Monday, November 9, 2009

Een Vlaamse Voorloper van Columbus (A Flemish Predecessor to Columbus): Ferdinand Van Olmen (1487) door Dr. Ch. Verlinden





This post is a letter insertion or background information on the Flemish predecessor of Columbus. Olmen was someone who not only Influenced Columbus but ook others, zoals Martin Behaim (creator of the famous Nuremburg Globe of 1492, and an aquaintance of Columbus) and Ferdinand Magellan. Professor Verlinden moves beyond Van Olmen's influence on Columbus to a broader discussion of the Flemish influence on Portuguese cartography and exploration in the late 15th and early 16th century and the voyages They made. To the best of my knowledge, the only historian Who has Addressed this topic - Ferdinand Van Olmen and the other Flemish influences on American exploration - in any depth in English in the last 50 years, Professor Verlinden. Surprisingly (to me at least), there is no recognition or Van Olmen in Flanders - not even a brief mention on his hometown's website ( www.balen.be - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olmen ) - and very little of the other Flemings who made ​​the discovery of America possible. For English-only readers I will Incorporate some of this text in English translation into a later posting. Verlinden's account is superb background information (for my Magellan and Columbus postings) and only found in an older scholarly journal that's not Readily available to a wider public. Because I had great difficulty in getting a copy myself, I have reproduced the text here below. Please note That the original copyright has expired so I am not viola tion copyright laws by posting the text here. Incidentally, the original text is not illustrated. So all illustrations are included by me as a Means of illustrating points in the text that i believe May help the general reader. Definitely read!










"A Flemish Precursor Columbus Ferdinand Van Olmen (1487)"


by Dr. Ch. Verlinden [i]


The Flemish predecessor of Columbus on whom I will have here has been in Portuguese service, and departed from the Azores, which have borne the name of Flemish islands for several decades in the old cartography, not because they warden discovered by Flemings, but because Flemings a significant role in the earliest colonial history of the Portuguese Atlantic archipelago played. [ii] Even Ferdinand of Elm, whom I will act there as colonization entrepreneur worked. That is why it truly wish to first take a look at the activity of the other precursors, the Flemish settlers of the Azores.

Flemings in the Azores present almost from the beginning of colonization off. I will distract their history almost exclusively from diplomatic sources, not from narrative, often disguise the reality. That history begins from the time of Henry the Navigator. It had a first admission for the colonization of the Azores his cousin King Afonso V of Portugal obtained in 1439. [iii] In 1443 one sees date r already some Portuguese settlers established on a few islands of the archipelago, without knowing well where. [iv] In 1447, for the first concrete measures for the settlement of a particular island, viz. Sao Miguel [v] , and already three years later, in 1450, the first Fleming appears, which is also the first to for the Azores to obtain an extensive colonization licente. This piece, a charter of March 2, 1450, is extremely interesting. It is the gift of "a ilha de Jesu Christo", ie Terceira in the Azores, to "Jacome de Bruges," Jacob Bruges, "natural do Condado de Flandes" [vi] . The donor is Henry the Navigator. He calls Jacob Bruges "meu servidor". The island was without the least population and Jacob bidet in as colonization entrepreneur. In its charter states that the Infant from Bruges are all sheer admission of the islands before raises requested. The Fleming is the island may colonizing settlers of his choice provided they are Catholic. Since the Portuguese of course knew that their countrymen were Catholic, are meant here obviously aliens, and since the colonization entrepreneur was a Fleming, his choice will also be on other Flemings cases.


Since Jacob first colonization entrepreneur in Terceira, he will obtain the tithe of all the tithe of the Order of Christ on the island. Henry the Navigator was the administrator of this Order, which raises played a major role in the Portuguese colonization, easily provide such an advantage. The descendants of Bruges, who would be working on Terceira in the same capacity, will enjoy a similar privilege. The Bruges above obtains the capitania of the island, ie the hereditary governorship. He is the fourth captain of Henry the Navigator, who, at the time, in the same capacity, two Portuguese in service raises Madeira, a Portuguese, who is the son of an Italian immigrant in Porto Santo, and our Fleming in Terceira [vii ] . The first three are knights (cavaleiros) of the Infant; the Fleming is his servant (servidor).



