Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Origin and the Meaning of the Name California: Calafia the Queen of the Island of California, Title Page of Las Sergas

The Origin and the Meaning of the Name California: Calafia the Queen of the Island of California, Title Page of Las Sergas

George Davidson

Paperback

LinguisticsGeneral World HistoryRegional: West

ISBN10: 9353604370
ISBN13: 9789353604370
Publisher: Alpha Edition
Published: Feb 25 2019
Pages: 58
Weight: 0.22
Height: 0.14 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Before there was a state called California, there was a legend of a warrior queen ruling an island at the edge of the known world. In this classic California history monograph, distinguished geographer George Davidson unravels how that legend gave a name to the Pacific coast and reshaped California place name history. Every place name holds secrets. Tracing the origin of California name to Garci Rodriguez de Montalvo's sixteenth century Spanish literature, especially Las Sergas de Espladian, Davidson follows the trail from printed romance to maps, voyages, and testimony from the Spanish colonial era California frontier. The result is a lucid queen Calafia legend study and place name etymology book that illuminates how imagination, language, and imperial ambition shaped one of the most famous geographical names on earth. Both an accessible narrative and a rigorous California history reference book, Davidson's study speaks to general readers, collectors of Western Americana, and for historical linguistics students exploring how stories migrate across languages and centuries. His close reading of Spanish chivalric romance sources opens a window onto the mental world of early explorers and chroniclers who first applied the name to real coasts and islands. Out of print for decades and now republished by Alpha Editions. Restored for today's and future generations. More than a reprint - a collector's item and a cultural treasure.

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