Island of California

The Île of California refers to an error made by Europeans as of the 16th century according to which the California would not have been part of the North America but a large separate island of the continent by the Mare Californica . It is about one of the most famous cartographic errors of the History, propagated on many charts during two centuries in spite of the evidence brought back by later explorers.

The first known mention of the legend of the Island of California is found in a novel of 1496, Las Sergas de Esplandián of Garcia Ordoñez de Montalvo (whose oldest known edition to 1510 with Seville goes back), which described the island in the following passage:

Knows that with right hand of the the Indies there is an island called California very close to the edge of the terrestrial paradise; it is populated black women, without any man among them, because they live the made-to-order of the Amazones.

It is probable that this description of Montalvo supported the identification by the first explorers of the Péninsule of Low-California like the island of this legend.

External bonds

California like an island
Chart of California like an island

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