The prince has to Bruges to the jurisdiction with the exception of the profession in the event of death and mutilation of court, appeal that he reserves for himself. Jacob raises only two daughters from his marriage to the Portuguese Sancha Rodriguez, which, in disregard said, that he was gevistigd in Portugal before beginning his career in the Azores. The eldest daughter will inherit capitania if no sons born of Jacob's marriage. If they themselves raises no son will inherit Mr. sister. This is an exceptional favor, the Infant states in its charter, and legitimizes them as follows: "Thus, because it seems to me to have to be for the service of God and the spread of the Catholic faith, and also because Jacob said of this Bruges island has come crowding, far from the mainland, or two hundred sixty leguas in the ocean, which island never to have been inhabited by any people in the world " [viii] .



The Infant then asks the Masters and Governors of the Order of Christ, who will come after him, the mentioned tithe to Jacob and to pay his heirs and or on the tithe, dates an Order itself was assigned by him. The prince also asks his cousin, King Alfonso V, that he may the Order until payment would oblige. The piece of 1450 so that was only decompose was formerly already subject to a hyper critical research by J. Mees appeared in 1901 Histoire de la decouverte des iles Acores et de l'origine de leur denomination d'ilkes flamandes [ix] . According Mees would be false charter by Jacob van Brugge because it provides the heredity of capitania-catered his daughters. However, this argument does not hold water as other arrangements of a similar nature for other Portuguese islands were affected, arrangements that Martin did not know [x] . In such cases dee meant only that the aanstande husband of the daughter of the capitania would occupy. Mees also thought and further proof of the falsity of the charter of 1450 was to be found in the fact that Jacob raises Bruges had a son who was called Gabriel, proves that the piece was drawn to the rights of the descendants of those who drafted the document for them it must have been extremely unwise, because the charter of 1450 expressly provides that inheritance for daughters only applies if no warden sons born of Jacob's marriage. Where, moreover, Mees halt Gabriel Bruges already was born in 1450, is a mystery. What is true is DSAT he for his father died [xi] and therefore was not eligible for inheritance hereto.




Jacob van Brugge has left Terceira for April 2, 1474, date of his succession is regulated by the Infanta Donha Brites, widow of infant Fernando, which Henry the Navigator's successor as lord of the islands [xii] . The capitania is now divided, what Tit again yielded moeke opportunities. Had he the history of this instilling in Madeira and known elsewhere outside the Azores, he would have known date r very many examples of distributions of capianias exist [xiii] . In Terceira itself the captaincy was divided at other further depending colonization took more expansion. Fernao d'Ulmo, that Ferdinand of Elm, the predecessor of Columbus whose role as discoverer we soon more will try n ate go into the details, has been under a lot of May 18, 1487 Captain of the part of Terceira, that "Quatro Ribeyras " [xiv] called and where a water still on the map as "Ribeira dos Flamengos" Flemish River.
Another Flemish colonization entrepreneur who raises played a significant role in the Azores, is Josse van Huerter. These belonged to a noble family from Liberty of Bruges. He settled in the Azores on request of Infant Dom Fernando [xv] , the heir of Henry the Navigator, ie yo between 1460 and 1470, dates of death of the two princes. Josse van Huerter obtained by Dom Fernando the captaincy on the islands of Fayal and Pico. When this is done, one can not really know, since no gift certificate is known. The Flemish master must have died about 1495, because the will of his Portuguese wife Brites de Macedo, dagtekenend 1527, says her husband 32 years ahead is deceased [xvi] . The eldest son of Josse van Huerter, who bore the same name as his father, has obtained on May 31, 1509 a deed appointment as captain-donataris Fayal and Pico [xvii] . He married a daughter of Joao Corte Real, one of the captains in Terceira after Jacob van Brugge. His son, whose name, Manuel de Hutra Corte Real, that he had gone all the way in the Portuguese center, follows him; but after his son, who also managed Fayal and Pico, the name Hurtere is no longer there. Among the companions of Josse van Huerter be on Fayal listed as Flemings, under more or less distorted names, William Bersmacher Tristan Vernes, who would have been a native of Bruges, Antonio Brum and Jos da Terra or Joost Aartrijke [xviii] , the last as two progenitors of Azorean families. However, none of these Flemings held a kapitenschap and the same goes by Diongo Flamengo listed on Terceira in 1486 [xix] .







