The First

Editor’s Note: The Venetian Atlas is a recently rediscovered work of the 14th-century Genoese cartographer Petrus Vesconte, thought to have been completed towards the end of his Venetian period (c. 1330). Though the geographer has long been renowned for the accuracy of his nautical maps of the Mediterranean and Black seas, this long-lost portolan chart is particularly notable for its extensive marginalia. Vesconte’s notes, written in Latin, describe in fascinating detail the lands and seas which his map depicts, but, tantalisingly, not all of his locations have yet been accounted for. While we await the results of the ongoing forensic inspections – including pigment and fibre sampling and analysis – Apocrypha, in an exclusive collaboration with the Università di Padova, is very excited to announce the publication of, for the first time ever, a translation of Vesconte’s marginalia.

Among the barbarian tribes of the savage north, there is a cult with a peculiar doctrine. They preach that the Divine Creator is not so different from Man in his existential angst, wondering Himself why He is, and for what purpose.

They say He simply awoke at the beginning, alone in the void, unsure of whence He’d come. Seeking answers, the Father created the cosmos, divided night from day, and set the spheres spinning. He created all the beasts and plants of the Earth, and Man, in his own image, to rule them, all so as to have help and company in His lonely search for purpose. Unfortunately, we all do Him wrong, the barbarians say, by bending the knee in fawning supplication; He wants assistance, not worship. Why does He exist? Who made Him? For what purpose is all this?

The barbarians maintain this tale of woe hath no end, for Man can know nothing the Lord Himself does not know. And so it shall be, they say, that even at the End of Days, when the forces of Good and Evil meet on the plains of Megiddo, the Almighty shall be asking Himself: what is all of this for? Why am I here? Why? Why?

WHY?