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[[File:Australia first map.jpg|thumb|
'''La grande isle de Java''' ("the great island of Java") was, according to [[Marco Polo]], the largest island in the world; his Java Minor was the actual island of [[Sumatra]], which takes its name from the city of [[Samudera]] (now [[Lhokseumawe]]) situated on its northern coast.<ref>Marco Polo, ''Milione: il Milione nelle redazioni toscana e franco-italiana, Le Divisament dou Monde'', Gabriella Ponchi (ed.), Milano, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1982, p.540, Cap.clxiii, "La grant isle de Java"</ref>
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Due to a scribal error in [[The Travels of Marco Polo|Book III of Marco Polo's travels]] treating of the route southward from [[Champa]], where the name Java was substituted for Champa as the point of departure, Java Minor was located 1,300 miles to the south of Java Major, instead of from Champa, on or near an extension of the [[Terra Australis]].<ref>(Paul Pelliot, ''Notes on Marco Polo,'' Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, 1963, Vol.II, p.769; James R. McClymont, "The Theory of an Antipodal Southern Continent during the Sixteenth Century", ''Report of the Fourth Meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science,'' Hobart, January 1892, Hobart, the Association, 1893, pp.442-462.)</ref>
As explained by Sir [[Henry Yule]], the editor of an English edition of Marco Polo's travels: "Some geographers of the 16th century, following the old editions which carried the travellers south-east of Java to the [[Terra Australis#The Province of Beach|land of ''Boeach'']] (or Locac), introduced in their maps a continent in that situation".<ref>(Sir Henry Yule (ed.), ''The Book of Ser Marco Polo,'' London, Murray, 1921, Vol.II, pp.276-280)</ref>
==Jean Alfonse's cosmography==
[[File:Java_La_Grande.jpg|right|thumb|368x368px|Representation of Grande Jave (Australia) in the 16th century (top left of the map, indication of the islands of Sumatra and Jave (Java))]]
Java Minor was identified as an island (the present Island of [[Java]]) by the Franco-Portuguese navigator and cosmographer [[Jean Alfonse]] in his work of 1544, ''La Cosmographie'' but Java Major according to him was part of the [[Terra Australis|continent of Terra Australis]], which extended as far as the Antarctic Pole and the Strait of Magellan. In ''La Cosmographie,'' Alfonse defined ''La Grande Jave'' as an extension of the giant Antarctic continent, or ''Terra Australis'': "This Java touches the
<blockquote>
La Grand Jave is a land that goes as far as under the Antarctic Pole and from the Terre Australle in the west to the land of the Strait of Magellan on the eastern side. Some say that it is islands but from what I have seen of it, it is ''terre ferme'' [a continent] ... That called Jave Mynore is an island, but la Grand Jave is ''terre ferme''.<ref>"Cest Jave est un terre qui va jusques dessoubz le polle antarctique et en occident tient à la terre Australle, et du cousté d'oriant à la terre du destroict de Magaillant. Aulcuns dient que ce sont isles. Et quant est de ce que j'en ay veu, c’est terre firme ... Celle que l'on appelle Jave Mynore est une isle. Mais la Grand Jave est terre ferme'. Jean Alfonse, ''La Cosmographie,'' 1544, f.147r, in Georges Musset (ed.), ''Recueil de Voyages et de Documents pour servir à l'Histoire de la Géographie,'' XX, Paris, 1904, p. 388-389; also quoted in Pierre Margry, ''Les Navigations Françaises et la Révolution Maritime du XIVe au XVIe Siécle,'' Paris, Librairie Tross, 1867, pp. 316-317; cited in James R. McClymont, "A Preliminary Critique of the Terra Australis Legend", ''Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania for 1889,'' Hobart, 1890, pp. 43-52, n.b. p. 50; and ''idem, Essays on Historical Geography,'' London, Quaritch, 1921, pp. 16-18.</ref>
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==Later cartography==
This cosmographical concept was exhibited in the mid-sixteenth century mappemondes of the [[Dieppe maps|School of mapmakers centred at Dieppe]], Normandy, which in later times gave rise to the idea that Australia may have been discovered by Europeans long before the Dutch began to chart its coast in 1606 or before James Cook charted its east coast in 1770. This is seen clearly in Jean
[[File:Australia_first_map.jpg|left|thumb|300x300px|Details of the map of the Grande Jave by Nicolas Vallard (1547)]]
Vincenzo Coronelli, on his ''Terrestrial Globe'' made in Venice in 1688, referred to the uncertainty regarding the location of Marco Polo's Java Minor, noting that while in the opinion of some it could be identified with Sumatra, others believed it to be Sumbawa or New Holland. His inscription reads: "Various are the opinions of the Geographers concerning the location of ''Giava minore'', some placing it under the Tropic of Capricorn, in accordance with what Marco Polo wrote in bk.3, cap.13. Others believe it to be Sumatra from the distance which the same Polo assigned to it, others take it for the Island of Sumbawa, and some others, more modern, for New Holland. We, from so much variety of opinion, do not offer a final conclusion on the matter, leaving the dispute undecided."<ref>"Della Giava Minore. Varie sono appresso li Geografi l'opinioni del sito della Giava minore, collocando la alcuni sotto il Tropico di Capricorno secondo quello, che Marco Polo Patrizio Veneto scrive nel lib. 3 cap 13. altri credendola la Sumatra per le distanza, che n'assegna il medisimo Polo, altri volendola per l'Isola Çumbava, e qualch'altra de piu Moderni per la Nuova Hollanda. Noi tra le tante varietà le pareri non terminando cos' alcuna, lasciano la contesa indecisa".</ref>
