Raymond H. Ramsay

A book about what I think of as "geographical mythology" - lands that were once thought to be real places to which a traveller might trek or sail, but are no longer on the map because they have turned out not to exist, being based on inaccurate reports, misunderstandings, or philosophical speculations. It also deals with a few islands that may actually have existed, but if so have sunk under the waves.

A delightful book in many ways, but one that needs to be approached with some caution: Ramsay accepts some decidedly dubious sources as factual. For example, he accepts at face value the so-called Zeno narrative: this is a 16C text, generally considered a hoax, describing the alleged travels of the Venetian Zeno brothers in the 15C North Atlantic.… (meer)