#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'


Music by Obliqka - https://soundcloud.com/obliqka