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.