A graduate of King Sebastian of Portugal from 1578 still mentions another Fleming, who raises played a significant role in the Azores, namely Willem van der Haegen [xx] . This is first mentioned on Sao Jorge, then Fayal. After he had encountered difficulties due to his compatriot Captain Josse van Huerter, gin gook himself in Terceira vestige and there grew corn and woad. This latter product, when in the textile industry employed many dye, he exported to Flanders. He was an adventurous spirit, he saw what became the chance to get ready the captaincy of the island of Flores, which belonged to a noble Portuguese lady, Donha Maria de Vilhena [xxi] . He remained on Flores for farming but without much success, so he returned to Sao Jorge been where he worked first after several years. His eight children gave the birth to the various tasks of the still existing today Azoreaans noble da Silveira, at other name is the translation of the Dutch van der Haegen [xxii] . Regarding the importance of the role of the Flemings in the Azores one must naturally take into account especially those who have been there captain, ie Jacob Bruges in Terceira under Henry the Navigator, Josse van Huerter on Pico and Fayal under Infant Ferdinand and his descendants in later time, Willem van der Haegen, for several years Flores, and finally Ferdinand of Elm, who we now return, for the part of Terceira, which bore the name of "Quatro Ribeyras" [xxiii] .






To Ferdinand of Elm better knowing we only need to analyze a royal diploma of July 24, 1486, in which John II of Portugal ratifies a contract on 12 June hetselfde year concluded between the Flemish and some Joham Afomso do Estreito [xxiv] . The Fleming called here "knight of the royal court and captain on the island of Terceira," not of Terceira, which shows that he was only captain of a part of the island, as we already know. According to the diploma will dated 24 July Olmen go on tour "by capitam a descrobir a ilha das Sete Cidades per mandado del Roy nosso Senhor". What is this "Island of Seven Cities" that the Fleming for the Portuguese king had to discover? Sodert a twingtal years Portugeuzen had to travel a series carried out in the Atlantic, west of the three archipelagos of the Canary Islands, the Madeiras and the westernmost islands group, which the Azores, where the Flemings were located. Already in 1462 had Afonso V of Portugal to a knight of his court, Joham Voguado, granted extensive rights over two islands which would be found in that direction [xxv] . Also with islands he "nos partes Ouciano do Mar", ie the middle of the Atlantic, could discover devised in 1474 Fernao Telles, a member of the royal council [xxvi] . And the following year, in a diploom of November 10, it is said that if he reached the island of "Setes Cidades" or another island that is already populated if found, the inhabitants of these islands to his authority would be subject [xxvii] .






The Island of the Seven Cities, which also Antilia was called, was one of the legendary islands, which occurred on the late medieval world maps [xxviii] . It played an important role in the geographical conceptions of Columbus. In 1476, the famous Genoese as castaway landed in Portugal and from the spring of 1477, after a short trip to England, Ireland and perhaps Iceland, he established there proof. His younger brother Bartolomeo, who had become a mapmaker, had joined him. About that time raises Christopher Columbus established links with a canon of the cathedral in Lisbon, Fernao Martins, who had fulfilled a diplomatic mission to Rome and made ​​in Italy acquainted with the Florentine physician and humanist Paolo del Pozzo Toscanelli. The latter was deeply interested in the size of the earth, and in particular the distance between the east coast of Asia and the west coast of Europe. When Canon Martins him in the name of the King of Portugal consulted on the way to India, China and Japan, he replied that it was easier to go to these countries from Portugal to be heading to the west or to follow the coast of Africa, as the Portuguese had done until then, without as yet know whether they thus actually South and East Asia could reach. Columbus obtained a copy of Toscanelli's letter and soon began to correspond directly with him. We own two letters of the Florentine Columbus showing that the humanist estimated the distance between the Iberian coast and China about 5,000 nautical miles, while Japan at 1,500 miles from the coast of Asia would have located and Antilia or the Island of the Seven Cities about halfway between the Iberian Peninsula and Japan. These distances were wrong and far below the reality, but they were still too high for Columbus. Relying on an inaccurate calculation of longitude at the equator thought the Genoese that the distance between the Canary Islands and Japan, more than 2,400 miles was, which corresponds to the actual distance between the Canary Archipelago and the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea, which Columbus obvious existence is not suspected.




