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Summary

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In classical times, several Greek and Roman Geographers used derivatives of the Celtic Languages term "Pretani" to describe the islands to the north west of the European mainland, although several included islands not currently viewed as part of the "British Isles", e.g. Thule. With the incorporation of most of Britain into the Empire, the term "Britannia" came to mean more specifically the Roman province of Britain.

Other early classical geographers, native writers in the post-Roman period and late Roman geographers used the general term "oceani insulae", simply meaning "islands of the ocean". Great Britain and Ireland were separately "Britannia" and "Hibernia". (Between about the fifth and eleventh centuries, Ireland was also called "Scotia".) During the period between the fall of Rome and the rediscovery and publication of Ptolemy's Geography during the Renaissance, the term "Oceani Insulae" was the term used in the most common reference book of the age, i.e. Isidore's Etymology.

The term "British Isles" entered the English language in late 16th or early seventeenth century as the description of Great Britain, Ireland and the surrounding islands, but was not in common use until at least the second half of the seventeenth century [1] and, in general, the modern notion of "Britishness" only started to become common after the 1707 Act of Union.[2] While it is probably the most common term used to describe the islands, use of this term is not universally accepted and is rejected by many people[3] in Ireland.

Nowadays, in addition to "British Isles", other terms are also commonly used, including "Great Britain and Ireland", "The British Isles and Ireland", "Britain and Ireland", and the deliberately vague "these islands". There are several other less common designations like "IONA" (Islands of the North Atlantic), "The Anglo-Celtic Isles", etc.

Pretanic Islands and Britanniae (320 BC - ~400 AD)

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The earliest known names come from ancient Greek texts like the Massaliote Periplus [4][5] and Pytheas from around 320 BC. The main islands were called Ierne, for Ireland,[6] and Albion for Great Britain. One of the terms used to describe the inhabitants was the Ρρεττανοι, Priteni or Pretani, probably from a Celtic languages term.[7]. It is not known if these terms were used by the inhabitants to describe themselves.[8] The Greek writers also used a collective term for the islands, appearing as αι Πρετανικαι νησοι (Pretanic Islands)[9] and αι Βρεττανιαι (Brittanic Isles).[10] Later, in Roman geography, Pretannia was Diodorus' version of this description.

Then, in 55 and 54 BC Caesar invaded Britain and introduced the term Britannia.[11] Later, around AD 70 Pliny the Elder in Book 4 of his Naturalis Historia listed the islands he considered to be Britanniae as Great Britain, Ireland, The Orkneys, the Hebrides, Isle of Man, Anglesey, possibly one of the Friesan Islands, and islands that have been identified as Ushant and Sian. The list also includes Thule, most often identified as Iceland.[12] He refers to Great Britain as the island called Britannia, while noting that its former name was Albion. Around AD 150 Ptolemy included essentially the same main islands in the Britannias. Ireland is called Hibernia. and Great Britain, Albion. [13] Ptolemy also included Thule in the chapter on Albion, although the coordinates he gives have been mapped to the area around modern Kristiansund in western Norway.[14]

The Roman province of Britannia was subsequently established,[15] and Roman Britain stabilised to cover the island of Great Britain south of Hadrian's Wall. Inhabitants of the province called themselves Brittannus or Britto, and gave their patria (homeland) as Britannia or as their tribe.[16] The term Priteni came to be used for the barbarians north of the Antonine Wall who, after AD 300, were called Picts.[17].

Oceani insulae (43 AD - 17th Century)

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A 1490 Italian copy of Ptolemy's Geography showing Ibernia Britannica Insula ("Hibernia, Island of Britannia", Ireland), Albion Insula Britannica ("Albion, Island of Britannia", Great Britain) and Mona Insula (Isle of Man) separated from the European mainland by Oceanus Germanicus ("Germanic Ocean", North Sea) to the east and Oceanus Britannicus ("Britannic Ocean", English Channel) to the south.

In AD 43 Pomponius Mela, one of the earliest Roman geographers[18] described various islands, including Britain, Ireland and Thule, as "Septemtrionalis Oceani Insulae", meaning Islands of the Northern Ocean.

