Templars in America: From the Crusades to the New World

Rating:
Summary: for those with ears to hear, listen!
Review: Disregard the flippant quote from the 1 star reviewer, who obviously is emotionally biased since they failed to even read it and instead found something canned on the web to post there to discredit it. Interestingly that negative reviewer has only reviewed two books ever, the one above rated negatively and another templar book rated entirely positively because it is called more "empirical". Well, on that criteria, the negative reviewer should love this book, if they ever read it instead of simply copy/paste something from the web ironically without any of the cherished evidence itself to back it up! Who's irrational, eh?

Anyway, I will let the authors of the book speak for themselves in this quote as a rebuttal to the ignorant reviewer above. At least the authors read their own book, relying on a great deal of emprical evidence, unlike the hotheaded negative reviewer:

The quote is:

"In various books, claims have been made for the date, itenarary, and duration of the voyages for which we can find no justification whatsoever. We have been careful to use the relevant passages from the Zeno Narrative where they are in accord with the geography, in conjunction with Henry's undoubted knowledge of previous Viking voyages to Vinland. We can also follow the trail of this considerable exploration through archaeological artifacts, which those interested can still view and assess for themselves. While we have made every attempt to keep speculation to a minimum, we consider the hypotheses we do put forward reasonable in the light of the evidence and dispassionate logic. We accept a priori that there is no way that even this rational methodology will convince those who hold the entrenched position that there was no European contact with America prior to 1492. [p.3]

. . .

A Rising Tide of Acceptance

Despite its long and troubled history, the authenticity of the Zeno Narrative is now well established and has been accepted by academics such as Hapgood and Hobbs, the American historian Ridpath, the Albany Herald of Scotland, the late Sir Ian Moncreiffe of that Ilk, Dr. Barbara Crawford, the chief archivist, Geltling, of Denmark, the Swedish archaeologist Rausing, the Danish scholar Aage Russell, Arlington Mallery, Johann Reinhold Forester, the Tudor naval historian Richard Hakluyt, the secretary to the State of Venice, Ramusio, Professor Taylor of London University, the Venetian historian Ruscelli, R.H. Major of the Royal Geographic Society, the American historian John Fiske, the British historian Andrew Sinclair, and, of course, the persistence student of pre-Columbian American exploration, Frederick Pohl.

The Zeno map, despite the fact that it was made 150 years after the event and drawn from information supplied by the Narrative, has now also been authenticated as an accurate chart of the voyage. The importance of the work done by Captain Arlington Mallery and Charles Hapgood in establishing a valid rationale for the seeming disappearance of the "Fly Away Island" of Icaria has defused many earlier criticisms, and the work of Paul-Emile Victor in restoring the Zeno map to its original reputation for authenticity has been vital.

The historical reality of the Zeno/St. Clair expedition to the New world does not simply depend upon the validity of the Zeno map and narrative, however. We also have the evidence of the Westford Knight in Massachusetts, the Newport Tower in Rhode Island, the carvings in Rosslyn Chapel, and the offical commemoration of the voyage on a plague at the Zeno Pallazo in Venice. . . . [p. 195]

So, understand all this evidence in this great textbook overview of the issues. Get this historical update and to open your minds to evidence--the only way to learn and to avoid the haughtiness of ignorance.

Rating:
Summary: Discredited History Retold
Review: Quotes from NORDINFO - The Nordic Council for Scientific Information, a department of the National Library of Norway and the National and University Library of Iceland, regarding the historicity of the Zeno Narrative, onto which various alternative historians, including these authors, have grafted the mythical "Sinclair Voyage":

"The Zeno map, as it is often called, first appeared in Venice in the year 1558 as a part of a small book that contained accounts of voyages in the North Atlantic and westward to the shores of America. The author was Nicolo Zeno, and the book purports to be a retelling of the exploits of an ancestor and his brother, during their exploration of these regions towards the close of the 14th century, or more than a century and a half before the publication of the book. The map shows the North Atlantic and the countries bordering it, which the author claims is contemporary with the events recounted in the book. It is now known that the narrative was manufactured by the younger Zeno himself not long before the publication of the book, and the same is true of the map. So it does in no way reflect geographical knowledge in the 14th century. We now know that Zeno's principal sources were Olaus Magnus' map of the North, the Caerte van Oostland of Cornelis Anthoniszoon, and old maps of the North of the Claudius Clavus type with elements taken from southern sea charts of the 15th and 16th centuries. Zeno probably put the book and map together for the purpose of giving Venice, the author's native city, the credit for discovering America more than a century ahead of Columbus. <...> In spite of its discreditable parentage, the Zeno map was to have a remarkable career. For the next 40 years it influenced most maps that were made of Iceland."