The Dark Backward by D. W. Buffa

Author:D. W. Buffa [Buffa, D. W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: Polis Books
Published: 2016-01-15T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

“Two thousand years after Plato wrote those astonishing dialogues of his, there were reports that seemed to confirm what I now suspected. There was an island, Antillia, called by the Portugese the Island of the Seven Cities. The earliest etymology connected the name with Atlantis, and the island itself is marked on an anonymous map of 1424. You can imagine the excitement I felt the first time I examined it in the ducal library at Weimar. Whoever drew that map had done so with all the exactness the knowledge of the age permitted, which, while it may not have been the same as the precision cartographers can now employ, was certainly sufficient to give a likeness of the shape, proportion and relative distance among the things known to those who had seen them with their own eyes or listened to the trusted reports of others. What reason would anyone have to distort the truth, pretend that something was there that was not? What reason would anyone have had to invent such things, to tell such lies? It was the Middle Ages, how could the existence of an island make any difference to the Church?”

Darnell could think of no reply, but it did not matter. The question was not one that had, or even needed, an answer; it was a question, one of the questions, that had driven Holderlin on what the world would have thought a mad pursuit, a search for a legend, a legend that he alone believed was true.

The afternoon had turned to evening and evening was on its way to night. The lamp on Darnell’s desk cast an eerie, yellow glow, and, with each movement of Holderlin’s delicate, expressive hands, shadows pale and insignificant danced against the wall. Darnell watched in quite wonder as Holderlin became more animated, more excited, the more he told about the way that something he had learned from an ancient writing had led to what, if he were telling the truth, was one of the great adventures of modern times.

“That map was dated, as I say, in 1424, but that was not the only time Antillia was located in the middle of the Atlantic. Beccaria the Genoese put it on a map in 1435, and the Venetian, Andrea Bianco, did so a year later in 1436. There were other maps, in 1455 and again in 1476, that did the same thing. On most of them Antillia is accompanied by three smaller islands: Royllo, St. Atanagio, and Tammar. What is most interesting is the way they are classified. They aren’t called legendary or mythical; there is not the slightest suggestion of any doubt about their authenticity.” Holderlin’s whole body seemed to tense; his head became so rigid it shuddered. There was a brilliant intensity to his eyes, as if his mind was filled with fire. “They are classified, these islands that are supposedly only the stuff of legend, as ‘insulae de novo repertai,’ newly discovered islands. Newly discovered islands, Mr. Darnell, newly

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