The Voyages of the Venetian Brothers, Nicolo & Antonio Zeno, to the Northern Seas in the XIVth Century

1873

Journals G161 H2 Ser.1 no.50

London: Hakluyt Society

Questions surround the narrative of the voyage of the Venetian brothers Nicolò and Antonio Zeno, and the accompanying map, drawn about 1380. Was it real, or fiction? Their voyage is said to have occurred in the 14th century. They sailed into the North Atlantic, ending up on the coast of ‘Frisland’, and then to lands they called Icara, Drogeo, and Estotiland. Recent scholarship has claimed that the voyage did in fact take place, and that ‘Frisland’ was in reality the Faeroes, and ‘Estotiland’ a likely settlement on the coast of Greenland. Real or not, the editor, Richard Henry Major, felt it was the Society’s duty to present to subscribers the most up-to-date information on this extraordinary voyage.