COMPASS-CHARTS 



On later compass-charts, several isles of Brazil came into existence. As 

 early as in the "Medici Atlas" (1351) an "Insula de brazi " appears farther 

 south in the ocean, to the west of Spain, and on the Pizigano map (1367) and 

 the Soleri map (1385) there is to the west of Brittany yet a third " brazir," af- 

 terwards commonly called " de manj," or " maidas," etc.i The name " Insula 

 de montonis " is difficult to understand. If we may believe it to be an error 

 for " moltonis " (or perhaps " moutonis," a latinization of the French " mou- 

 ton" (?)) it might mean the sheep-island of the " Navigatio Brandani," which 

 was originally Dicuil's Faroes (cf. Vol. I, p. 362). Thus, this name also carries 

 us to Ireland.2 



At the same time, another Irish mythical conception has found its way on 

 to the map of 1325, and faithfully attends the isle of Brazil on its progress 

 through all the compass-charts of later times; this is the "fortunate lake," 

 (" lacus f OTtunatus,") with its islands, " insuUe sci lacaris " (Lough Carra or 

 Lough Corrib?), which were so numerous that there was said, later, to be one 

 for every day of the year. On Perrinus Vesconte's map of 1327 the same lake 

 with its many islands is found, and as far as I can read the greatly reduced 



1 Kunstmann [1859, pp. 7 f.] thought that the names of the more southerly 

 islands might be derived from that of the red dye-wood " brasile," or " bresil," 

 which afterwards gave its name to Brazil. He [1859, pp. 35 f., 41], and after 

 him G. Storm (1887), was therefore misled into the belief that the island to the 

 west of Ireland had also got its name from the same dye-wood; neither of 

 them can have known of the Irish myth about this island. Both connect the 

 appearance of the island on the Pizigano map (1367) with the arrival of the 

 Greenland sailors from Markland in Norway, in 1348, not being aware that the 

 island is found on earlier maps. Storm went so far as to suppose that the 

 word " brazil " might have become a term for a wooded island in general, and 

 might thus be an echo of the Norse name Markland (woodland). J. Fischer 

 [1902, p. no] has again fallen into the same error, but has remarked that the 

 name was already found on Dalorto's map of 1339. Kretschmer [1892, pp. 214 

 f.] has devoted a chapter to the island of Brazil, but abandons the attempt to 

 find the origin of the name and of the island, regarding the derivation from the 

 name of the dye-wood as improbable. Hamy [1889, p. 361], however, noticed 

 the connection of the island with the Irish myth of " O'Brazil." 



2 Buache read the inscription on the northernmost isle of Brazil on the Pizi- 

 gano map as " ysola de Mayotas seu de Bracir," while Jomard makes it "n 

 cotus sur de Bracir." Kretschmer [1892, p. 219] has examined the map but 

 can read neither one nor the other, as the text is indistinct. On the other 

 hand, he points out that on Graciosus Benincasa's map of 1482 the same island 

 has a clearly legible " montorio " (on a map of 1574 " mons orius " is found), 

 which he is equally unable to explain. It may be added that on an anony- 

 mous compass-chart of 1384 [Nordenskiold, 1897, pi. xv.], a corresponding 

 island is marked " monte orius," on Benincasa's map of 1457 " montorius," 

 and on Calapoda's map of 1552 "montoriu" [Nordenskiold, 1897, pi. xxxiii., 

 XXVI ]. This is evidently our "montonis" on Dalorto's map of 1325, appear- 

 ing again. 



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