Posted on 04/17/2007 2:12:55 PM PDT by NYer
North America's oldest church may lie beneath a small town in Newfoundland, according to information cobbled together from the research of a historian who recently died before publishing her seminal work.
"To describe Alwyn Ruddock's claims as revolutionary would not be an exaggeration," Jones said. "If Ruddock is right, it means that the remains of the only medieval church in North America may still lie buried under the modern town of Carbonear."
Ruddock, a historian with the University of London, was one of the world's foremost experts on Cabot's voyages until her death in late 2005. In keeping with her will, all of her research was destroyed when she passed away, including 40 years' worth of work for a book about the many mysteries surrounding Cabot's maligned 1498 expedition.
However, a book proposal Ruddock gave to her publisher and some e-mail correspondences survived, allowing Jones to explore her theories in a recent article published in the journal Historical Research.
Ruddock's most exciting claims concern an Italian friar named Fra Giovanni Antonio Carbonaro, who sailed aboard one of the five vessels that left with Cabot from Bristol, England, in 1498 and landed in Newfoundland.
"While we have long known that Fra Giovanni accompanied the expedition, along with some other 'poor Italian friars', nothing has been known of what happened to their mission," Jones said.
Ruddock seemed to have found evidence that while Cabot sailed on down nearly the entire eastern shore of North America to the Caribbean—another new revelation—the friar and his brothers stayed on and established a religious colony in Newfoundland, at present-day Carbonear.
"It appears that Ruddock believed the Newfoundland church was named after San Giovanni a Carbonara," Jones writes, "the locative element 'a Carbonara' presumably being carried across because it was key to the congregation's identity."
The problem with Ruddock's notes is that they do not include actual documented evidence to substantiate her claims. "While her correspondence does not give all the answers, it does provide many clues that historians can use to investigate her claims," said Jones.
Neither Jones nor any other historians involved in the literary reconstruction efforts understand why Ruddock chose to have her valuable work destroyed.
"Even if all the documents she claimed to have found do come to light eventually, the mystery of why she sought to suppress her own basic research may never be resolved," Jones said.
*ping*
In keeping with her will, all of her research was destroyed when she passed away, including 40 years’ worth of work for a book about the many mysteries surrounding Cabot’s maligned 1498 expedition.
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What a stupid decision....
My only other copy is at work.
Please freepmail me your name to be re-added to a temporary list. Sincere apologies!
Why do people do that? I think Henry Adams did the same thing - all of his notes, diaries, etc - burned at his request.
Wish she had not had all her hard work destroyed, I just don’t understand that.
NYer! Glad you are feeling better!
What about the Vikings? Didn’t Bishop Erickson build any churches?
I read last year on this board that they found a private chapel (perhaps it was in Greenland) dating from the 1500s. The church was designed for a Viking lady and so small that it could hold only one person. Does anyone remember that article?
I can think of only 2 reasons she would dlestroy all of her research:
1. She didn’t want anyone else to profit by using it.
2. She was not confident in the accuracy and claims of her own research.
Either way, it is a great loss to history for her to have done that, unless her papers were bogus.
It is entirely possible, and it is entirely possible North America settlements from even earlier dates will be found. The tower in Rhode Island is of unknown date and origin, but it was already old when settlers arrived. Vikings nearly certainly reached North America long before 1492. England had fish, turkeys, and corn imported from America long before 1492. And, there is that notorious Irish monk Brendan who had a magnificent mysterious journey to Louisiana. Don’t forget North Salem.
****In keeping with her will, all of her research was destroyed when she passed away, including 40 years’ worth of work for a book about the many mysteries surrounding Cabot’s maligned 1498 expedition.
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What a stupid decision....****
Such promises should be kept just as Augustus Caesar kept his promise to the poet Virgil.
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3) She did not want her work to be used to publish a book and wind up as a ‘footnote’ with someone else taking credit for her hard work — which happens far too often to live authors, let alone dead ones.
That's arguably evil.
Glad to see you back! Hope you’re back to 100%.
Oh, yeah, add me.
Such promises should be kept just as Augustus Caesar kept his promise to the poet Virgil.
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Oh, I agree. I meant that it was a stupid decision on the part of the deceased.
http://members.aol.com/bakken1/viking/vikgrn.htm
Hvalsey Church Close to the town of Qaqortoq in South Greenland lie the ruins of Hvalsey Church, which are Greenland’s biggest and best-preserved ruins from the Viking period. The church was built of stone in the 14th century and measures 16 x 7 metres (52.5 x 22.75 feet). It is situated next to the ruins of a farm complex which is also from the Viking period, and thus provides a good insight into how the Norse settlers lived.
In the Vatican’s annals in Rome there is a historically significant account of a wedding between Thorstein Olafsson and Sigrid Bjørnsdatter in Hvalsey Church in 1408. The records also show that the last wedding guests traveled back to Iceland in 1410. This wedding is the last written evidence of the Viking settlers in Greenland.
http://www.greenland.com/content/english/tourist/culture/the_history_of_greenland/the_viking_period/viking_period_church_ruins
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