The green sea of melancholy. The Canary Islands in medieval sources (4th to 9th century)

Abstract

As a result of the development of Canarian historiography that spans six centuries, several authors have encouraged the idea that the archipelago was not known before the end of the 14th century. The alleged shortage of references to the Canary Islands in the western Middle Ages has contributed to a cliché that comes near to stating that these islands were unknown until the beginning of the Early Modern Period . The objective of this work is to set up a journey through the most important texts that refer to the Canary Islands in the early medieval period, analyzing the historical reliability of these documents, while sharing, on the other hand, different theories that several authors have developed on the subject.