ZENO, NICCOLO and ANTONIO. Two Venetian navigators and adventurers of the fourteenth century. They came of a rich patrician family and late in the fourteenth century ( probably be tween 1375 and 1380) went on a voyage into the North Atlantic. where they were wrecked, and remained for some time on the island of 'Eris landa.' probably one of the Faroe group, al though believed by some to be Iceland. They are said also to have visited Illngroneland (Green land). While in the north they met a sailor, who told them a story of having been driven far to the westward to an island where dwelt a civilized people who possessed Latin books and could not speak the Norse tongue. Their coun try he called Estotiland, variously claimed to be Labrador. Newfoundland, and New England. Farther to the south,' he said, lived tribes of cannibals, and still farther people who had great towns and splendid temples. Niccol6 died in the north about 1391, and Antonio returned to Venice carrying with him an account of their own voy ages and the story limy had been told by the sailor, together with a map which they had con structed of the regions mentioned. The manu
script and the map lay unnoticed in the family palace in Venice until 1558, when a descendant collected them and published them under the title, Dei Comm catarii (IN I iaygio. The whole question of (lie Zeno brothers' voyages, the loca tion of Frislanda, the truth of their stories, and the authenticity of their map, has been the sub ject of much discussion. Consult: Forster, Ue der Entilci-kunyen ian Nordi.n, ( 1794, Eng. trans.) ; 'Zola. Disscriazioar intoriro ai riagyi scoperte settentrionali di. .\Icelei e Antonio Zeni (1808); The Voyuges of the Few Han Brothers, Niceola and Antonio Zeno (1873), edi ted by Alajor, for the I lakluyt Society; and Win son, Narrative and Critical History of America, vol. i. (Boston, 1889).