This term was also used by native writers of the post-Roman period. The Life of Saint Columba, a book about the sixth century Irish monk Saint Columba[19] and the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum of Bede from the early eighth century both use the term. Bede's work refers to Brittania solely as the island "formerly called Albion" and treats Ireland separately. Again, he refers to Britain as being Oceani insula or an "island of the ocean".[20].

Similarly, writers on mainland Europe used the term to describe the islands. The Goth Jordanes writing in the Getica, a history of the Goths, in (AD 551) described the various islands in the western Ocean as "islands of the ocean", naming various islands in the North Atlantic, and believing Scandinavia to be one of them.[21] More significantly, Isidore of Seville's Etymology, written in the early seventh century and one of the most used textbooks in Europe up to the Renaissance, [22] similarly lists Britain (Britannia), Ireland (called Scotia or Hibernia), Thule, and many other islands simply as "islands" or "islands of the Ocean" and uses no other collective term. No Priteni-derived collective reference was used.

Even into the 17th century, in parallel with the first uses of the term "British Isles", Peter Heylyn in Microcosmus described the Iles of the Ocean consisting of all the classically known offshore islands, i.e. Zeeland, Denmark, the British Isles, and those in the Northerne Sea.[23]

Britannica/Britanniae (1409 - 1560's) and British Isles (1577-date)

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The term British Isles came into use in English at the same time as the term British Empire. This map shows the British Isles (red) at the centre of the empire (pink) at its height in 1897 where England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales are referred to as the Home Nations.

The terms Britain and British, although occasionally used in Great Britain through the dark and early middle ages began to appear with more frequency and more contemporary political significance from the 12th century onwards.

In parallel, the rediscovery of Ptolemy's Geographia in 1300 and its translation back into Latin in 1409 [24][25] revolutionised map-making in Europe. One impact was the introduction of Ptolemy's terminology naming Hibernia and Albion as Island[s] of Britannia (or "Britannica") into the Renaissance world, [26] with this terminology used from the mid sixteenth century onwards by mapmakers like Sebastian Munster, Gerardus Mercator[27][28] and Ortelius who - in his atlas of 1570 based on Mercator - uses the title "Angliae, Scotiae et Hiberniae, sive Britannicar. insularum descriptio", which translates roughly as "A Representation of England, Scotland and Ireland, or Britannica's islands".[29]

The term "Brytish Iles" appeared in English with John Dee, the Welsh geographer, occultist [30] and sometime adviser to Queen Elizabeth I of England. Dee also coined the term British Empire, along with a claim of a British Ocean including Britain and Ireland as well as Iceland, Greenland and possibly extending to North America.[31] Current scholarly opinion is generally that "his imperial vision was simply propaganda and antiquarianism".[31] During the late Tudor era, Tudor diplomatic efforts interspersed with warfare aimed to bring Scotland under the English monarch and to consolidate rule in Ireland. Dee used the term Brytish Iles in 1577 in arguments claiming extensive North Atlantic territories for Elizabeth and for England.[32]

The Tudor era ended when Elizabeth was succeeded by her Stuart cousin king James VI of Scotland, who brought the English, Scottish and Irish thrones under his personal rule as King James I of England, proclaiming himself 'King of Great Brittaine, France and Ireland' [33]. James aimed to consolidate England and Scotland under the title "Great Britain", although without real success. The first published use in English of "British Isles" was in 1621 by Peter Heylin in his Microcosmus[34]. Heylin grouped Ireland with Great Britain and the minor islands in this new term.[35] In explaining this unfamiliar[36] terminology to his readers, Heylin commented;

  • that he inhabitants of Ireland must have come from Britain as it was the nearest land.
  • that ancient writers, such as Ptolemy, called Ireland a "Brttiʃh Iland".
  • that the first century Roman writer Tacitus observed that the habits and disposition of the people in Ireland were not much unlike the "Brittaines" (interestingly, Tacitus himself had treated Ireland and Britain separately and had also seen similarities between the Britons and the Gauls of the continent). [37]

Modern scholarly opinion[38][39] is that Heylyn "politicized his geographical books Microcosmus" in the context of what geography meant at that time, e.g. "Heylyn's work must be seen as political expressions concerned with proving or disproving constitutional matters." and "politics referred to discussions of dynastic legitimacy, of representation, and of the Constitution ... [Heylyn's] geography was not to be conceived separately from politics."

