﻿NOTES. 



1 (p. 20) . Thus Peter Martyr believed — " the cosmographers well considered " 



that Columbus reached "The Islands of Antillia " (Peter Martyr 

 d' Anghiera: The Decades of the New World (1511) ; Eden's trans- 

 lation (1555), the First Decade, pp. 2, 3). Cf. A Portuguese anonymous 

 map of 1502 shows the " Antilie " applied to Cuba and neighboring 

 islands by explicit inscription. 



2 (p. 21). The peasantry and fisher folk of the Arran Islands still call it the 



Great Land (Westropp: Brazil and the Legendary Islands of the 

 North Atlantic, 1912, p. 257). 



3 (p. 22). Perhaps montonis originally was montanis (mountains, Italian); 



as we know that Pareto's Roillo had been Reylla — besides other like 

 instances of accidental change. I. de Montonis — the Isle of Sheep ; 

 which is conspicuous in the sea-tales of St. Brandan and the Magrurin 

 of Lisbon. 



4 (p. 24). Westropp, in his very recent work on Brasil and the Legendary 



Islands of the North Atlantic, published by the Royal Irish Academy, 

 1912, p. 255, mentions a mythical King Breas and a missionary Bresal 

 of about the year 480 and suggests that Brasil may have been named 

 after the latter; also Hardiman's The History of Galway, p. 2, quotes 

 from one of the 16th century Four Masters, who compiled much older 

 material, a mention of Breasail (apparently a pagan Gaelic hero or 

 deity), having a very ancient look, but there seems a lack of data to fill 

 the wide gap between the fifth and fourteenth centuries. The Italian 

 and Catalan maps of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries generally 

 present the name as I. de Brazil, sometimes Y de Brazil, with divers 

 variations in orthography, such as Berzil, Brazi, Bracir and Buxelle, 

 beside those given below. 



5 (p. 25). The word Bracile (obviously Brazil) occurs in a treaty or com- 



pact of peace and trade, dated 1193. between the " Bononienses and 

 Farrarienses," copied into volume 2 of Antiquitates Italicae Medii 

 Aevi by L. A. Muratori, beginning at page 891. In a list of specific 

 commodities embodied in this compact, and including indigo, incense, 

 wax, and certain hides or furs, we find also (p. 894) " drapis de 

 batilicio, de lume zucarina, de grana de Brasile." On page 898 Mur- 

 atori mentions that a deed of the year 1198 uses the same words "grana 

 de Brasile." The use of the word " grain " on two occasions in dif- 

 ferent kinds of documents at an interval of five years cannot be an 

 accidental error. There is nothing to hint at any confusion with woods 

 or dyes. The name suggests " ble Turquoise " for maize and other 

 like names of a later time. We must suppose that Brazil was believed to 

 be a country capable of supplying a distinctive grain and that the grain 

 in question had acquired a settled name of commerce at this early date. 

 The Memorias Historicas sobre la Marina Commercio y Artes de 

 la Antiqua Ciudad de Barcelona, by Antonio de Capmany y de Mont- 

 palu in Vol. 2, presents a series of copies of orders or regulations 



176 



