by neufer » Wed Mar 02, 2011 5:26 am
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_name_California#From_the_novel_Las_Sergas_de_Esplandi.C3.A1n wrote:
<<In the minds of European explorers, an island populated by Amazons off the coast of the Indies was a long-established expectation. The earliest known application of the name "California" to this island of the Amazons was in the romance novel Las Sergas de Esplandián (The Adventures of Esplandián) by Spanish author Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, whose earliest surviving edition (but not first edition) is from 1510. The book described the Island of California as being east of the Asian mainland, "very close to the side of the Terrestrial Paradise; and it is peopled by black women, without any man among them, for they live in the manner of Amazons." The Island was ruled by Queen Calafia. In his work, the author drew on a long-standing European belief in such an island.
- Know that on the right hand from the Indies exists an island called California very close to a side of the Earthly Paradise; and it was populated by black women, without any man existing there, because they lived in the way of the Amazons. They had beautiful and robust bodies, and were brave and very strong. Their island was the strongest of the World, with its cliffs and rocky shores. Their weapons were golden and so were the harnesses of the wild beasts that they were accustomed to domesticate and ride, because there was no other metal in the island than gold.
–Las Sergas de Esplandián, (novela de caballería) by García Ordóñez de Montalvo. Published in Seville in 1510.
Since then, that unknown Amazon's Island came to be known as California.
Some scholars speculate the Song of Roland, an 11th century Old French epic poem, may have served as the inspiration for the name California. It refers to the defeat suffered August 15, 778, in the retreat of Charlemagne's army at the hands of the Muslim army in Battle of Roncevaux Pass in the Pyrenees. On line 2924 of the poem, which is in verse number CCIX (209), the word Califerne is one of the lands mentioned, with no indication of its geographic location. It is, however, named after a reference to Affrike, or Africa.
- My nephew's dead, who won for me such realms!
Against me then the Saxon will rebel,
Hungar, Bulgar, and many hostile men,
Romain, Puillain, all those are in Palerne,
And in Affrike, and those in Califerne;
–Song of Roland, Verse CCIX (i.e. 209; lines 2920–2924), 11th c.
"Since the Roland poem concerns the "evil" Saracens, it's possible that the poet derived Califerne from caliph. Montalvo might also have been influenced by such similar names as Californo and Calafornina in Sicily or Calahorra in Spain."
This notion of a place of women without men echoes a passage from the diary of Christopher Columbus's first voyage:
- The Indians told him that along that route he would find the island of Matinino, which they said was populated by women without men, to which the admiral replied he wanted very much to bring five or six of them to the king and queen… but they said that it was certain that [the women] existed and that at a certain time of the year men came to [the women] from the aforementioned island of Carib, which they said was ten or twelve leagues away, and if they gave birth to a son they sent it to the island of the men, and if a girl, they kept her with them.
The lure of an earthly paradise, as well as the search for the fabled Strait of Anián, helped motivate Hernán Cortés, following his conquest of Mexico, to send several expeditions in the late 1530s and early 1540s to the west coast of New Spain. The first expedition reached the Gulf of California and the Baja California peninsula, and proved that California was in fact a peninsula. Nevertheless, the idea that California was an island persisted for well over a century and was included on many maps. The Spanish gave the name "Las Californias" to the lower Baja California peninsula and to the upper northern mainlands later known as Alta California and U.S. California.>>
[quote=" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_name_California#From_the_novel_Las_Sergas_de_Esplandi.C3.A1n"]
[float=right][img3="The Island of California, from a map circa 1650. Restored."]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/75/California_island_Vinckeboons5.jpg/800px-California_island_Vinckeboons5.jpg[/img3][/float]
<<In the minds of European explorers, an island populated by Amazons off the coast of the Indies was a long-established expectation. The earliest known application of the name "California" to this island of the Amazons was in the romance novel Las Sergas de Esplandián (The Adventures of Esplandián) by Spanish author Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, whose earliest surviving edition (but not first edition) is from 1510. The book described the Island of California as being east of the Asian mainland, "very close to the side of the Terrestrial Paradise; and it is peopled by black women, without any man among them, for they live in the manner of Amazons." The Island was ruled by Queen Calafia. In his work, the author drew on a long-standing European belief in such an island.
[list][i][color=#0000FF][b]Know that on the right hand from the Indies exists an island called California very close to a side of the Earthly Paradise; and it was populated by black women, without any man existing there, because they lived in the way of the Amazons. They had beautiful and robust bodies, and were brave and very strong. Their island was the strongest of the World, with its cliffs and rocky shores. Their weapons were golden and so were the harnesses of the wild beasts that they were accustomed to domesticate and ride, because there was no other metal in the island than gold.[/b][/color][/i]
–Las Sergas de Esplandián, (novela de caballería) by García Ordóñez de Montalvo. Published in Seville in 1510.[/list]
Since then, that unknown Amazon's Island came to be known as California.
Some scholars speculate the Song of Roland, an 11th century Old French epic poem, may have served as the inspiration for the name California. It refers to the defeat suffered August 15, 778, in the retreat of Charlemagne's army at the hands of the Muslim army in Battle of Roncevaux Pass in the Pyrenees. On line 2924 of the poem, which is in verse number CCIX (209), the word Califerne is one of the lands mentioned, with no indication of its geographic location. It is, however, named after a reference to Affrike, or Africa.
[list][i][b][color=#0000FF]My nephew's dead, who won for me such realms!
Against me then the Saxon will rebel,
Hungar, Bulgar, and many hostile men,
Romain, Puillain, all those are in Palerne,
And in Affrike, and those in Califerne;[/color][/b][/i]
–Song of Roland, Verse CCIX (i.e. 209; lines 2920–2924), 11th c.[/list]
"Since the Roland poem concerns the "evil" Saracens, it's possible that the poet derived Califerne from caliph. Montalvo might also have been influenced by such similar names as Californo and Calafornina in Sicily or Calahorra in Spain."
This notion of a place of women without men echoes a passage from the diary of Christopher Columbus's first voyage:
[list][i][color=#0000FF][b]The Indians told him that along that route he would find the island of Matinino, which they said was populated by women without men, to which the admiral replied he wanted very much to bring five or six of them to the king and queen… but they said that it was certain that [the women] existed and that at a certain time of the year men came to [the women] from the aforementioned island of Carib, which they said was ten or twelve leagues away, and if they gave birth to a son they sent it to the island of the men, and if a girl, they kept her with them.[/b][/color][/list]
The lure of an earthly paradise, as well as the search for the fabled Strait of Anián, helped motivate Hernán Cortés, following his conquest of Mexico, to send several expeditions in the late 1530s and early 1540s to the west coast of New Spain. The first expedition reached the Gulf of California and the Baja California peninsula, and proved that California was in fact a peninsula. Nevertheless, the idea that California was an island persisted for well over a century and was included on many maps. The Spanish gave the name "Las Californias" to the lower Baja California peninsula and to the upper northern mainlands later known as Alta California and U.S. California.[/i]>>[/quote]