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MAYDA
Fig. ii—Section of the map of the New World in the 1513 edition of Ptolemy showing the islands of Mayda (asmaidas) and Brazil (obrassil). (After Kretschmer's hand-copied reproduction.)

not adhere unless in free translation. The name Mayda was not one of those that have come down to us in their writings or on their maps, and its origin remains unexplained. It is unlike all the other names in the sea. Perhaps the Arabic impression is strengthened by the form Asmaidas, under which it appears (this is nearly or quite its first appearance) on the map of the New World in the 1513 edition of Ptolemy (Fig. ii).[1] But any possible significance vanishes from the prefixed syllable when we find the same map turning Gomera into Agomera,

  1. ↑ Konrad Kretschmer: Die Entdeckung Amerika's in ihrer Bedeutung für die Geschichte des Weltbildes, a vols (text and atlas), Berlin, 1892; reference in atlas, Pl. 12, map i.
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