Following the Acts of Union of 1707, conflict with France gradually brought a popular enthusiasm for Britishness, mostly in Britain itself,[40] and the term British Isles came into more common use after this time.

Modern Uncertainty(1922-date)

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As described above, since the seccession/independence of most of Ireland from the UK in 1922, although the term "British Isles" is still in common use, many people in Ireland reject it if applied to Ireland.

  1. ^ "When I refer to the composite Monarchy ruled over by James VI and I and by King Charles I, it is always described as Britain and Ireland, and I deliberately avoid the politically loaded phrase 'the British Isles' not least because this was not a normal usage in the political discourse of the time". Canny, Nicholas (2001). Making Ireland British:. New York: Oxford University Press, p. viii. ISBN-13:.
  2. ^ Snyder "The Britons", P281, quoting Linda Colley.
  3. ^ "...I have called the Atlantic archipelago – since the term ‘British Isles’ is one which Irishmen reject and Englishmen decline to take quite seriously." Pocock, J.G.A. (2006). The Discovery of Islands. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 29. ISBN-13:978-0521850957.
  4. ^ Snyder 2003, p. 12, Ó Corráin 1989, p. 1
  5. ^ Cunliffe 2002, pp. 38–45, 94 The Massaliote Periplus describes a sea route south round the west coast of Spain from the promontory of Oestriminis (Cape Finisterre) back to the Mediterranean. The poem by Avienus makes used of it in describing the voyage of Himilco the Navigator, also incorporating fragments from 11 ancient writers including Pytheas. When Avienus says it's two days sailing from Oestriminis to the Holy Isle, inhabited by the Hierni, near Albion, this differs from the sailing directions of the Periplus and implies that Oestriminis is Brittany, a conflict explained if it had been taken by Avienus from one of his other sources.
  6. ^ Ó Corráin 1989, p. 1
  7. ^ Snyder 2003, p. 12, 68
  8. ^ Cunliffe 2002, p. 94
  9. ^ O'Rahilly 1946
  10. ^ Snyder 2003, p. 12
  11. ^ 4.20 provides a translation describing Caeser's first invasion, using terms which from IV.XX appear in Latin as arriving "tamen in Britanniam", the inhabitants being "Britannos", and on p30 "principes Britanniae" is translated as "chiefs of Britain".
  12. ^ "The opinions as to the identity of ancient Thule have been numerous in the extreme. We may here mention six: ― 1. The common, and apparently the best founded opinion, that Thule is the island of Iceland. 2. That it is either the Ferroe group, or one of those islands. 3. The notion of Ortelius, Farnaby, and Schœnning, that it is identical with Thylemark in Norway. 4. The opinion of Malte Brun, that the continental portion of Denmark is meant thereby, a part of which is to the present day called Thy or Thyland. 5. The opinion of Rudbeck and of Calstron, borrowed originally from Procopius, that this is a general name for the whole of Scandinavia. 6. That of Gosselin, who thinks that under this name Mainland, the principal of the Shetland Islands, is meant. It is by no means impossible that under the name of Thule two or more of these localities may have been meant, by different authors writing at distant periods and under different states of geographical knowledge. It is also pretty generally acknowledged, as Parisot remarks, that the Thule mentioned by Ptolemy is identical with Thylemark in Norway."Bostock, John and H.T. Riley, ed. (1855). "Britannia". The Natural History of Pliny. pp. footnote #16. OCLC 615995.
  13. ^ Ptolemy's Geography.
  14. ^ Since meridian 30° P corresponds to our meridian 8°24’E, Thule must be identified with the maze of islands and fjords around the three main islands that form the city of Kristiansund[1].
  15. ^ Snyder 2003, p. 34
  16. ^ Snyder 2003, p. 54 refers to epigraphic evidence from those Britons at home and abroad who left Latin inscriptions.
  17. ^ Snyder 2003, p. 68, Cunliffe 2002, p. 95
  18. ^ POMPONII MELAE DE SITU ORBIS
  19. ^ Book 2, 46 in the Sharpe edition = Book 2, 47 in Reeves edition.
  20. ^ Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, Book I - In Latin and English
