Page 316 - Lanzarotto Malocello from Italy to the Canary Islands

316 from Italy to the Canary Islands

ter that brought to Florence the
news of one of the first Por-
tuguese expeditions to the
Canary Islands, which
took place in 1341.
With this work,
Giovanni Boccac-
cio started a new
narrative literary
genre based on
geographical dis-
coveries and ex-
plorations.
We shall not
insist on the theme
of the fantastic since
it is consistent with
the times and therefore
compatible with that re-
mote corner of the world that
according to Nicoloso da Recco
“is about nine hundred miles from Planisphere by Pietro Vesconte (1320).
Seville to those islands”.
Eyes that have crossed horizons and
braved storms may see everything as larger than life.
It is therefore not surprising that the narrative can be colourful, includ-
ing astonishment for the presence onsite of civilized Western men.
And so if nature is just as luxuriant, the presence of “falcons and other
rapacious birds” is no surprise. There is even talk of a little church “where
there was no painting nor other adornment”.
And what better than a quiet Christian fresco (at least that is our impres-
sion reading the words “little church”), which however has no appropriate
references but only a stone statue “having the image of a man with a ball
in his hand”?
A very remarkable event is the fact that Boccaccio was able to seize a
new aspect of writing just from a letter, literature from just a report, some-
thing that hadn’t been done before. However, the power of Boccaccio’s