#06 / The mythic geography of the northern polar regions & the lost book of Inventio Fortunata

Episode 6. The idea that there must be a large mountain of lodestone called Rupes Nigra at the North Pole to account for the earth's magnetism goes back to at least the 13th century, not long after the invention of the compass. 

It was held to be surrounded by four islands with inward- flowing rivers, great mountains and inhabited by Pygmies. The source of this mythical polar geography is a lost work by an unknown author of the 14th century. The book was called the 'Inventio fortunata'. 

The book is said to be a travelogue written by a 14th century Franciscan friar from England who travelled the North Atlantic region in the early 1360s,  conducting business on behalf of the King Edward III. He described what he found on his first journey to the islands beyond 54 degrees north in a book, "Inventio Fortunata", which he presented to the King.

The geography attributed to it described bear remarkable resemblances to Hindu, Islamic and Buddhist cosmologies. The description dominated the depiction of the Polar regions on European maps with up to the 1700s, yet we know almost nothing about the contents of the book save a summary in a second text, the "Itinerarium," written by a Dutch traveller named Jacobus Cnoyen. By the late 16th century, even Cnoyen's text was missing, so most of what we know of the contents of the "Inventio Fortunata", other than its use on maps, is found in a letter from the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator to the Anglo-Welsh astrologer and occultist John Dee dated April 20, 1577. Dr John

Sources:  

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupes_N..., http://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/...  

Chet Van Duzer - https://stanford.academia.edu/ChetVan...  'The Mythic Geography of the Northern Polar Regions: Inventio fortunata and Buddhist Cosmology'

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