[[File:Desceliers_1550_map_-_Australia_detail.jpg|right|thumb|220x220px|Map of the Grande Jave by Pierre Desceliers (1550)]]
In accordance with the uncorrected editions of Marco
==Marco Polo's placenames==
''Lochac'' (or ''[[Locach]]'') was Marco
[[File:Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, by Abraham Ortelius, World, 1572.jpg|center|thumb|500x500px|1570 map by [[Abraham Ortelius]], ''TYPUS ORBIS TERRARUM'' (Figure of the Terrestrial Globe) depicting "Terra Australis Nondum Cognita" as a large continent on the bottom of the map and also an [[Hyperborea|Arctic continent]]. South of Nova Guinea, the continent bears the inscription, ''Hanc continentem Australem, nonnulli Magellanicam regionem ab eius inventore nuncupant'' (This Austral continent is called by some the Magellanic region, after its discoverer).{{cite journal |last1=King |first1=Robert J. |title=Magellanica: Finding the Antipodeans |journal=The Globe |date=2020 |issue=88 |pages=1{{ndash}}18 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/2480820377 |id={{ProQuest|2480820377}} |ref=none}}]]
As [[Zhou Daguan]], the ambassador sent by the Yuan court to Cambodia in 1296 commented: "These [golden towers] are the monuments that have caused merchants from overseas to speak so often of 'Zhenla [Cambodia] the rich and noble{{'"}}.<ref>Chou Ta-kuan 周達観 (Zhou Daguan, fl.1297), ''Customs of Cambodia'' 風土記 , transl. Paul Pelliot and J. Gilman d'Arcy Paul, Bangkok, Siam Society, 1993, p. 2.</ref> The imprisonment by the Khmer ruler [[Jayavarman VIII]] of a Mongol emissary in 1281<ref>Chou Ta-kuan 周達観 (Zhou Daguan, fl.1297), ''Customs of Cambodia'' 風土記 , transl. Paul Pelliot and J. Gilman d’Arcy Paul, Bangkok, Siam Society, 1993, pp.xviii-xix. "These [golden towers] are the monuments that have caused merchants from overseas to speak so often of 'Cambodia the rich and noble{{'"}}; ibid., p. 2.</ref> would have been ample justification for Marco's remark on the inhumanity of its people: he said that Locach "was such a savage place that few people ever go there", and that "the king himself does not want anyone to go there or to spy out his treasure or the state of his realm". Marco also noted the abundance of elephants in Locach; Locach was notable in the Chinese annals for sending elephants as tribute.<ref>Paul Pelliot, ''Notes on Marco Polo,'' Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, 1963, Vol.II, p.554, note 2. Paul Wheatley, "Lochac Revisited", ''Oriens Extremus,'' vol.16, 1969, pp.85-110.</ref>
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==''Jave la Grande'' as a composite of ''Regio Patalis'' and ''Brasielie Regio''==
Robert J. King has suggested that
Although the word ''patet'' ("extends") has no connection with the city of Patala (now [[Thatta]]) at the mouth of the Indus River, which gave its name to the ''Regio Patalis'' ("Region of Patala"), the Dieppe mapmakers may have misunderstood the name to mean "the Extensive Region". Ludovico di Varthema also said that he had been told by the captain of the ship in which he had made the voyage from Borneo that on the southern side of Java Major, to the southward, "there are peoples who sail with their backs to our stars of the north until they find a day of but 4 hours, where the day does not last more than four hours", and that there it was colder than in any other part of the world.<ref>Ludovico di Varthema, Book 3, ''On India,'' Chapter 27; George Percy Badger (ed.) and John Winter Jones (transl.), ''The travels of Ludivico di Varthema in Egypt, Syria, Arabia Deserta and Arabia Felix, in Persia, India, and Ethiopia, A.D. 1503 to 1508,'' translated from the original Italian edition of 1510, London, Hakluyt Society, 1863, "The Chapter showing how the Mariners manage the Navigation towards the Island of Java".</ref>
The region where the shortest day would only last four hours would be in latitude 63° South. This could explain Jean
This appellation appears on other Dieppe maps as ''baie bresille'' on the Rotz map, ''Baye bresille'' on the Harleian, and ''Baye bresill'' on the Desceliers, indicating the reliance of their makers on the Schoener/Fine cosmography. Johannes Schoener defined ''Brasilia australis'' as "an immense region toward ''Antarcticum'' newly discovered but not yet fully surveyed, which extends as far as ''Melacha'' and somewhat beyond; close to this region lies the great island of ''Zanzibar''".<ref>Johannes Schoener, ''Opusculum Geographicum,'' Norimberga, [1533], f.21v ; quoted in Roger Hervé, ''Découverte fortuite de l’Australie et de la Nouvelle-Zélande par des navigateurs pourtugais et espagnols entre 1521 et 1528,'' Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, 1982, p. 65, n.145.</ref> On Fine's 1531 mappemonde, <small>''BRASIELIE REGIO''</small> is shown as part of the Terra Australis lying to the east of Africa and to the south of Java, just where Schoener located <small>''BRASIELIE REGIO''</small> on his 1523 globe, and where the Dieppe maps locate their ''Baye Bresille.''
