Page:Legendaryislands00babcuoft.djvu/70

56 ISLAND OF BRAZIL settled item. This carries us well back toward the first settled date for the Irish Brazil in cartography. Further, the name still adheres to Terceira, though long restricted to a single mountain- ous headland. The explanation remains a matter of conjecture. Perhaps the Azores islands that bore it borrowed from the older Brazil west of Ireland. Perhaps also the word had gone about that islands were notable for dyes archil, for example and the special dye name brazil has been loosely affixed in consequence. On some of the maps certain alternative names are given, which do not greatly further our investigation. Thus the very first one which shows Brazil Dalorto, 1325 adds Montonis as a second choice (Fig. 4). This has been understood to mean the Isle of Rams, linking it with Edrisi's Isle of Sheep, a quite ancient fancy, sometimes referred to the Faroes, but of very uncertain identification. But Freducci, 13 1497, makes it Montanis; Cala- poda, 14 1552, Montorius; and an anonymous compass chart of I384, 15 Monte Orius. In all these the idea of mountains, not sheep, is dominant. The change from "a" to "o" is easy with a not very vigilant transcriber, and it is most likely that Freducci preserves the original form and meaning. The Pizigani map of 1367 is confused and enigmatic on this point, as in all its inscriptions. It seems to read (Fig. 2) "Ysola de nocorus sur de brazar," but it may best be set aside as too uncer- tain. Equally unenlightening is the "de Brazil de Binar" of Bianco's 1448 map. 16 If the V be read "m," the inscription may mean "Brazil of the two seas;" but the allusion is mystifying. Fra Mauro's inscription before quoted merely bears testimony to Brazil's benign and almost Elysian repute and its connection with the Green Isle in fancy. "A. E. Nordenskiold: Periplus: An Essay on the Early History of Charts and Sailing-Directions, transl. by F. A. Bather, Stockholm, 1897, PI. 22. " Ibid., PL 26. Ibid., PI. 15. 18 Theobald Fischer: Sammlung mittelalterlicher Welt- und Seekarten italieni- schen Ursprungs, i vol. of text and 17 portfolios containing photographs of maps, Venice, 1877-86; reference in Portfolio n (Facsimile della Carta nautica de Andrea Bianco dell' anno 1448;, PI. 3.