Message #160339

[Autolocus]

CHAPTER IV
THE ISLAND OF BRAZIL

So far as we know, the first appearance of the island of Brazil
in geography was on the map of Angellinus Dalorto, 1 of Genoa,
made in the year 1325. There it appears as a disc of land of
considerable area, set in the Atlantic Ocean in the latitude of
southern Ireland (Fig. 4). But the name itself is far older. In
seeking its derivation, one is free to choose either one of two
independent lines.

PROBABLE GAELIC ORIGIN OF THE WORD "BRAZIL"

The word takes many forms on maps and in manuscripts:
as Brasil, Bersil, Brazir, O'Brazil, O'Brassil, Breasail. As
a personal name it has been common in Ireland from ancient
days. The "Brazil fierce" of Campbell's "O'Connor's Child" may
be recalled by the few who have not wholly forgotten that
beautiful old-fashioned poem. Going farther back, we find
Breasail mentioned as a pagan demigod in Hardiman's "History
of Galway" 2 which quotes from one of the Four Masters, who
collated in the sixteenth century a mass of very ancient material
indeed. Also St. Brecan, who shared the Aran Islands with
St. Enda about A.D. 480 or 500, had Bresal for his original name
when he flourished as the son of the first Christian king of Thor-
mond. The name, however spelled, is said to have been built

1 Alberto Magnaghi: La carta nautica costruita nel 1325 da Angelino Dalorto,
with facsimile, Florence, 1898 (published on the occasion of the Third Italian Geo-
graphical Congress). Cf. also: idem: II mappamondo del genovese Angellinus de
Dalorto (1325): Contribute alia storia della cartografia mediovale, Atti del Terzo
Congr. Geogr. Italiano, tcnuto in Firenzi dal 12 al 17 Aprile, 1808, Florence, 1899,
Vol. 2, pp. 506-543; and idem: Angellinus de Dalorco (sic), cartografo italiano della
prima meta del secolo XIV, Riv. Geogr. Italiana, Vol. 4, 1897, PP- 282-294 and 361-
369-

J James Hardiman: The History of the Town and County of Galway from the
Earliest Period to the Present Time, Dublin, 1820, p. 2.



ORIGIN OF WORD "BRAZIL'