Page 262 - Lanzarotto Malocello from Italy to the Canary Islands

262 from Italy to the Canary Islands

APPENDIX I

The “De Canaria et insulis ultre ispaniam occeano noviter repertis” by
Giovanni Boccaccio

he “De Canaria” is the shortest work by Giovanni Boccaccio, who
reports the expedition of Nicoloso Da Recco in 1341. Boccaccio’s
text says that the Canary Islands had been recently discovered,
at the time of the “maiores nostri”, meaning that few decades had passed
between the time when he wrote this short text and the actual discovery.
Though short, the work shows that Boccaccio had quite a lively inter-
est for the scientific aspect of the discovery, and some linguists see in it a
direct effect of the teachings he received as a young student by the astron-
omer Andalò Del Negro and the mathematician Paolo Dell’Abaco.
As for the part that concerns us here, we report below a few short pas-
sages of the original Latin text, followed by a literal translation in English.

DE CANARIA ET INSULIS RELIQUIS ULTRA ISPANIAM
IN OCCEANO NOVITER REPERTIS
Anno ab incarnato Verbo MCCCXLI a mercatoribus florentinis apud
Sobiliam, Hispanie Ulterioris civitatem, morantibus, Florentiam lictere
allate sunt ibidem clause XVII Kal. decembris anno iam dicto, in quibus
que disseremus inferius continentur.
Aiunt quidam primo de mense iulii huius anni iam dicti duas na-
ves, impositis in eisdem a rege Portogalli opportunis ad transfretandum
commeatibus et cum hiis navicula un munita, omnes Florentinorum,
Ianuensium et Hispanorum castrensium et allorum Hispanorum, a Li-
sbona civitate datis velis in altum abiisse, ferentes varia ad civitates et
castra capienda, querentes ad eas insulsa quas vulgo repertas dicicum;
et ad has favente vento post diem quintum pervenisse omnes et demum
mense novembris ad propria remeasse, secum hec pariter afferentes.
Primo quindem IV homines ex incolis illarum insularum duxere, pel-
les preterea plurimas hircorum atque caprarum, sepum, oleum piscis