Maps of the ancient sea kings

11447-L2


HAPGOOD (Charles H.).— MAPS OF THE ANCIENT SEA KINGS. Evidence of Advance Civilization in the Ice Age. (1966). Chilton Books Publishers. Philadelphi, New York. 18,5x26,5 cm. 315-I págs. E.

“This book contains the story of the discovery of the first hard evidence that advanced peoples preceded all the peoples now known to history. (...) We have evidence that tehy were collected and studied in the great library of Alexandria and that compilations of them were made by geographers who worked there. Before the catastrophe of the destruction of the great library many of the maps must have been transferred to other centers, chiefly, perhaps, to Constantinople, which remained a center of learning through the Middle Ages. (...) To the inevitable question, are these remarkeble maps genuine, I can only reply that they have all been known for a long time, with one exception. The Piri Re’is Map of 1513 was only rediscovered in 1929, but its authenticity, as will be seen, is sufficiently established. To the further quesyion, why didn’t somebody else discover all this before, I can only reply that new discoveries usually seem self-evident, by hidsight.”

From the First Chapter:

"In 1929, in the old Imperial Palace in Constantinople, a map was found that caused great excitement. It was painted on parchment, and dated in the month of Muharrem in the Moslem year 919, which is 1513 in the Christian calendar. It was signed with the name of Piri ibn Haji Memmed, an admiral of the Turkish navy known to us as Piri Re'is.

The map aroused attention because, from the date, it appeared to be one of the earliest maps of America." [...] "Another detail of the map excited special attention. In one of the legends inscribed on the map by Piri Re'is, he stated that he had based the western part of it on a map that had been drawn by Columbus. This was indeed an exciting statement, because for several centuries geographers had been trying without success to find a 'lost map of Columbus' supposed to have been drawn by him in the Western Indies." [...] "Piri Re'is made other interesting statements about his source maps. He used about twenty, he said, and he stated that some had been drawn in the time of Alexander the Great, and some of them had been based on mathematics. The scholars who studied the map in the 1930's could credit neither statement. [...] After a time, the map lost his public interest. [No more] was heard of it until, by a series of curious chances, it aroused attention in Washington, D.C., in 1956. [Referred to Captain Arlington H. Mallery,] he took [a copy of] the map home, and returned with some very surprising comments. He made the statement that, in his opinion, the southernmost part of the map represented bays and islands of the Antarctic coast of Queen Maud Land now concealed under the Antarctic ice cap. That would imply, he thought, that somebody had mapped this coast before the ice had appeared."

Charles Hapgood foi um professor universitário norte-americano de história, antropologia, economia e história da ciência. Este livro apresenta-nos o testemunho pormenorizado da sua metódica reconstituição das técnicas usadas por Piri Reis para criar o seu "Mapa dos Sete Mares" e fornece-nos os factos concretos que as ligariam aos mapas outrora guardados na grande Biblioteca de Alexandria e à possível civilização perdida dos "Antigos Reis do Mar".

Rara primeira edição desta obra de cartografia profusamente ilustrada, incluindo uma interpretação do mapa de Piri Reis à luz da ciência e da tecnologia contemporâneas, impressa em folha desdobrável.

Encadernação editorial em tecido. Falta da sobrecapa. Valorizado pela dedicatória do autor.


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