Grongnet de Vasse
Fortia d’Urban
Marquis Agricol Joseph François de Fortia d’Urban (1756-1843) was a wealthy French mathematician and archaeologist. He was a member of several academies in western Europe. He wrote a paper identifying Gozo, in the Maltese archipelago, as Ogygia, the abode of Homer’s Calypso. In a massive 10 volume work, Histoire ancienne du globe terrestre[1314], volume 9 has an essay that links the floods of Noah* and Ogyges with the sinking of Atlantis.
Fortia d’Urban was a contemporary of Grongnet de Vasse, another early champion of a Maltese Atlantis. They met in Rome and later corresponded on the subject.
Recently, a controversy has arisen regarding Eumelos of Cyrene, which Fortia d’Urban was implicated in. A claim of hoax was made by Thorwald C. Franke in a paper on his website(a). Anton Mifsud wrote a rebuttal (Archive 5145) in which he pointed out errors of fact in Franke’s original article, which has not been responded to. Instead, Franke has, unsatisfactorily, just left it to readers to decide on the truth!