Ann. Spanish Franciscan 1350

Back to Table of Contents 6
To next page
To the left; what was in the fantasy of the author the flag of Magdasor

Ann. Spanish Franciscan (c. 1350) El Libro del conoscimiento de todos los reinos:

Book of the Knowledge of All the Kingdoms, Lands, and Lordships That Are in the World, and the Arms and Devices of Each Land and Lordship, or of the Kings and Lords Who Possess Them
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Libro del Conosçimiento de todos los rregnos or Book of Knowledge of All Kingdoms, is an anonymous 14th-century Castilian geographical. It is written in the form of imaginary autobiographical travelogue of a Castilian mendicant friar, from the westernmost Atlantic islands, through Europe, Asia, Africa and the Arctic, identifying all the lands, kings, lords and their armorial devices as he passes them. He vaguely knows the Mountains of the Moon, Magdasor (=Mogadishu), Zinzibar (=Zanzibar).

Taken from: Book of knowledge of all the kingdoms, lands, and lordships that are in the world, and the arms and devices of each land and lordship, or of the kings and lords who possess them by Markham, Clements R. (Clements Robert), Sir, 1830-1916; Jiménez de la Espada, Marcos, 1831-1898

p34

I left this kingdom called LIRRY (in West Africa), and went to another called GOTONIE consisting of some very high mountains. They say there are no others so high in the world. They are called the Mountains of the Moon. Others give them the name of the Mountains of Gold, and five rivers flow from them which are the biggest in the world. They all fall into the RIO DEL ORO; and they form a lake so large that it is twenty days journey in length and ten in width. In the middle of it there is a large island called PALOLA (or Pallego) inhabited by Negroes, but most of the land is uninhabited, owing to the intense heat and it is all dead sand. There are six mountains in this land, the largest being the Mount of ORO, Others LIRRY, ALBOCH, BURGA, ELBAHAC, ELMOLAC. Know that this kingdom of GOTONYE is not very populous, except in these mounts. But it has extensive lands bounded by the RIO DEL ORO, the ocean, and a gulf which enters for fifteen days journey from the ocean. So that it is one of the largest kingdoms in the world.

P38

Twice I crossed the river Gion and finally reached the great city called Magdasor. It is a very great empire in which there are many cities, towns, castles, villages, and a populous land of Nubian Christians. This empire of Magdasor is all surrounded by two of the rivers that come from the deep sees encircling the terrestrial paradise, one Gion the other Pison (2). On another site it is bounded by a gulf of the sea of Judea which enters into the land forty days journey. In this city of Magdasor they told me of a Genoese whom they called Sor Leonis, who went in search of his father, who came in two galleys already mentioned (1). They treated him honorably. This Sor Leonis wanted to go to the empire of Graciona in search of his father, but the emperor of Magdasor would not consent, because the way was doubtful and the road dangerous.....The emperor of Magdasor has for a device a white flag with a black cross.

I departed from the empire of Magdasor and went eastward.....

P39

I came to a gulf of the Sea of India which enters into the land fifty days journey. In this gulf there are three very large islands called ZINZIBAR, ALCUBIL (3) and ADEN which is the largest and the most populous. It lies against Arabia, and here the Red Sea begins, and penetrates the land westward forty days journey. On its shores are many cities, towns, and villages. When the ships come from India they arrive at Aden and pay a tithe of their merchandise because between the island Aden and the point of Aden there is a rich city.

(1) this is in this fiction book a reference to the Genoese expedition of 1291. In that year the two galleys commanded by the brothers Ugolino and Guido Vivaldi left from Genoa for the Atlantic with the intention of sailing round the African continent for reaching India for commercial purposes. The Vivaldi never returned from their adventurous voyage, and we do not know how far they reached.

(2) rivers Sihon, Gihon, the Nile and the Euphrates,: these four rivers are traditionally seen as the four rivers coming from paradise. But the names vary considerably. Other combinations are:

Pishon, Gihon, Hiddekel, Phirat.

Tigris, Effraim, Euphrates Nile.

Seihan, Djeihan, Euphrates, Nile.

Sayahoun, Jayahoun, Alfarat, and the Nile.

(3) al cubil: means literally: inhabited place.