others. It may be that from him Roselli borrowed the inaccurate "roella" for Reylla, since Pareto is earlier in using a similar form (Roillo). THE BENINCASA MAP OF 1482 Benincasa's map of I482 24 (Fig. 22) presents Salvagio as Sal- uaga, and I in Mar without name, but omits Reylla, both name and figure. The islands shown are in their accepted form and arrange- ment, except that Saluaga has but two bays on the western side, and his map adds a novelty in a series of names applied to the several bays, or the regions adjoining them, of the two larger islands. These names (Fig. 22) are twelve in number and seem like the fanciful work of some Portuguese who was haunted by a few Arabic sounds in addition to those of his native tongue. Sev- eral of them, like Antillia, begin with "An," perhaps another illus- tration of the law of the line of least resistance. I cannot think that there is any significance in these bits of antiquated ingenuity, though, as we have seen in Chapter V, some have believed they found in them a relic of the Seven Cities legend. THE WEIMAR MAP (AFTER 1481) The Weimar map, 25 though long carefully housed, has suffered blurring and fading with some other damage in its earlier history. It is evidently a late representative of the tradition and begins to wander slightly from the accepted standard. It has been curtailed also from the beginning, like Bianco's map of 1436, by the limitations of the border, which in this instance cuts off the lower part of Antillia, though the name is nearly intact; but enough remains to indicate a reduced relative size and a greater slant to the northeastward than on Beccario's map. There is, of course, no room for Reylla, and there is none for I in Mar; but 24 Kretschmer, atlas, PI. 4. 2i See footnotes 18 and 19.