[ISHMap-List] Vinland Map Symposium (VMS)

[Sarah TYACKE]

This message from Tony Campbell is being reposted owing to the 
corruption of the formatting of the original version on Tony's computer.

  Pre-announcement

VINLAND MAP SYMPOSIUM (VMS)
London
October 11-13, 2015

October 11, 2015 will mark the 50th anniversary of the first publication 
of 'The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation' in New Haven and London by 
Yale University Press in 1965.
The symposium will gather a select group of international  experts and 
other interested professionals - from all sides of the argument - for a 
"brain-storm" across all the relevant  fields of research, including but 
not restricted to: ink, palaeography, paper/parchment, fakes, wormholes, 
conservation, chemical analyses, bookbinding, cartography and history.

The aim is to secure an up-to-date assessment of the Vinland Map and the 
manuscripts it  was associated and/or bound  with, the 'Speculum 
Historiale' and the Tartar Relation - thereby taking an important step 
forward in bringing to an end the debate on authenticity and provenance, 
which has now been going on for nearly 50 years.
To this end, a potentially very important discovery was made last year 
about the provenance of the manuscripts with which the Vinland Map has 
been associated, and was allegedly bound together with, before they 
first appeared in London in 1957.
It has been established that the manuscripts in question were on public 
display in Madrid in 1892-93 during an event marking the 400th 
anniversary of Columbus's "discovery" of America in 1492. This is 
documented in one of the catalogues for the 'Expositión 
Histórico-Europea', held at the Real Academia de la Historia in Madrid. 
But *no map* is mentioned in this catalogue entry.
This means that the enigma of the provenance of the 'Speculum 
Historiale' and the Tartar Relation - now kept at Yale University 
Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library - may now finally be resolved. 
However, it still leaves open the questions about the provenance and 
authenticity of the Vinland Map itself.
The VMS will be coordinated by Jørgen D. Siemonsen, Chair of the VMS 
Steering Committee, Copenhagen, in association with The Hakluyt Society, 
London, and Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.  The Chair 
designate of the Symposium is Tony Campbell, London, former Map 
Librarian of The British Library.
Copenhagen and London, April 14, 2014

Please note:
The venue and outline programme for the VMS will follow in due course, 
together with a Call for Papers on relevant topics.

Preliminary expression of interest to: Jorgen at Siemonsen.dk