For centuries, the story of Christopher Columbus has been told with the same unwavering certainty: in 1492, he set sail across the Atlantic and “discovered” America.
But what if he wasn’t the first European to know about the New World?
What if knowledge of North America had been circulating in Europe over 150 years before Columbus ever set foot on a ship?
A shocking new analysis of a 14th-century manuscript suggests just that.
A document written by a Milanese friar in 1345 contains a reference to a land that closely resembles North America—and it predates Columbus’s voyage by well over a century.
The revelation, uncovered by Professor Paolo Chiesa, an expert in Medieval Latin literature, shakes the foundations of early exploration history.
The manuscript, called Cronica universalis, describes a place known as “Marckalada” or Markland, which aligns with historical descriptions of the Atlantic coast of Canada, including Newfoundland or Labrador.
This means that Italian sailors may have known about North America long before Columbus made his journey.
Could this mean that the real history of European exploration has been misrepresented for centuries?
The evidence suggests we may need to rethink everything we thought we knew about the Age of Discovery.
What This Means for Columbus’s Journey
This discovery, published in the journal Terrae Incognitae, suggests that sailors from Genoa—Columbus’s hometown—were already aware of distant lands to the northwest long before he ever set sail.
Professor Chiesa describes the find as “astonishing” because it provides the earliest Mediterranean reference to the American continent.
The big question is: how did these Italian sailors know about America?
Historians believe the Genoese, being skilled traders, might have picked up rumors from northern European merchants—specifically from Vikings, Norwegians, and other Scandinavian sailors.
Nordic seafarers had explored parts of North America centuries earlier, and their knowledge may have spread through trade routes that connected Greenland, Britain, and mainland Europe.
But here’s where things get even more fascinating: If Columbus knew about these rumors, was his famous voyage really an act of discovery, or was it an attempt to claim something others already suspected existed?
This challenges the traditional narrative that Columbus was blindly venturing into the unknown.
Instead, it’s possible he was acting on secondhand knowledge that had been passed down for generations.
Challenging the Columbus Myth
For decades, Columbus’s reputation has been called into question.
His legacy has been debated, statues have been toppled, and Columbus Day has been replaced by Indigenous Peoples’ Day in many parts of the United States.
This new evidence only fuels those debates.
If knowledge of America was already circulating in Europe, Columbus’s journey becomes less about discovery and more about empire-building.
Even though he remains a pivotal figure in history, this revelation suggests that he was not the fearless pioneer history books have made him out to be.
Instead, he may have been following a trail of information that had been circulating among Genoese and Catalan sailors for over a century.
The Medieval Manuscript That Held the Secret
The key document in this discovery is Cronica universalis, written by a Milanese friar named Galvaneus Flamma in 1345.
This manuscript attempted to chronicle the history of the world, from the beginning of time onward.
In one passage, Flamma references a mysterious land to the northwest that was believed to be rich in trees and inhabited by animals—just like the Markland mentioned in the Grœnlendinga Saga, an ancient Icelandic text.
Unlike Nordic sources, which have long referenced these lands, Cronica universalis was written in northern Italy, making it the first known Mediterranean reference to North America.
How the News of America Spread
The Genoese were among the most advanced sailors and cartographers of the medieval world.
They frequently traded with the British, Scottish, Danish, and Norwegian merchants who traveled to and from Greenland.
Professor Chiesa emphasizes that the Genoese had access to a wide range of geographical knowledge.
Their 14th-century maps, known as portolan charts, were incredibly detailed and accurate for the time.
Some of these charts even depicted regions of the North Atlantic with surprising precision—hinting that Italian merchants were more informed than previously thought.
But why didn’t this knowledge lead to earlier voyages?
The answer likely lies in economic priorities.
While Nordic sailors may have reached North America centuries before Columbus, they lacked the resources or motivation to establish long-term settlements.
Instead, their knowledge trickled into trade circles and was eventually recorded by scholars like Flamma.
This means that by the time Columbus set sail in 1492, he may have been acting on long-standing whispers of an undiscovered land.
What This Means for the Future of Exploration History
The discovery of Cronica universalis reopens one of history’s biggest debates: Who truly “discovered” America?
If Italian sailors had already heard about the land we now call North America in the 1300s, should we rethink the way history credits Columbus?
As of now, the full manuscript of Cronica universalis remains unpublished, but scholars at the University of Milan are working on releasing it in the near future.
When this happens, it may provide even more clues that rewrite our understanding of early exploration.
One thing is certain: history is far more complicated than we were taught in school.
Final Thoughts
For centuries, the tale of Columbus has been told with absolute certainty. But history is never as simple as a single voyage or a lone explorer.
The discovery of America was a gradual process—one shaped by whispers, trade routes, and forgotten documents.
The Genoese may have heard the stories first, but it took centuries for those stories to lead to action.
So, was Columbus really the first European to set eyes on the New World? The answer may not be as clear-cut as we once believed.
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