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John of Kolno
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'''John of Kolno''' (also known as '''Jan z Kolna''', ''Johannes Scolnus'', ''Ioannis Scolvenius'' or ''Iohannes Scolvus Polonus'') (
1435–
1484)—a semi-legendary
Poland Polish sailor and navigator serving for the court of
Denmark. According to various sources he was one of the first
Europe Europeans to reach the shores of
the Americas Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact prior to Columbus in
1476 as steersman of
Didrik Pining.
According to
Joachim Lelewel (
1786 -
1861) the Polish historian and cartographer, who was the first to gather all the available mentions of Johannes Scolnus, the sailor was a navigator of the fleet of
Christian I of Denmark. In
1476 he set sail from
Norway and led a fleet of several Danish ships westwards. After several weeks he reached the shores of America. The fleet was commanded by two
Germany German sailors and pirate hunters
Didrik Pining Dietrich Pining and
Hans Pothorst and the
Portugal Portuguese João Vaz Corte-Real, who frequently sailed to the shores of
Greenland. It is possible that their discovery was made thanks to a navigational mistake or a storm that pushed their ships further westwards.
It is not certain whether John of Kolno really existed and whether he reached America. The first to mention Johannes Scolnus as the discoverer of
Labrador (''Terra Laboratoris'') and the area of present-day
Boston was
Francisco López de Gómara in his ''Historia general de las Indias y conquista de Mexico'' (
1552). Other sources to mention Jan z Kolna are:
*
François de Belleforest 1570
*
Cornelius Wytfliet, ''Descriptionis Ptolemaicae Augmentum''
1597 and
1599
* Claude Barthélemy Morisot
1643
* George Horn
1671
* Coronelli
1691
* Charlevoix
1744
There are also mentions of Joannis de Colno who studied at the
University of Kraków Kraków Academy in
1455 and the Colno or Cholno family of merchants and sailors living in
Gdansk Gdańsk.
Boleslaw Olszewicz, one of the
20th century historians to criticize the work of Lelewel, argues that there is not enough evidence to prove that the sailor was indeed Polish. Most of the works to mention Johannes Scolnus were published more than a century after his voyage, and no contemporary evidence has been preserved. Also, in the late
19th century various scholars identified John of Kolno as a sailor of
Norway Norwegian (''Johann Scolv''),
Portugal Portuguese (''João Scolvo'') or
Germany German descent.
See also
*
List of Poles
*
Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
Category:1435 births John of Kolno
Category:1484 deaths John of Kolno
Category:Polish explorers John of Kolno
Category:Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact
Category:Mysterious people
pl:Johannes Scolvus
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