Page 298 - Lanzarotto Malocello from Italy to the Canary Islands

298 from Italy to the Canary Islands

delivered from their sin”.
Two elements appear from this passage that would help identify Purga-
tory in the future; they are the possibility of redemption of one’s sins after
death and the importance of the living praying for the dead, whose fate
would change thereby.
This chance for redemption is found in three points of the New Testa-
ment: in the Gospel of Matthew (12.31-32), in that of Luke (16.19-26), and
then in a passage of the first epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians (I Corin-
thians 3.11-15). It would appear that these realities of the New Testament
should necessarily have their premises in the Old Testament. Hence the
importance of that Judah Maccabee passage for developing the “Purgatory
concept”.
Getting back to the Earthly Paradise, there is a fundamental text, Nav-
th
igatio Sancti Brendani, datable to the mid 10 century, that contributes
to moving the Earthly Paradise from the East to the West. Saint Brendan
takes to the sea, sailing the Atlantic in search of paradise. Through his
navigation, going from island to island, he comes across Hell - there, he
finds beasts and a river of blood - then the Paradise of delights, that is the
Fortunate Isles, and finally, the Earthly Paradise.
Despite the fact that the Navigatio Sancti Brendani was attacked as
apocryphal, the work was very successful and widely circulated. There is
a large number of manuscripts as evidence of that. The oldest Navigatio
written in vernacular dates from the 14 century, and it is a Tuscan copy of
th
an original from Veneto.
We should also add that in the 14 century there was a copious flourish-
th
ing of maps, such as those by Marin Sanudo. So legend and reality ended
up by being woven together; and with the advent of world maps and porto-
lan charts, the so-called “Fortunate Isles of St. Brendan” would be located
near the Canary Islands, as first observed on the world map of Hereford
of 1276 (now housed in Hereford Cathedral): “Fortunate Insulae sex sunt
Insulae St. Brendani”.
Something similar would come up on the Catalan world map in the Es-
tense Library, dating from 1375, which bears the inscription: “Fortunarum
Insulae sive Sancti Brendani”.
Now, given the extensive debate about what was (or could be) beyond
the Pillars of Hercules, it was difficult to conceive of places that could be
“certain” geographically speaking but that could not avoid being described
“also” through the medieval imaginary - a summa of beliefs, legends, oral