Page 180 - Lanzarotto Malocello from Italy to the Canary Islands

180 from Italy to the Canary Islands

just as he must have been a very expert sailor with much physical courage
to have gone beyond the Pillars of Hercules: but these are only Delfino’s
observations and personal remarks.
In summary, which documents do we have on hand?
We will try to present a series of very documented sources, analysed
below in chronological order:
1) Michel Giuseppe Canale, Nuova istoria della Repubblica di Genova
[New History of the Republic of Genoa], Florence 1860, dedicates just
two pages to our Lanzarotto in his 3 volume (pages 342-343).
rd
This author begins by challenging the theory of the French historians
Boutier and Leverier who speak of a French-born “Lanzelot de Maloysel”.
He then mentions the research of father Giovanni Andres, a contem-
porary of his, who, in turn, wrote a “learned” dissertation on the cosmo-
graphic map of the Genoese Bartolomeo Pareto, at the service of the Papal
Court of Nicholas V in 1455; this map shows the outline of the island of
Lanzarote with the wording “Maroxello Lanzarotto Januensi” and with the
flag of Genoa (a red St. George’s cross on a white background).
This is where Canale makes one of the observations which most interest
us: he remarks that the flag of Genoa is not waving over the Island, but is
instead resting on it, so we should quote the known principle according to
which a waving flag indicates control over the island, whereas a flag rest-
ing on the ground indicates the jus of discovery only.
Canale therefore concludes that the “Januense” Lanzarotto had been the
first to land there, thus giving it its name.