The portion of the Vinland Map which will most excite scholars of American history appears here. At right, depicted too far north, is Iceland, called isolanda Ibernica (literally, “Irish Iceland.” recalling the early contacts of the Irish monks with that island). In the center, shown too far south, is a remarkably accurate Greenland (Gronelãda in the map maker’s abbreviated Latin), which suggests that the compiler of the map was working from actual experience, the knowledge of someone who had sailed around it. At the left is the most intriguing portion of the map: a strange representation of “Vinland”: the large lettering reads Vinlanda Insula a Byarno repã et leipho socijs, which is to say, “Island of Vinland, discovered by Bjarni and Leil in company.” It probable is an attempt to depict not a literal Vinland but a generalized representation of the lands to the west known through saga and tradition. Some three or four centuries lie between the recorded Norse voyages and the chawing of this map about A.D. 1440. One can I fairly assume that the three parts of “Vinland” are, from the north, the Helluland, Markland, and Vinland named by the Norsemen. The long inscription has been translated as follows: “My Gods will, after a long voyage from the island ol Greenland to the south toward the most distant remaining parts of the western ocean sea. sailing southward amidst the ice. the companions Mjarni and Leif Eiriksson discovered a new land, extremely fertile and even having vines, the which island they named Vinland. Eirik [Henricus], legate of the Apostolic See and Bishop of Greenland and the neighboring regions, arrived in this truly vast and very rich land, in the name of Almighty God. in the last year of our most blessed father [Pope] Paschal [II], remained a long time in both summer and winter, and later returned northeastward toward Greenland and then proceeded [ i.e., home to Europe] in most humble obedience to the will of his superiors.” ( Volente deo post longū iter ab insula Gronelanda per meridiem ad / reliquas extremas partes occidentalis occeani maris iter facientes ad / austrū inter glacies byarnus et leiphus erissonius socij terram nouam uberrimã / videlicet viniferã inuenerunt quam Vinilandã [? or Vimlandã] insulã appellauerunt. Henricus / Gronelande regionumq finitimarū sedis apostolicae episcopus legatus in hac terra / spaciosa vero et opulentissima in postmo anno p. ss. nrj. [this stands for pontificis, or patris, sanctissimi notri] Pascali accessit in nomine dei / omniptetis longo tempore mansit estiuo et brumali postea versus Gronelandã redit / ad orientem hiemalē deindo humillima obediencia superiori vo-/ lūtati processit.)