LE CANARIEN

Le Canarien is the chronicle of the conquest of the Canary Islands by Jean de Béthencourt and Gadifer de La Salle, two versions of which, preserved in two different manuscripts, have reached our days. The older one seems to be the Egerton 2,709 codex in the British Museum, began by two priests taking part in the expedition and continued by Gadifer de La Salle himself approximately between 1410 and 1420. The second version, preserved in the Montruffet codex, in Rouen's Municipal Library, seems to be based on the first one and would have been written by Jean de Béthencourt's nephew around 1490.

In the Egerton 2,709 codex a full-page illustration shows the expedition sailing to the Islands on a ship. The ship waves two pennants charged with the roundels of Gadifer de La Salle's coat-of arms, since he was the ship's owner. Likewise, three banners stand conventionally rigid astern, one of them showing Gadifer's full arms, while the other two have not been identified. Since the original plate has been preserved in a bad condition, when the manuscript was published in 1896 the editor ordered an engraved copy, which is the one shown here, together with a colour reconstruction of the three banners.

    Banner with Gadifer de La Salle's coat-of arms

    Banner with unidentified arms

    Unidentified banner

The Montruffet codex has many more illustrations, but they are of lower quality than the plate in Egerton 2,709. In these illustrations it can be seen several times the heraldic banner of Jean de Béthencourt, as well as another banner with a cross whose colours are unknown, since the illustrations are black and white.

    Jean de Béthencourt's banner