Debate over the Vinland Map Renewed

Remember the old Vinland Map that predates Columbus’ discovery of the new world by fifty years or so? The debate has swung back and forth from authentic to fake, back to authentic, and now possibly back to fake:

Historian Kirsten A. Seaver, a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in London, states that the map’s writing contains historical anachronisms such as mention of Bishop Eirik of Greenland of the early 12th century reporting to superiors, although he would have had none, because Greenland had not yet become part of the Church hierarchy. “This map absolutely screams ‘fake,'” Seaver remarks. In fact, she believes she has found the culprit–a German Jesuit priest, Father Josef Fischer, a specialist in mid-15th-century world maps. Her theory is that Fischer created the map in the 1930s to tease the Nazis, playing on their claims of early Norse dominion of the Americas and on their loathing of Roman Catholic Church authority. The map, she supposes, vanished during postwar looting. Seaver’s book on her search will appear this June.

Good article. I’d love to read more about the idea that the map was drawn up to anger Hitler! That would be a good book indeed.