Apparently, Richard Detanza sent several letters inquiring about "Flora and Fauna within the Territories of Praeti Jiani, Concerning the Hunt for the Flock" stolen in 1941 from the enormous home of one Colonel M. Behemoth. "Flaura and Fauna" was rumored to be bound in the tanned hide of the Titanis walleri that attacked and swallowed Prestor John's six-year-old daughter, Aspasia, as she was traveling to Cathay 1. Consumed by his daughter's death he sent expeditions across Africa and eventually into Australia to exterminate every species of flightless bird, regardless of size or diet, they encountered. The book contains crude maps of Australian and Tasmanian coastlines. The final illustration in the text is of an Emperor Penguin.
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Mr. Detanza, These two volumes are 28" X 36" X 4". The previous owner told me he believes Lopo and Diogo Homem owned them for a time. The rumors are true. Each binding is a single seamless sheet of bird skin, the feather roots are a quarter inch in diameter, spaced two inches apart. I can not fathom how large this beast must have been. Gold rivets hold the skin in place over Baobab backings and spine. I haven't had time to make the usual photographs, but I will in the next few days. Because you've been such a faithful customer over the past twenty years, your price is much lower than the one I circulated to the other collectors. Regards, Ephesius Tanktop |
Lopo and Diogo Homem
Lopo Homem was mestre de cartas de marear appointed by King Manuel I of Portugal and head of "the Sacred Promontory by Marinus and Ptolomy". No map was created or altered without his signature. Several colleagues (each among the greatest cartographers of the time) watched him draft two accurate maps, one with each hand, while in the midst of an hour-long conversation with Bishop Jorge Saraiva. When the 18 survivors 2 of Magellan's successful but costly circumnavigation returned to Europe, they gathered at Lopo's home and spent four months poring over the charts their voyage generated. Diogo prepared velum as the survivors described their trek in great detail. With Lopo's guidance they corrected hundreds of erroneous charts that had been wrecking captains for decades. Lopo knew that altering his charts to match the exploits of Magellan's crew was dangerous. Thousands of square miles of nonexistent territory were shaved off of the King's domain. Magellan's crew watched Diogo and Lopo burn the 235 faulty maps at the end of the final meal they shared at Homem's seaside home. When the Portuguese Royal Court heard Lopo took it upon himself to destroy the King's maps and kingdom, they placed him under house arrest. The young king (Afonso VI) was nearly persuaded to execute him for treason. The faculty of the Academy, lead by Afonso's science advisor, successfully argued on Lopo's behalf and saved his life. Lopo's "Atlas Miller" is considered among the most important geographic works of the Reanaissance.
Diogo Homem was a faculty member of Dom Henrique's cartography school, "the Sacred Promontory by Marinus and Ptolomy" in Sagre, Portugal. He fled after being falsely accused of murdering a student and escaped by hiding on a merchant ship bound for Venice. Four years later, an English merchant ship captain identified Diogo's handwriting during a transaction at port. The captain pointed Homem out to one of his passengers, an attache of Sir Richard Boyle, Chancellor Exchequer 3. The attach? realizing how valuable Homem would be to English trade (and his own status at court) quickly offered Lopo triple the land and salary given to him by his patron (Francesco I, 1541-1587). Homem left Italy with the attach?and spent the remainder of his life drafting maps for England. Homem's "Atlas of the World" hangs in the British Library, Lopo Homem's face appears within as the West wind 4
. The velum Diogo preferred 5 for his maps was cured by Vincenzo Manutius II. Galilae inquired if Diogo might help him draft a celestial chart. Evidence of the collaboration is in the possession of University of Texas Perry-Casta?da Library.The following was enclosed with Ephesius Tanktop's letter to Detanza. The t resting below the baseline of the text was a defect characteristic of Underwood #3 ledger typewriters.
Abraham Farissol (1452-1528)
Igeret Orhot Olam In the Library I found in chapt er 58 of the second par t of the book (F. Mont alboddo,Paesi Novamente Retrovati) E Novo Mondo t hat from Lisbon the capital of Port ugal to Kalicu t in Asia, the beginning of India there are 3800 parasangs... and in that chapter is explicit that Praeti Jiani is beyond Kalicut in the land far from the sea. And this is real evidence and famous knowledge concerning the Jews that dwell here near Praeti Jiani as we have already heard all our lives from our black brothers that come every day and t ell in clarity of t he presence of many Jews with them. Of these brot hers there are in Rome a sect of some thirt y of them dwelling in a new stage established for them.
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2
Juan Sebastian Elcano, captain-general
Miguel de Rodas, contramaestra of the Trinidad
Francisco Albo, of Axio, boatswain of the Trinidad
Juan de Acurio, of Bermeo, boatswain of the Concepcion
Vasco Gomez Gallego (a Portuguese), grumete of the Trinidad
Juan de Santandres, of Cueto, grumete of the Trinidad
Martin de Isaurraga, of Bermeo, grumete of the Concepcion
The Chevalier Antonio Pigafetta, of Vicenza, passenger
Nicholas the Greek, of Naples, marinero of the Victoria
Dieog Gallego, of Bayonne, marinero of the Victoria
Juan Rodgriguez, of Seville, marinero of the Trinidad
Antonio Rodgriguez, of Huelva, marinero of the Trinidad
Francisco Rodriguez, of Seville (a Portuguese), marinero of the Concepcion
Juan de Arratia, of Bilbao, grumete of the Victoria
Martin de Judicibus, of Genoa, superintedndent of the Concepcion
Hernando de Bustamante, of Alcantara, barber of the Concepcion
Juan de Zuvileta, of Baracold, page of the Victoria
Miguel Sanchez, of Rodas, marinero of the Victoria
3 1st Earl of Cork, 1st Viscount Dungarvan, 1st Baron Boyle of Youghal, Lord High Treasurer of the Kingdom of Ireland
4 It is believed Diogo's home was later a refuge for Christopher Marlowe. Marlowe, it has been argued, wrote under the pseudonym William Shakespeare in a room on the second floor. Fragments of "The Tempest" were discovered on the back of a chart carrying the distinctive signature of Diogo Homem.
5 Diogo prepared his last skin a few days before his father's death.
