Jave la Grande

"La grande isle de Java" (“The great island of Java”) was, according to Marco Polo, the largest island in the world: his Java Minor was the actual island of Sumatra, which takes its name from the city of Samudra (now Lhokseumawe) situated on its northern coast. [Marco Polo, "Milione: il Milione nelle redazioni toscana e franco-italiana, Le Divisament dou Monde", Gabriella Ponchi (ed.), Milano, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1982, p.540, Cap.clxiii, "La grant isle de Java" ] Due to a scribal error in Book III of Marco Polo’s travels treating of the route southward from Champa, where the name Java was substituted for Champa as the point of departure, Java Minor was located 1,300 miles to the south of Java Major, instead of from Champa, on or near an extension of the Terra Australis. [ (Paul Pelliot, "Notes on Marco Polo," Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, 1963, Vol.II, p.769; James R. McClymont, “The Theory of an Antipodal Southern Continent during the Sixteenth Century”, "Report of the Fourth Meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science," Hobart, January 1892, Hobart, the Association, 1893, pp.442-462.)]

As explained by Sir Henry Yule, the editor of an English edition of Marco Polo’s travels: “Some geographers of the 16th century, following the old editions which carried the travellers south-east of Java to the land of "Boeach" (or Locac), introduced in their maps a continent in that situation.” [ (Sir Henry Yule (ed.), "The Book of Ser Marco Polo," London, Murray, 1921, Vol.II, pp.276-280)]

Java Minor was identified as an island (the present Island of Java) by the Franco-Portuguese navigator and cosmographer Jean Alfonse in his work of 1544, "La Cosmographie" but Java Major according to him was part of the continent of Terra Australis, which extended as far as the Antarctic Pole and the Strait of Magellan. He wrote in "La Cosmographie": “La Grand Jave is a land that goes as far as under the Antarctic Pole and from the Terre Australle in the west to the land of the Strait of Magellan on the eastern side. Some say that it is islands but from what I have seen of it, it is a continent [terre ferme] …That which is called Jave Mynore is an island, but la Grand Jave is terra firma.” [ (“Cest Jave est une terre qui va jusques dessoubz le polle antarctique et en occident tient à la terre Australle, et du cousté d’oriant à la terre du destroict de Magaillant. Aulcuns dient que ce sont isles. Et quant est de ce que j’en ay veu, c’est terre firme… Celle que l’on appelle Jave Mynore est une isle. Mais la Grand Jave est terre ferme”. Georges Musset (ed.), "Receuil de Voyages et de Documents pour servir à l’Histoire de la Géographi"e, XX, "La Cosmographie," Paris, 1904, f.147r. p.388-9; also quoted in Pierre Margry, "Les Navigations Françaises et la Révolution Maritime du XIVe au XVIe Siécle," Paris, Librairie Tross, 1867, pp.316-7; cited in James R. McClymont, “A Preliminary Critique of the Terra Australis Legend”, "Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania for 1890," Hobart, 1890, pp.43-52, n.b. p.50; and "idem, Essays on Historical Geography," London, Quaritch, 1921, pp.16-18.)]

In Jean Alfonse’s "Cosmographie, La Grande Jave" is defined as an extension of the giant Antarctic continent, or Terra Australis: “This Java touches the Straight of Magellan in the west, and in the east Terra Australis… I estimate that the coast of the Ocean Sea called the Austral coast extends eastwards to Java, to the western coast of the said Java.” [ (“Cest Jave tient en occident au destroict de Magaillan, et en orient à la terre Australle”… “J’estime que cest coste de la mer Occéane qu’est dicte coste Australle se va rendre en Oriant, à la Jave, du cousté d’occident de ladicte Jave”. Georges Musset (ed.), "Receuil de Voyages et de Documents pour servir à l’Histoire de la Géographie," XX, "La Cosmographie," Paris, 1904, f.150v, p399. and f.159r, p.427. See also the entry on Alfonse in "Dictionaire de Bigraphie française," Paris, 1933, p.1491.)]

Apparently in deference to Marco Polo’s claim that Java Major was the largest island in the world, Alfonse transposed Java Minor and Java Major, giving the name Jave Mynore to the island of Java and the name La Grand Jave to the continent to the south. [ (Georges Musset (ed.), "Receuil de Voyages et de Documents pour servir à l’Histoire de la Géographie," XX, "La Cosmographie," Paris, 1904 f.147v, p.391.)]

