372 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



(S)ordes, (T)ussalt (ch)anifro, &c. Common errors iu modern proofs (such as 

 h for I, d for t, m for ni, r for n, or i for r, and e for c) frequently occur. A 

 curious c with a long up-curl gets mistaken for d, or the reverse, in later 

 maps (Ardill, Archill, i.e. Achill, Dondiab, and Condiab, Donborg and 

 Corborg). The changes or mistakes of c and t, or r and I, are common in the 

 maps, as iu the State Eecords of the same period ; x,f, and s are confused in 

 the names of Bofin, d and 7- in "disalt"and " rasalt." The frequency of 

 the various errors depends largely on the type of writing in the exemplar, as 

 the short " t " in one yields c, the long crossed " t " in another I in the copies. 



4. Foreigners in Ireland and the Wine Trade before 1170. 



It becomes necessary to show the possible communication between Ireland 

 and Italy, whether direct or indirect, which explains the detailed knowledge 

 of its coasts shown by the portolau maps. Of course, one might naturally 

 look for this in the clergy; but (as I endeavoui-ed to show) the clerical 

 maps differ unmistakably from the others, which are clearly derived from 

 business men. Indirect lines, such as the wine trade and the trade in wool 

 and hides, might be pressed to explain this, while pilgrims and foreigners in 

 the Church (especially under the Angevin Kings) might have taken their 

 share, but we have evidence of direct business relations between Florentines 

 and the Irish, and of the former with Yenice, the centre of early cartography 

 which best explains the fact. It may be well to go at some length into the 

 evidence for widespread trade in Ireland in the period preceding the making 

 of the first portolan map. This again necessitates a preface as to commerce 

 before the Norman invasion ; but, this being only remotely connected with 

 our subject-matter, I shall condense greatly. 



The Eomans of the first century before Christ' seem to have known little 

 more than the name of Ireland ; it was a place inconceivably remote from 

 the great western nursery of civilization round the eastern end of the 

 Mediterranean, like Britain, " cut off from the whole world " as they knew it. 

 Even the Spaniards knew little about Britain, and Strabo, noticing this, 

 about A.D. 25, adds that Ireland is at the very skirt of the habitable world, 

 was scarcely smtable for himian settlement, and added strange tales of its 



' I need not collect the few earUer notices of " leine " or "Albion," in Himilco (b.o. 500) ; "the 

 Holy Island (Hieroii), it is inhabited by the people of Hierne" (if Avienus in a fourth-century 

 poem quotes him aright) ; in Aristotle, a century later, or Pytheas, about B.C. 330, quoted by Strabo, 

 1 Uny, and other writers, or the still more doubtful Argonautic poem where the Argo approaches the 

 dangerous "leniiau Islands." 