On the authority of this false knowledge, Columbus asked King John II of Portugal ships Cipangu, ie Japan, reached along the west. The king ordered the research proposal by a technical Commission ,. This body, whose members included Jose Vizinho, the great Jewish astronomer, was a part, of course, did not know what were the proper distances, but his power was still substantial enough to the king there to put Columbus' proposal of the hand pointing. One thing, however, continued from then interest the king, viz. The correct distance between the westernmost of the already known Atlantic archipelagos, dzw the Azores, and Antilia or the Island of the Seven Cities, the first major stop on the western sea route to Asia [ xxix] . But the man whose task would be to solve this problem was not Columbus, but one of the captains who then represented Portugal in the Azores, viz., The Fleming Ferdinand of Elm. We now return to the royal diploma of July 24, 1486 [xxx] . Ferdinand van Olmen handle this piece as explained to the king that "he wished for him to find a large island or islands or the coast of a continent, which is believed to the Island of the Seven Cities, and all this on his own costs " [xxxi] . It seems evident that the very question of Elm reflected brings about the nature of the area to explore - big island? Several islands? Coast of a continent? - Proves that about this time Portuguese voyages were undertaken to Central America, which, however, had only seen coasts without landing or seizure was followed. Here is the attempt by Fernao Telles meant mentioned in the above mentioned diploma in 1475? [xxxii] . We do not know. The only sure thing is that we speak in 1486 not only an island of the Seven Cities, but assumes that it is also an archipelago or even a continent can being. It is the stage beyond the purely hypothetical or legendary island. Man knows that there is something, but they do not know what or where. That "what" and "where" what is going on Elm promises n ate.





He will pay the expedition, but in return he asks about donation of the island, the islands or the mainland he could find or that someone would discover his command, they pointed populated or not. He would obtain full justice, with appeal to higher criminal cases, and all interest and rights. Successor would know his eldest son, or, if there was no son alive, his eldest daughter, or even, ultimately, the next of kin. The king will have the tithe of all rights and interest to find the areas along the walls. If the residents do not want to subject the king will send a fleet of Ferdinand of elms as "capitam moor" and the Fleming will always recognize the king as his master, as befits a good vassal. However, since the cost of the expedition are overweight, state of Olmen the heft of the capitania over the areas to find out at the listed Estreito, who was a wealthy Portuguese settler of Madeira. The Portuguese will enjoy the same rights as the king raises granted to Fleming. The halves will be chosen at random and Estreito may transfer part to whom and the way he wants. However, he must rest before two geodesic caravels, equipped with all the necessary [xxxiii] . But it is the Fleming that these caravels will search and they will man with decent pilots and sailors [xxxiv] , which shows that he's nautical expert, since he assess ships and sailors to know value.

From Elm will of crew wages pay, but Estreito is responsible for the payment of rent to the owner of the vessels. Everything must be ready for mart 1487 in Terceira, the island where the Fleming's captain. This shows clearly enough that there really was going to reach the first stop on the western route to Asia from the westernmost Portuguese archipelago, so for the first part to examine the plan of Toscanelli and Columbus as it was presented to the Portuguese king [xxxv] . The two partners - Olmen and Estreito - will each take command of one of the two vessels. A German knight will accompany them on the caravel, which he prefers. This was the famous cartographer Martin Behaim of Nuremberg, who was then the island of Fayal in the Azores. He is, however, to his happiness, not joined us [xxxvi] . From Elm forty days will sail to the west and Estreito will follow him, in compliance with the written instructions that he will receive from the Fleming. This proves once more that the true leader and the nautical technician was the expedition. Olmen will now have to follow him until he returned to Portugal.




The discovered fields will be the one without the permission of the other no bestuursordonnantien may issue. The king will possibly umpire and Portuguese law will apply. Estreito obliged to introduce themselves to immediately clear 6.0000 reals disposal of Van Olmen. All these are provisions of the contract signed by both parties on June 12, 1486 and ratified by King JanII in his own degree of July 24, 1486. ​​A second royal diploma dagtekenend of August 4, 1486, grants Estreito the areas he would find during The second part of the journey, ie after the forty days during which an Elm will command [xxxvii] . He obtained this privilege because he equips the ships for a period of six months and because of the forty days, during which he will be under the command of the Fleming wants to continue the discovery until the end of six months referred. But the by him discover areas should really be found within two years. This clause seems welt e prove that what the king interests, what he really expected, the discovery is, within forty days of the island, the islands or the land of the Seven Cities, discovery which Van Olmen is charged, the rest raises a much more hypothetical view.


the "Flemish Eylanden"