King concludes that the Dieppe cartographers identified the ''Regio Patalis,'' shown on [[Oronce Fine]]'s world maps of 1531 and 1534 as a huge peninsula of the southern continent, with either [[Locach]], as did [[Gerardus Mercator]] on his 1541 globe, or with Java Major (''Jave la Grande''). <ref>Robert J. King, "Regio Patalis: Australia on the map in 1531?", ''The Portolan,'' issue 82, Winter 2011, pp.8-17. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130518131837/https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=8fb4a3c963f402be&id=8FB4A3C963F402BE%21141] ; Robert J. King, "The Mysterious Jave la Grande", National Library of Australia, ''Mapping our World: Terra Incognita to Australia'', Canberra, National Library of Australia, 2013, p.78; and Robert J. King, "Havre de Sylla on JAVE la GRANDE", presented at the International Conference on the History of Cartography, Moscow, July 2011, ''Terrae Incognitae,'' vol.45, no.1, April 2013, pp.30-61.[http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/maney/tin/2013/00000045/00000001/art00004?crawler=true King Terrae Incognitae] See also [http://www.anzmaps.org/wp-content/uploads/other_publications/JaveLaGrande-King.pdf Robert J. King, "Jave La Grande, A Part Of Terra Australis?", Mapping Our World: Discovery Day, National Library of Australia, 10 November 2013.] Robert J. King, "Dirk Hartog lands on ''Beach'', the gold-bearing province", ''The Globe,'' 2015, No. 77, pp.12-52.[http://search.informit.com.au/search;rs=1;rec=4;action=showCompleteRec]; and “Java on the Paris Gilt Globe, c.1524-1528”, ''Der Globusfreund/Globe Studies,'' vol. 64/65, 2018, pp.64-73.</ref> He notes that Java Minor was identified with the island of Madura by Antonio Pigafetta, the diarist of Magellan's expedition. Pigafetta recorded that at Timor, the local people had explained to them, in response to their query regarding Java Minor: "that the lesser Java was the isle of Madura and half a league near to Greater Java". The mis-identification of Java Minor with the island of Madura allowed the southern coast of Java Major to remain undefined. This in turn permitted 16th-century cartographers to identify Java Major as a promontory of the Terra Australis and with Polo's Region of Locach.<ref>Robert J. King, “Java on the Paris Gilt Globe, c.1524-1528”, ''Globe Studies,'' vol. 64/65, 2018, pp.64-73.</ref>
The Unfortunate Isles discovered during Magellan's voyage across the Pacific in 1521 appear on the Dieppe maps, renamed with a corrupted version of his name as ''ysles de magna'' and ''ye de saill'' or some slight variation thereof and displaced to the vicinity of Jave la Grande / Lucach.<ref> Robert J. King, “Cartographic Drift: Pulo Condor and the ysles de magna and ye de saill on the Dieppe Maps”, ''The Globe,'' no.87, 2020, pp.1-22.</ref> They appear on Ortelius' world map of 1570 as ''Ins di los Tiburones'' and ''ins di S Pedro'', the names given them by Magellan.
==See also==
* [[Theory of the Portuguese discovery of Australia]]
* [[Makassan contact with Australia]]
* [[Javanese contact with Australia]]
* [[Dieppe maps]]
* [[Regio Patalis]]
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==References==
{{reflist|
[[Category:European exploration of Australia]]
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