The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation

xii+[5 plates]+[1]-291 with plates, tables, maps (some folding), bibliography and index. Quarto (11 1/2" x 9 1/4") bound in original publisher's red boards with dark red label with gilt lettering to spine in original pictorial jacket. Third printing. The Vinland Map, dated to about A.D. 1440 at least fifty years before Columbus landed in the Americas is a unique map of the world that shows an outline of the northeast American coast and a legend describing its discovery in about 1000 by Leif Eiriksson, the Norseman from Greenland. The map was published by Yale University Press in 1965 and generated an enormous amount of debate. Chemical analysis of the ink later suggested the map might be a forgery, but recent appraisals of both scientific and humanist evidence argue that it is indeed authentic. Condition: Jacket price clipped else a very good copy in like jacket.