It is particularly striking that the Flemish forty days raises provided to achieve Antilia or the Seven Cities. He raises naturally really hoping within this period to find the areas in which he had let promise special rights by the king. On the other hand, the king must also expected or at least hoped, that the discovery would take place within the time prescribed. This deserves a brief statement. In no other Portuguese concessive to discover areas - and they are many - is indeed such a time provision. This can only rely on information cut song from vrogere Portuguese voyages, which is precisely what have do ask whether the Sete Cidades were an island, an archipelago or a continent. To ask this question it raises should see a coastline without going ashore. For forty days to speak one raises must be able to form an idea of the distance. When moreover consider that in late summer and early autumn of 1492 Columbus thirty-six days raises were necessary for the Canary archipelago to reach the island Watling in the Bahamas, one realizes knew of Elm and the Portuguese king what they said when they spoke in 1486 of forty days. One question we must ask ourselves is: Why Columbus was rejected by the Portuguese king, while Olmen ontdekkingslicente and a variety of privileges has obtained



the answer is simple. Olmen received his licente because he offered himself to finance his expedition, as all the Portuguese, who travels about that time undertook to the west, it did. This is even more the case for the brothers Corte Real in 1500, 1502 and 1506 [xxxviii] . Columbus raises never offered anything, not even in Spain in later time. The Portuguese king wanted to invest any funds in expeditions across the Atlantic Ocean, which he rightly as much bolder regarded than that of Diogo Cao and Bartholomew Dias about the same time along the South African coast. That risk was big, was himself proved by Van Olmen . It is indeed that this is truly gone. We know it by a passage in the Historia de las Indias of the Spaniard Las Casas, the famous defender of the natives of America against the greed of the Spanish colonists. Las Casas tells how a sailor from Galicia, Murcia to Christopher Columbus gave information about a country that was seen west of Ireland and loved ones who saw it for the area Hernan de Olmos, ie Ferdinand of Elm, had wanted to achieve [ xxxix] . Las Casas adds an era that he will return to this later. He raises but forget to do so, as more than once was the case in his Historia and in his other writings, in which the polemic against the Indians caused injustice to him too often the chronological thread does lose. But what could he add, if the story of the journey of the Fleming? Was this remained only a draft, then there was nothing more to say.


Two circumstances explain why Ferdinand Van Olmen failed. First, says John II of the diploma of July 24, 1486 that the expedition had to be ready to verlatten Terceira mart 1487. We have every reason to believe that the journey indeed raises occurred towards the end of the winter of 1486, and precisely because they have failed. That time of year is a very bad time for the Serbian Atlant Ocean stabbing, especially in the west and with small caravels, usually not more than 50 to 60 tons moved. Moreover, precisely in the season the Azores were a lot to northern vertrekpunkt. The trade winds, which in the late zome the first three weeks of the autumn of 1492 performed as calm and docile Columbus much further south Canary archipelago to the Bahamas, Van Olmen raises thus can not use. Second, he must be the rate also plenty have put to the north-west, as the tradition was at the Azorean American sailors, Diogo the Collaborative for him to Joao Fernandes and brothers Corte Real after him [xl] .Allen be returned in the waters of Newfoundland and Labrador, where verschiedene of them were killed, as it probably went with Ferdinand of Elm. Van Olmen it really matters in that direction danger is proved by the cited passage from Las Casas, who speaks of the West of Ireland that he wanted to achieve. For such a speed with very small vessels, it is becoming a very spring about difficult time. What e smoke it, it is certain that John II had wished a great task to his Flemish captain. Indeed, the year 1487, in which he sends him to the west, the year of the great efforts of all discoveries in the government of this great Portuguese monarch. Overall ask these efforts to the best. Pero da Covilham, the little-known predecessor Vasco da Gama, follows all the east coast of Africa and reached Calicut in India on an Arab ship ten years before the first Portuguese expedition by sea [xli] . Afonso de Paiva entered into relations with the Negus of Abyssinia, the legendary Prester John, which Portugal had to help against Islam on the way to India. Bartholomew Dias follows the west coast of Africa and discovered the Cape of Good Hope. All these expeditions left Portugal in 1487, the year that Van Olmen from the Azores moved westward. John II has when wanting to know what was the best way to India, either along the south and east in the fairway of the many excursions along the West African coast of the time in 1460 deceased Henry the Navigator off, either westward as Toscanelli and Columbus claimed it. That African road was good was proved by Covilham and Bartholomew Dias. But the Fleming Van Olmen was sent to make the attempt in a westerly direction, despite its failure, a conclusive proof of its high value as seaman and as daring man. Was he in his attempt failed and he had reached the Caribbean area, then perhaps, space reached, might, by the hands of these Fleming, the Portuguese language today not spoken only in the later Portugal colonized Brazil but in the whole of Latin America. Thus the fate of an entire continent depends sometimes on that of a single man!





