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The Wild Irish Hybernos Sylvestres: Ireland and the Irish in Polydore Vergil’s Anglica historia (1534) and Paolo Giovio’s Descriptio Britanniaiae, Scotiae, Hyberniae et Orchadum (1548) Ireland had been of little interest to foreign writers since the publication of Giraldus Cambrensis’ The History and Topography of Ireland in the twelfth century. However, the first modern descriptions of Ireland were produced in the sixteenth century by two Italian historians. Polydore Vergil’s Anglica historia (1534) and Paolo Giovio’s Descriptio Britanniaiae, Scotiae, Hyberniae et Orchadum (1548) include original descriptions of Ireland and the Irish. Both representations exemplify many of the characteristics of Renaissance cosmography and ethnography. Thus, the texts are punctuated with references to specific classical antecedents, while classical cosmographical and ethnographical concepts and parameters are utilised to describe the island of Ireland and its inhabitants. However, Vergil and Giovio present two distinct descriptions of Ireland which are notable for their differences rather than their similarities. Moreover, the representations of the Irish people presented by each writer are diametrically opposed: Vergil’s description is from a colonial perspective and negative while Giovio’s is positive; a rare example of a non-colonial ethnographical account of Irish identity.1 This article will examine the representation of Irish identity in the Anglica historia and the Descriptio Britanniaiae, Scotiae, Hyberniae et Orchadum respectively.2 Firstly, it will briefly contextualise both texts and their authors. Next, it will examine how the classical ethnographic model was utilised in a sixteenth century context, to present conflicting and contrasting representations of the Irish people. Finally, it will analyse Vergil’s use of the classical antithesis between civilised and barbarous languages in the representation of Irish identity presented in the Anglica historia. 1 Jason Harris, ‘Ireland in Europe: Paolo Giovio’s Descriptio (1548)’, Irish Historical Studies xxxv, no.139 (2007): 21 2 Here after Descriptio. I I Polydore Vergil (c.1470-1555) was born in Urbino and educated at both Padua and Bologna. He arrived in England in 1502 to assist in the collection of Peter’s pence and commenced research on his magnum opus, the Anglica historia, soon after. Vergil’s reputation as a scholar had already been established through the publication of a collection of adages, the Prouerbiorum Libellus (1498), and the highly original De Inuentoribus Rerum (1499).3 Both works were popular in continental literary circles in the sixteenth century. Vergil arrived in England as a writer with continental popularity, of scholarly prestige but in search of royal patronage. The sixteenth century saw a growth in popularity for Italian authored nationalistic, panegyric histories, e.g. Paolo Emili’s history of the French monarchy: De rebus gestis francorum (1539).4 For European kings and magnates of the Renaissance period the history book, combined with the print revolution, was another means to disseminate propaganda.5 Levy notes that ‘much of Henry VII’s foreign policy was concerned with his need to gain European recognition for his dynasty; a history written in the best and newest style could help, primarily by proving the legitimacy of the new rulers’.6 Thus, the Anglica historia was written primarily to promote the legitimacy of the Tudor monarchy to a continental audience following the War of the Roses.7 Accordingly, Vergil created an English national history which would appeal to continental scholars, i.e. written in the revived classical Latin of the Renaissance. The influence of the Anglica historia on the reading of English history, in particular the Tudor period, lasted up until the nineteenth century. Moreover, Vergil’s interpretation of fifteenth and sixteenth century history was immortalised in the pages of 3 For an in-depth discussion of Vergil’s literary output and life see Denys Hay, Renaissance Historian and Man of Letters, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1952. 4 Fred Jacob Levy, Tudor Historical Thought, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1967, p.55; Denys Hay, Renaissance Historian and Man of Letters, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1952, p.9 5 Denys Hay, Renaissance Historian and Man of Letters, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1952, p.166 6 Fred Jacob Levy, Tudor Historical Thought, University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1967, p.55 7 Denys Hay, Renaissance Historian and Man of Letters, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1952, p.4 II Shakespeare who dramatised many of the elements of the Anglica historia’s historical narrative. Thus as Hay notes ‘it might be fair to call the Anglica historia one of the most important histories of England which have ever been