Page:Legendaryislands00babcuoft.djvu/101

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MAYDA AND THE ISLE OF MAN 85 early maps, e. g. that of Juan da Napoli (fifteenth century), 8 the proper spelling "Man" is retained, just as it is retained and has been ever since early Celtic days, in the name of the home of "the little Manx nation" in the Irish Sea. That the same name should be carried farther afield and applied to a remote island of the Atlantic Ocean is quite in accordance with the natural course of things and the general experience of mankind. No doubt the name Man might be derived from other sources, but the chances are in this instance that the Irish people whose navigators found Brazil Island (or imagined it, if you please) did the same favor for the crescent-shaped "Man," quite over- riding for a hundred years any preceding or competing titles. Almost immediately there was some competition, for the Pinelli map of I384 9 calls it Jonzele (possibly to be read I Onzele, a word which has an Italian look but is of no certain derivation), reducing the delineation of the island to a mere shred, bringing Brazil close to it, and giving the pair a more northern and more inshore location. Another map of about the same period follows this lead, but there the divergence ended. Soleri of 1385 10 reverted to the former representation; and about the opening of the fifteenth century the regular showing of the pair was established Brazil and Man, circle and crescent, by those names and in approximately the locations and relative position first stated. It is true that the crescent island is sometimes represented without any name, as though it were well enough known to make a name unnecessary. But during the fifteenth century, when it is called anything, with a bare exception or two, it is called Man. Its shape and general location are substantially those of the Catalan map of 1375 on the maps of Juan da Napoli ; 8 Listed as No. 17 in Justin Winsor: The Kohl Collection (now in the Library of Congress) of Maps Relating to America, Library of Congress, Washington, D. C., 1004, p. 27. A. E. Nordenskiold, Periplus. PI. 15. 10 Ibid., PI. 18.