We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 2020
Recently I found myself again singing Weelkes' “Thule, the period of cosmography” from the Madrigals of Six Parts published in 1600 and, not for the first time, wondered where Fogo is:-
“The Andalusian merchant, that returns
Laden with cochineal and China dishes,
Reports in Spain how strangely Fogo burns
Amidst an ocean full of flying fishes.”
The first part of the madrigal refers to Hekla and Etna, both well-known volcanoes of the present day, but the location of Fogo is much less certain. E.H. Fellowes stated that it was a volcano in Tierra del Fuego but gave no evidence to support such an identification. It seems that everyone nowadays merely repeats Fellowes’ opinion, and it is quoted unchanged in the latest edition of English Madrigal Verse.
1 The English Madrigal School, ed. E.H. Fellowes, Vol. XII, London 1916, p. xii; id, English Madrigal Composers, 2nd edn., London 1948, p. 203.Google Scholar
2 Fellowes, E.H., English Madrigal Verse, 3rd edn. by F.W. Sternfeld and D. Greer, London 1967, p. 719.Google Scholar
3 Catalogue of Active Volcanoes of the World, ed. Kennedy and Richey, International Association of Volcanology, Rome 1963-.Google Scholar
4 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edn., p. 965.Google Scholar
5 The Times Atlas of the World, mid-century edn., London 1955–59.Google Scholar
6 ibid., Vol.4, Map 89 (insert), and Vol. 1, Map 1 (World Volcanology).Google Scholar
7 The Catalogue of Active Volcanoes, Vol. 18 (1967), section 4, contains a full page map of Fogo Island.Google Scholar
8 Portugaliae Monumenta Cartographica, Lisbon 1960, Vol.1, plate 2.Google Scholar
9 'Insulae Promontorii Viridis, Hispanis Islas de Cabo Verde’ in Joan Blaeu, Le grand Atlas, Amsterdam 1663, Vol.10, p.245.Google Scholar