produced’.8 In an Irish context the Anglica historia includes the first modern and original description of the Irish written in Renaissance Latin.9 Moreover, it was the first description of Irish identity to be disseminated via the printing press.10 However, the influence of the Anglica historia on representations of Irish identity is a neglected area of research.11 This article hopes to make a modest contribution to redressing that fact. Paolo Giovio (1483-1552) was from the Italian city of Como. He studied philosophy at Pavia and was appointed a lecturer in philosophy at Rome by Leo X. Moreover, Giovio studied medicine at Padova and was the official physician to Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici. However, his primary interest was historical research. Giovio enjoyed the papal patronage of both Leo X and Clement VII. As a result Giovio’s historical output was prolific; he produced papal biographies, histories on various European nations, and a comprehensive survey of Italian history from the period of the Italian wars, the Sui Temporis Historiae Libri (1550-1552).12 However, from 1514 onwards Giovio dedicated himself to the compilation of a contemporary universal world history, i.e. a cosmography. The Descriptio was the first part of this ultimately unfinished undertaking. In contrast to the Anglica historia, the Descriptio was not produced to 8 Ibid., p.ix 9 Unfortunately a discussion of Vergil’s use of classical Latin is beyond the capabilities of this article. However, it is discussed in Denys Hay, Renaissance Historian and Man of Letters, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1952, pp. 125-130. For a discussion of the use of Latin in Vergil’s description of the Irish see Eric Haywood, ‘La storia dell’Irlanda dell’Anglica historia’, in R. Bacchielli (ed.), Polidoro Virgili e la cultura umanistica europea, Accademia Rafaello, Urbino, pp. 143-163. Moreover, Giovio’s use of Latin is discussed in Jason Harris, ‘Ireland in Europe: Paolo Giovio’s Descriptio (1548)’, Irish Historical Studies xxxv, no.139 (2007): 7-12. 10 Eric Haywood, ‘Brutti Irlandesi? La Prima Descrizione Umanistica dell’Irlanda’, in Secchi Tarugi, L., Disarmonia, bruttezza e bizzarria nel Rinascimento, Franco Cesati Editore, Florence, 1998, p. 175 11 Despite Vergil’s influence on subsequent representations of Irish identity, notably there is no mention of the Anglica historia in Brendan Bradshaw and Andrew Hadfield (et al.), Representing Ireland: literature and the origins of the conflict, 1534-1660, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1993. See Eric Haywood, ‘Is Ireland Worth Bothering About? Classical Perceptions of Ireland Revisited in Renaissance Italy’ in International Journal of the Classical Tradition 2, no. 4, (1996): 475. 12 Jason Harris, ‘Ireland in Europe: Paolo Giovio’s Descriptio (1548)’, Irish Historical Studies xxxv, no.139 (2007): 2; Eric Cochrane, Historians and Historiography in the Italian Renaissance, Chicago, 1981, p. 368 III promote the legitimacy of a political ruler, rather it was created for the ever growing market for cosmographical texts in sixteenth-century Europe.13 It was in this context that Giovio produced his description of Ireland and the Irish.14 The text presents an original, while at times confused description of the island of Ireland and temporarily redefined the sixteenth- century image of the Irish people in continental Europe.15 II The descriptions of Ireland and the Irish presented by Vergil and Giovio utilised the classical ethnographic model to describe the island and its inhabitants. However, this model was employed for contrasting purposes. Vergil adopted the framework of classical ethnography to create a negative description of the Gaelic Irish. Conversely, Giovio utilised the classical ethnographical model to provide a positive representation of the Irish people, i.e. the image of the noble savage, an idea expressed in the classical ethnographic tradition.16 In contrast to the eye-witness ethnographical texts produced in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, e.g. Adam of Bremen’s depiction of the Scandinavians and Slavs in his book Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesias Pontificum (1070) and Giraldus Cambrensis’ The History and Topography of Ireland (1185), neither Vergil nor Giovio had empirical knowledge of Ireland. However, Italian scholars in the Renaissance period had access to rediscovered classical Greek and Roman ethnographical texts and models which could be imitated more closely in the study of a 13 For an in-depth discussion of the Descriptio in a European context see Eric Haywood, ‘Paolo Giovio’s Descriptio Hyberniae: Humanist Chorography or Political Manifesto?’, in Schnur, R., (ed.), Acta. Conventus neo-latini bariensis, Medieval & Renaissance Texts and Studies, Arizona, 1998, pp. 315-322; Jason Harris, ‘Ireland in Europe: Paolo Giovio’s
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