Pizzigano map

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The Pizzigano map is an Italian portulan chart. It was supposedly drafted in 1424 and contains islands in the North Atlantic Ocean in the west of Spain and Portugal.

At least some of these islands have been known to European mapmakers since the 14th c. as can be seen in the Atlas Catalan. Therefore the cartographers standard opinion is that these islands are part of the Azores.^{[citation needed]}

Gavin Menzies claims these islands as proof that China discovered the Americas before Columbus in the book 1421: The Year China Discovered the World as representations of the Caribbean islands of Puerto Rico and Guadeloupe, the former being called on the map as Antilia, and the latter as Satanazes, or "Satan's Island," by the mapmaker.

Critics of Menzies argue that the islands are according to his identification in the wrong latitude, the wrong longitude, are oriented incorrectly and do not explain where the Azores are situated or why the Azores according to Menzies are not shown on the map although at least some were known to European portulan makers (method of Occam's razor). Nevertheless, Menzies insists that the map is evidence, as it dates from 1424, that someone reached the New World before Christopher Columbus.