Also on the career of Columbus and thus the discovery of America on behalf of Spain have the trip of Van Olmen and other Portuguese expeditions of 1487 their influence uitgeofend. Since about the middle of 1485 had the Genoese themselves begreven to Spain, and he had the same proposals formulated as in Portugal, to disver with as little success. But in early 1488, he wrote from Seville to John II to him again to offer his services, and the king invites him to come back to Lisbon. What had happened? Why seemed Portuguese prince his negative attitude of some years before giving up? Olmen had left ten months earlier and had only supplies meegenoemen for six months. It seemed so sure that his expedition with all hands had perished. Columbus will have heard of it in Seville, because there were busy relations Italiansse colony to Lisbon and large Andalusia and its harbor. The Genoese would have thought that the time had come to re-take his chance in Portugal. When he was in December 1488 in Lisbon, however, lingered headed Bartholmeus Dias Tagus onto the Cape of Good Hope to have discovered. The chance of Columbus in Portugal was over. The Portuguese king knew that the southeast route to India was open. The sea route along the West did not interest him anymore. When he again will set interest there, the New World Columbus will have already discovered, but on behalf of Spain. The man who so could prevent and Portugal could have given all Latin America, the Fleming Ferdinand van Olmen was, but the sea and fate had not willed [xlii] . Endnotes [i] Dr. Charles Verlinden, "A Flemish Precursor Columbus Ferdinand Van Olmen (1487)", in Journal of History , 74th Year, Issue 4, (Groningen. p Noordhoff, 1961), pp.506-516 [ii] J. Mees: Histoire de la decouverte des iles Acores et de l'origine de leur denomination d'iles flamandes (University of Ghent Working out Fac Note and Wijsb 27th AFL in 1901.....). [iii] J. Martins da Silva Marques: Descobrimentos portugueses , d. I (Lisbon, 1944), no. 316, p. 401. [iv] Ibid. no. 334, p. 425. [v] Ibid. no. 355, p. 452. [vi] Ibid. no. 373, p. 470. [vii] See my book about Portuguese and Spanish colonization and the state feudal forms in the Atlantic area , to appear in the Proceedings of the Royal Flemish Academy of Sciences, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium. Kl. Arts. [viii] Silva Marques: loc .: "porque assim sinto o por service the Deos e accrescentamento da Santa Fe Catholica e meu, pelo ditto Jacome de Bruges povoar a dita ilha tao longed a terra firme, bem e duzentos sessenta legoas do mar oceano, quell a ilha nunca se soube povoada the nenhuma gente que no mundo fosse ategora. " [ix] Pp. 86 SQQ. [x] Eg. Settlement of 1486 Sao Tome (Ramos Coelho: Alguns documentos do archive nacional da Torre do Tombo, Lisbon, 1892, p. 56); regulation of 1497 for Santiago in the Cape Verde archipelago (E. de Bettencourt: Descobrimentos, guerras e conquistas dos Portugueses, Lisbon, 1881, p. 67). [xi] See by Mees itself, p. 91, n. 2. [xii] Charter published by Drummond in Annaes da Ilha Terceira , d. I, p. 493 and Archivo dos Acores, d. IV, p. 159. [xiii] Cf. in this regard in my note book 6 announced. [xiv] Archivo dos Acores, d. VIII, p. 394. [xv] According to a rekwest of 1571 presented to the King of Portugal by Jeronimo Dutra Corte Real, descendant of Josse van Huerter ( Archivo dos Acores , I, p. 409). [xvi] Archivo dos Acores , I, p. 164. [xvii] Ibid. p. 158. [xviii] Mees, p. 109. [xix] Archivo dos Acores , d. VIII, p. 394. [xx] J. Cunha da Silveira: Apport a l'etude de la contribution flamande au peuple ment des Acores (Communication de l'Academie de Marine de Belgique, tX, 1956-7) p. 71. [xxi] Ibid. p. 75. The gift certificate is not known. [xxii] J. Cunha da Silveira: Willem van der Haegen, tronco Silveiras dos dos Acores (Revista Insulana, 1949). Tit shows here