of the Atlante Mediceo and various later maps, and of the "Lecname" of the unnamed Spanish friar who tells us he was born in 1305. It is sufficiently explained by the former condition of the island, the northern part of which is said to preserve still its abundant woodland. Perhaps the modern name of Madeira (or Madera) first appears on the map of Giraldi of 1426,[1] not very long after the rediscovery. But, with some cartographers, the Italian form of the name lingered on much later.
The Beccario Map of 1426
The alternative names, which had been given the Madeira group by Dulcert and the Pizigani, commemorating both the general fact of repose or blessedness and the delighted visit of St. Brendan, were closely blended (in what became the accepted formula) by the 1426 map of Battista Beccario, which unluckily had never been published in reproduction. Before the war, however, the writer obtained a good photograph of a part of it from Munich and herewith presents a section recording the words "Insulle fortunate santi brandany" (Fig. 3).[2] The first "a" of the final name may possibly be an "e," having been obscured by one of the compass lines; but I think not. Beccario repeats the same inscription in his very important and now well-known map[3] of 1435, substituting "sancti" for "santi" by way of correction.
With no serious variations, this name, "The Fortunate Islands of St. Brandan" (or Brendan), is applied to Madeira and her consorts by Pareto (1455;[4] Fig. 21), Benincasa (1482;[5] Fig. 22), the anonymous Weimar map formerly attributed to 1424 but
- ↑ Theobald Fischer, Portfolio 8 (Facsimile del Portolano di Giacomo Giraldi di Venezia dell'anno 1426), Pl. 4.
- ↑ First published by the author in the Geogr. Rev., Vol. 8, 1919, Pl. 1, facing p. 40.
- ↑ Gustavo Uzielli: Mappamondi, carte nautiche e portolani del medioevo e del secoli delle grandi scoperte marittime construiti da italiani o trovati nelle biblioteche d'Italia, Part II (pp. 280-390) of "Studi Bibliografici e Biografici sulla Storia della Geografia in Italia," published on the occasion of the Second International Geographical Congress, Paris, 1875, by the Società Geografica Italiana, Rome, 1875; reference on Pl. 8 (the second edition, Rome, 1882, does not contain the plates).
- ↑ Konrad Kretschmer: Die Entdeckung Amerika's in ihrer Bedeutung für die Geschichte des Weltbildes. 2 vols. (text and atlas), Berlin, 1892; reference in atlas, Pl. 5.
- ↑ Ibid., atlas, Pl. 4.