  21. ^ Jordanes, Getica - De Origine Actibusque Gothorum, Chapter 1, section 7-9
  22. ^ Catholic Encylopedia article on Isidore
  23. ^ Peter Heylyn, Microcosmus, p.p.453--454(1621)
  24. ^ Jeppe Strandsbjerg, 2006, "The Cartographic Production of Territory: mapping and Danish state formation" (PDF). (1.39 MiB), BISA Conference, University College Cork writes: "The translation of Ptolemy’s Geography into Latin in 1409 is frequently named as the symbolic beginning of this process because it (re-)introduced the principles that inform scientific cartography to Western Europe."
  25. ^ Utpal Mukhopadhyay, "Mercator and his Map" (PDF). (945 KiB), Renonance, March, 2005 ("The Geographia of Ptolemy contained a world map and twenty six other maps. However, the book soon disappeared into oblivion, resulting in a deterioration in the art of mapmaking. With its rediscovery in the fifteenth century, and the subsequent discovery of printing and engraving techniques, there was a revival in the art of mapmaking. In the sixteenth century, publication of maps became a lucrative business. However, as regards distortion in shape and distance, these maps were of the same standard as that of Ptolemy's map. The person who liberated mapmaking from the influence of Ptolemy was Gerhard Mercator.")
  26. ^ "Maps of the Holy Land in Special Collections" (PDF). (344 KiB), The George Washington University ("With the expansion of Western power came Europe’s rediscovery of Claudius Ptolemy’s Geographia (150 AD), the earliest known atlas of the world. Reprinted in 1477 it contained instructions on how to accurately illustrate the shape of the earth on a flat surface by using a curved grid of longitude and latitude. However, many later cartographers simply copied Ptolomy’s work without copying his methods")
  27. ^ Cite error: The named reference biom was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  28. ^ Showcases :: Mercator Atlas of Europe
  29. ^ Anglia and Scotia, 1570, by Ortelius.
  30. ^ Chapter 1 Page 3 from Fell Smith, Charlotte (1909). John Dee: 1527 - 1608. London: Constable and Company.
  31. ^ a b Ken MacMillan, 2001, "Discourse on history, geography, and law: John Dee and the limits of the British empire," in the Canadian Journal of History, April 2001
  32. ^ John Dee, General and rare memorials pertayning to the Perfect Arte of Navigation, London (1577), p.63; seeQueen Elizabeth as Astraea, Frances A. Yates (Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 10, (1947), p.47
  33. ^ Proclamation styling James I King of Great Britain on October 20, 1604
  34. ^ Peter Heylyn, Oxford English Dictionary, second ed. Online Version (2000)
  35. ^ Peter Heylyn, Microcosmus, p.502 (1621).
  36. ^ "When I refer to the composite Monarchy ruled over by James VI and I and by King Charles I, it is always described as Britain and Ireland, and I deliberately avoid the politically loaded phrase 'the British Isles' not least because this was not a normal usage in the political discourse of the time". Canny, Nicholas (2001). Making Ireland British:. New York: Oxford University Press, p. viii. ISBN-13:.
  37. ^ Tacitus: Germania and Agricola; Chpt 10.
  38. ^ R.J. Mayhew, 2000, "Geography is Twinned with Divinity: The Laudian Geography of Peter Heylyn" in Geographical Review, Vol. 90, No. 1 (Jan., 2000), pp. 18-34 "In the period between 1600 and 1800, politics meant what we might now term 'high politics', excluding the cultural and social elements that modern analyses of ideology seek to uncover. Politics referred to discussions of dynastic legitimacy, of representation, and of the Constitution. ... "Geography books spanning the period from the Reformation to the Reform Act ... demonstrated their authors' specific political identities by the languages and arguments they deployed. This cannot be seen as any deviation from the classical geographical tradition, or as a tainting of geography by politics, because geography was not to be conceived separately from politics."
  39. ^ Robert Mayhew, 2005, ""Mapping science's imagined community: geography as a Republic of Letters"." in the British Journal of the History of Science, 38(1): 73-92, March 2005
  40. ^ Snyder 2003, p. 281
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