The nondescript, institutional door on the fourth floor of the University of Minnesota’s Bell Library is a portal to the past. Stepping through it, you find yourself in an oak paneled English renaissance room with carved stone columns, a working fireplace, and delicate stained-glass windows. Just beyond, in a modern reading room, lies a trove of rare books and maps. One amateur historian has been coming here for more than two years, trying to unravel a mystery that could have a revolutionary solution.
Gavin Menzies is retired from the British navy, where he commanded a nuclear submarine. In his leisure, he’s come to believe that a large Chinese fleet led by a eunuch admiral explored much of the world and circumnavigated the globe early in the 15th century—long before Christopher Columbus was a glint in his father’s eye. Maps from these journeys then found their way into the hands of European mapmakers and explorers. An expert on navigation, Menzies bases his theory on European maps, records of Chinese expeditions to East Africa, and what he claims are seven Chinese shipwrecks in the Caribbean. He plans to publish a book detailing his findings this fall.
In researching his theory, Menzies turned to the University’s James Ford Bell Library, which owns two important pieces of evidence: a hand-drawn Venetian navigational chart from 1424, and a globe from 1507. Founded in 1953, the Bell Library is perhaps the most famous rare book and map library in the United States, and is well known around the world for its large collection covering European expansion from 1400 to 1800.
The Portolan 1424 chart is a piece of yellowed sheepskin measuring two by three feet. It’s colorfully ornamented with wild animals and the cardinal points. The chart circumscribes the western coast of Europe and North Africa. The names of ports and tributaries are recorded in fading ink, and far out in the Atlantic, two chains of islands are rendered in brilliant red and blue pigment.
“Some people say these are Florida and Newfoundland, some say it’s Taiwan,” explains Carol Urness, curator emeritus of the library. A short, gray-haired, no-nonsense professor of history, she says Menzies believes the islands are Puerto Rico and Guadaloupe in the Caribbean Sea. “I find his arguments convincing,” she adds, with the smile of a professional skeptic. After working with Menzies for two years, Urness has come to respect him for his creative thinking—although she’s not sure whether he can prove his theory.
The other alluring clue is the globe. German geographer Martin Waldseemuller’s globe was the first to be printed on a press, not hand-drawn. It’s also the first map that refers to the New World as “America.” Of the 1,200 that were originally published, only three have survived—the Bell’s and two others. Manufactured shortly after Columbus’ first voyage in 1492, it shows the general shape of the west coast of South America, as well as virtually all the of the earth’s major landmasses. “How do you get the west coast of South America when the Europeans hadn’t yet been there?” Urness asks with a twinkle in her eye.
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