Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-11-15

larger than ours, to the point Of having
circumference of 5000 miles and more. or
these neither Strabo, Ptolemy, Pomponils
Mela, Pliny. nor any of the ancient writer's
makes any mention, from which it is evident
that they were unknown till the present..
And tire Basel volume records the discovery
story this way: 80 in our own days through
the munificence of the King of SPAIN many
islands have been discovered. in the Atlantic,
Fthopic and Indian Oceans, even beyond the
tropic of Capricorn and the torrid zone where
the other inhabitable part of the earth is estao-
lished These islands are not men
toned by Strabo Ptolemaeus Pomponius Mela'
or Piiny; in fact, no writer OF CLASSICAL an
tiuuity refers to them"
Mantuanus' third volume 'fOmnia Opera" of
goodly size with its 396 leaves, chants of the
land of the free and the home of the brave in
verse:
So hitherto unkno,cn to Northern lands,
There lay q contneat beyond the seas.
Remote and clustered by tapping SHORES.
But noU Iberic courage cleupes the 'odpeS'
Seizes the Pole and SiDngs from east to Uest,
From ioeSt to east as noto sailor guiding
The minds s,oeep in our indian ar0ostes
Pope Plus II, or AeneaS Eylvius. as he was
called was writer whose books appealed 10
wide audience. In fact his History OF Per
sons, Places and Things" published in Venice
in 1477-this is among the Vollbehr Amerl-
cana-:nfluenCed Columbus considerably. Inc
Columbine Library at Seville has copy, the
margins Of which are crammed with scienthc
and geographical annotationS in Columbus
handwriting; on one of the ny leaves Is a
TRANSCRIPTION made by him Of the famous let
ter Toscsnelli wrote to Canon Fernandez Mar
tins 1t is thought that the admiral took 1t
with him on his fourth voyage. because ne
quoted from it in his letter dated July Z, 1903
Columbus also read the "Hexameron," writ
ten by st. AmbrosiuS and published IN Augs-
burg in 1472 From this he quoted extensively
in describing his third voyage. This. too. Is
in the Vollbchr collection.
The tenth item ON our list Of Vollbehr
Americana is nothing less than first edition
of that widely celebrated work, Hartman
Schedel'S Nuremberg Chronicle compilation
of universal hiStory-published at Nuremberg
in 1893, three four months after Columbus
had returned and announced the discovery OF
the New world. This delightful pictorial de-
scription of the world, compiled by Nurem-
berg physician, is illustrated with over 200
woodcuts made by Pleydenwurf and Wolge-
NUT WHO was the master Of that great genius,
Albrecht Durer.
IF Koberger had printed only this Chronicle"
says Dibdn The would have done enough to
place his name among the most distinguished
Of his typographical brethren"
But our hero Christopher Columbus, gets a
setback in this volume, for here, on page
29Ob the discovery of America Is claimed for
Martin Beha.m of Nuremberg and Diego Cam
q Portuguese, explorers in the service OF John
IL, OF POrCugll. In 1909, IL says tllcoc I"O, w
the grace of God, crossed the Equinocttal line
and sailed to another world where, facing the
East at neon their shadows fell on their right
hands and where they discovered new lands. -
However this passage is not in the German
edition of the scme year; and it has been shown
that it is a spurious interpolation. as it is
written in different hand in the Latin text of
the manuscript of the Chronicle, still pre-
served in Nuremberg. And that seems to put
Herr ReLaim out Of the picture. In all fair
ness to this gentleman. however it is thought
that he was not the one who made the claim,
for a globe which he himself made in 1892
shows no sign of the alleged voyage.
Naturally the Behaim claim, although prov
en- false, has had some advocates, who have
written querulously inconsistent books trying 10
rob Columbus OF his just glory But human
nature being what it is. would have had
such writers just the same. even had there
been no Nuremberg Chronicle.
IN addition to its priceless Vobehr Americana
the Library of Congress possesses many
other exceedingly rare works by writer's of
Columbus time or a little later. There arc