too hypercritical. He assumes that the fortunes of Willem van der Haegen on multiple Azores Islands alone would be explained by the presence of his descendants on those islands. There is however cenparigheid about Van der Haegen fortunes of the Azorean historiography of the sixteenth and seventeenth century and an accurate reading of the Saudades da Terre Gaspar Frutuoso (1586-90) shows that these features raises about documents that were lost. [xxiii] Cf. higher p. 508 [xxiv] Ramos Coelho: op. cit. p. 58. That Fernao d'Ulmo = Ferdinand of Elm was a Fleming says Mees (op. Cit. P. 94). However, he translates by "the Olm". I prefer "Olmen" form also now more common and those above is closer to both the Portuguese and the Spanish transcription "Hernan de Olmos." Cf. on this last form below, p. . 514 [xxv] Ramos Coelho: Alguns documentos , p. 28. [xxvi] Ibid. p. 38. [xxvii] Ibid. p. . 40 [xxviii] WH Babcock: Legendary Islands of the Atlantic (New York, 1922) pp. 68 SQQ. [xxix] On the influence of the ideas of Toscanelli to Columbus, cf. A. Altolguirre y Duvale: Cristobal Colon y Pablo del Pozzo Toscanelli, Estudio critic del proyecto formulado por Toscanelli y seguido por Colon para Arribar all Extremo Oriente the Asia navegando la via del Oeste (Madrid, 1903). [xxx] Cf. supra p. 510. [xxxi] "como nos elle (sc. The king) queria drone Achada huua grande ylha ylhas ou o terra firme per costa que se presume overseer a ylha das Sete Cidades, e todo esto aa sua propria custa e despesa" (Ramos Coelho:. loc cit.) [xxxii] Cf. supra, p. 510. [xxxiii] "duas Caravellas boas de todo mamtimento e cousas que lhe pertencem para numerous armacam" (Ramos Coelho, loc. cit.). [xxxiv] "com angry pillotos e marinheiros" [xxxv] Cf. supra, p. 511. [xxxvi] He mentions of Elm's not on his expedition in the Deutsches Museum in Nuremberg preserved globus. Cf. SE Morison, Portuguese voyages to America in the fifteenth century (Cambridge, Nass, 1940). p. 46, n. . 78 [xxxvii] Ramos Coelho: op. cit. p. . 62 [xxxviii] Ramos Coelho; on. cit. pp. 131, 150. [xxxix] "Item mariner un que se llamo Pedro de Velasco, gallego, dijo all Cristobal Colon and Murcia Yendo aquel que viaje de Irlanda y fueron navegando metiendose already Norueste tanto que hacia el vieron tierra Poniente the Ibernia, y esta crayon los que alli iban Debia que ser la que un quiso descubrir Hernan de Olmos como luego se dira "(Las Casas.. Historia de Indias, broken Millares Carlo, d I, Mexico, 1951, p. 69). [xl ] B. Penrose: Travel and discovery in the Renaissance (Cambridge, Mass, 1952). pp 142-146.. [xli] Cf. C. Verlinden: Vasco da Gama in the light of his Portuguese and Arab predecessors (Meded Could Vl Acad Sci Kl for Literature, 1957, No. 4.......). [xlii] About this interpretive of the meaning of Van elms see appear in my German Columbus biography (Muster Schmidt Verlag, Göttingen).






Copyright 2009 by David Baeckelandt. All rights reserved and no reproduction Permitted without my express, written permission.

3 comments:

  1. Hi David,

    Again, a masterpiece of history to discover. I repeat myself : we, didn't hear anything about ferdinand Van Olmen at history classes! An American Citizen (with flemish roots though) has to teach us... What went wrong in our education(-al) system?
    Shame on you, flemish government!
    Thank you David !
    :-)

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  2. Van Olmen is well known in Portugal (Fernão Olmo as he had is name adaped toPortuguese language) at leas for 70 years...Works by Jaime Cortesão, Damião Peres and others mention him.

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  3. This is great! The legendary film maker Fons Robberechts (1978) has made a documentary on The Flemish Isles in the fifties ir sixties. IT was shown on Flemish television.

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