This cosmographical concept was exhibited in the mid-sixteenth century mappemondes of the School of mapmakers centred at Dieppe, Normandy, which in later times gave rise to the idea that Australia may have been discovered by Europeans long before the Dutch began to chart its coast in 1606 or before James Cook charted its east coast in 1770. This is seen clearly in Jean Rotz’s "Lande of Java" of 1542, and in Pierre Desceliers' mappemonde of 1546. [ Desceliers'1546 mappemonde is held at the John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, and may be viewed at: rylweb.man.ac.uk/specialcollections/guide/atoz/frenchms] Alfonse’s map of "La Grande Jave" bears a striking resemblance to that of Rotz.

Vincenzo Coronelli, on his "Terrestrial Globe" made in Venice in 1688, referred to the uncertainty regarding the location of Marco Polo’s Java Minor, noting that while in the opinion of some it could be identified with Sumatra, others believed it to be Sumbawa or New Holland. His inscription reads: “Various are the opinions of the Geographers concerning the location of "Giava minore", some placing it under the Tropic of Capricorn, in accordance with what Marco Polo wrote in bk.3, cap.13. Others believe it to be Sumatra from the distance which the same Polo assigned to it, others take it for the Island of Sumbawa, and some others, more modern, for New Holland. We, from so much variety of opinion, do not offer a final conclusion on the matter, leaving the dispute undecided.” [ (“Della Giava Minore. Varie sono appresso li Geografi l’opinioni del sito della Giava minore, collocando la alcuni sotto il Tropico di Capricorno secondo quello, che Marco Polo Patrizio Veneto scrive nel lib. 3 cap 13. altri credendola la Sumatra per le distanza, che n’assegna il medisimo Polo, altri volendola per l’Isola Çumbava, e qualch’altra de piu Moderni per la Nuova Hollanda. Noi tra le tante varietà le pareri non terminando cos’ alcuna, lasciano la contesa indecisa”.)]

In accordance with the uncorrected editions of Marco Polo’s travels, on his 1688 "Terrestrial Globe" Coronelli inscribed over the northern part of "Nuova Hollandia": “Some believe that in this place M. Polo discovered the Land of Lochac, and that 500 miles further on is found the Island of Pentan, and the Kingdom of Malaiur.” [ (“Credono alcuni scoperti in questo luogo da M. Polo il Paese di Lochac, e ch’avanzandosi 500. Miglia, trovasse l’Is. Pentã, et il Regno di Malaiur, dei quali non havendo sene contezza maggiore, oltre le relaioni del med°. l. 2. C. 8. e. 9. raccolte da Ramusio nel 2. Vol.”.)]

"Lochac" (or "Locach") was Marco Polo’s rendition of the Chinese (Cantonese) "Lo-huk", which was how they referred to the southern Thai kingdom of "Louvo" (from Sanskrit "Lavo", the present Lopburi “city of Lavo”, after Lavo, in Hindu mythology the son of Rama: Lavo in Thai is spelled Lab, pronounced Lop’h; hence the name Lop’haburī, or Lop’ha-purī (Lopburi)). Louvo was united with Siam in 1350. [ (G. E. Gerini, "Researches on Ptolemy's geography of Eastern Asia (further India and Indo-Malay archipelago)," London, Royal Asiatic Society, Asiatic Society Monographs vol.1, 1909, p.180.)]

"Beach", as a mistranscription of "Locach", originated with the 1532 editions of the Novus Orbis Regionum by Simon Grynaeus and Johann Huttich, in which Marco Polo’s "Locach" was changed to "Boëach", which was later shortened to "Beach". [ (Simon Grynaeus and Johann Huttich, "Novus Orbis Regionum," Basel and Paris, 1532, Marco Polo cap.xi, “De provincia Boëach”; cited in Thomas Suarez, "Early Mapping of Southeast Asia," Hong Kong, Periplus, 1999, p.160.)] "Pentan" is the island of Bintan, and Malaiur was the old Tamil name for the Sumatran city of Jambi (and is the origin of the national name Malay). [ (Sir Henry Yule (ed.), "The Book of Ser Marco Polo," London, Murray, 1921, Vol.II, pp.280-283.)]

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