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Manuscript in French. Written in brown ink, by a neat hand. ff. [38]. (ms. on 72 pages). Near contemporary abstract of the first eighteen books of Malte-Brun's Précis de géographie universelle, including the chapter on the Norse colonization of North America (pp. 64-71). Conrad Malte-Brun (1775-1826; Danish geographer) was an early modern propagator and advocator of the recognition of the idea of the Norse colonization of North America. In Les Annales des Voyages (1810) and his monumental Précis de géographie universelle (the source of the present manuscript, also from 1810), Malte-Brun delineates the stories of the Norse legends and sagas reporting on Norsemen who explored and settled areas of the North Atlantic including the northeastern fringes of North America, already in the late 10th century. With these works, Malte-Brun preceded more than a quarter-century Antiquitates Americanae (1837), the opus magnum of his compatriot, the chief apostle of the Norseman belief, Carl Christian Rafn's work, which is considered as the first scholarly exposition of the Pre-Columbian Norse exploration. Malte-Brun follows the account of Torfaeus in his Historia Vinlandiae Antique (1705), mentions the sources such as the chronicle of Adam of Bremen, the Heimskringla, just as the Zeno map. Gives details about the Norse settlement of Greenland, the adventures of Bjarni Herjólfsson and Leif Erikson, and their discovery of the three lands - Helluland, Vinland, and Markland - of the mainland of the Americas, and the first contacts with the indigenous people, the skrælings. Malte-Brun also recounts the story of Medoc, the Welsh prince who, according to the folklore, sailed to America in 1170, and the voyage of the Zeno brothers in 1380. First leaf with open tear at the inner margin (no loss to text). Corners dog-eared, some foxing and chipping here and there, text not affected. Overall in very good condition. Manuscript in French. Written in brown ink, by a neat hand. Seller Inventory # 2374
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