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'''Zichmni''' is the name of an explorer-prince who  appears in a 1558 book by [[Caterino Zeno]] of [[Venice]], allegedly based on letters and a map (called the [[Zeno map]]) dating to the year 1400 by the author's ancestors, brothers [[Nicolo Zeno|Nicolò]] and [[Zeno brothers|Antonio Zeno]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Cooper, Robert L. D. (Ed.) |title=The Voyages of the Venetian Brothers Nicolo & Antonion Zeno to the Northern Seas in the XIVth Century |year=2004 |publisher=Masonic Publishing Co. |isbn=0-9544268-2-7}}</ref>  Zichmni is described as a great lord of some islands off the southern coast of [[Frisland]]a, a possibly fictitious island claimed to be larger than Ireland and located south of Iceland.

According to the book, the letters provided a first-hand account of a voyage of exploration undertaken in 1398 by Prince Zichmni, accompanied by the Zeno brothers. The book claims that the voyagers crossed the [[North Atlantic]] to [[Greenland]].  A few recent authors speculate that they may have reached the coast of [[North America]]. There is disagreement among historians as to whether to accept the Zeno letters as valid.

Some proponents of the authenticity of the tale maintain that Zichmni was a [[Scotland|Scottish]] nobleman named [[Henry I Sinclair, Earl of Orkney|Henry Sinclair]]. However, other scholars have pointed to flaws in this identification and consider it extremely unlikely.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.alastairhamilton.com/sinclair.htm |title="Earl Henry Sinclair's fictitious trip to America", by Brian Smith, originally published in ''New Orkney Antiquarian Journal'', vol. 2, 2002 |access-date=2013-05-18 |archive-date=2022-01-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220103164651/http://www.alastairhamilton.com/sinclair.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The first person to identify Zichmni with Henry Sinclair was [[Johann Reinhold Forster]] in 1784. <ref>Johann Reinhold Forster, ''Geschichte der Entdeckungen und Schiffahrten im Norden'', Frankfurt an der Oder, C.G. Strauss, 1784.</ref>

The account of the voyages given by the younger Nicolò continues to attract debate. Some of the islands the Zeno brothers allegedly visited either conflate existing locations or do not exist at all.<ref>{{cite book|last=Lainema|first=Matti|title=A History of Arctic Exploration: Discovery, Adventure and Endurance at the Top of the World|year=2009|publisher=Conway|isbn=978-1-84486-069-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IkvmKuIKJeMC&dq=Zeno+non-existent++islands&pg=PA101|author2=Juha Nurminen |page=101}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Mills|first=William James|title=Exploring Polar Frontiers: A Historical Encyclopedia|year=2003|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9781576074220|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PYdBH4dOOM4C&dq=Zeno+non-existent++islands&pg=PA247|page=247}}</ref> Research has shown that the Zeno brothers were occupied elsewhere when they were supposedly doing their exploring.<ref name="biographi">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=592 |title=Zeno, Nicolo and Antonio |encyclopedia=Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online|first=T. J. |last=Oleson}}</ref> Contemporary Venetian court documents place Nicolò as undergoing trial for embezzlement in 1394 for his actions as military governor of [[Modone]] and [[Koroni|Corone]] in Greece from 1390&ndash;1392.  He wrote his last will and testament in Venice in 1400, many years after his alleged death in Frislanda around 1394. There is disagreement about the brothers' whereabouts at the time of the supposed voyages, with some readings of archival records placing the brothers in Venice at that time.

According to ''The Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online'', "the Zeno affair remains one of the most preposterous and at the same time one of the most successful fabrications in the history of exploration."<ref name="biographi" /> [[Herbert Wrigley Wilson]] described and analysed the story at length in ''The Royal Navy, a History from the Earliest Times to the Present'', and was sceptical about its veracity, noting "At the date when the work was published Venice was extremely eager to claim for herself some share in the credit of Columbus's discoveries as against her old rival Genoa, from whom Columbus had sprung."<ref>{{cite book |contributor-first=Herbert Wrigley |contributor-last=Wilson |contributor-link=Herbert Wrigley Wilson |contribution=Voyages and Discoveries 1154–1399 |title=The Royal Navy, a History from the Earliest Times to the Present |first=William Laird |last=Clowes |author-link=William Laird Clowes |publisher=Sampson Low, Marston and Company |location=London |date=1897 |pages=324–337|contribution-url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Royal_Navy,_a_History_from_the_Earliest_Times_to_the_Present/Volume_1/Chapter_9#324 }}</ref>

== Modern views ==
Most historians regard the map and accompanying narrative as a [[hoax]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=592 |title=ZENO, NICOLÒ and ANTONIO |publisher=University of Toronto |access-date=23 March 2013}}</ref> perpetrated by the younger Zeno to make a retroactive claim for Venice as having discovered the New World before [[Christopher Columbus]].

The evidence against the authenticity of the map is based largely on the appearance of many [[phantom island]]s in the North Atlantic and off the coast of [[Iceland]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Lainema |first=Matti |title=A History of Arctic Exploration: Discovery, Adventure and Endurance at the Top of the World |year=2009 |publisher=Conway|isbn=978-1-84486-069-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IkvmKuIKJeMC |author2=Juha Nurminen  |page=101}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Mills |first=William James |title=Exploring Polar Frontiers: A Historical Encyclopedia |year=2003 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=9781576074220 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PYdBH4dOOM4C |page=247}}</ref> One of these non-existent islands was [[Frisland]], where the Zeno brothers allegedly spent some time.
==See also==
*[[Henry I Sinclair, Earl of Orkney|Henry Sinclair]]

== References ==
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[[Category:Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact]]
[[Category:14th-century explorers]]