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Ireland in Europe: Paolo Giovio’s Descriptio (1548)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Jason Harris  and
Finis Hyberniae
Jason Harris
Affiliation:
Department of History, University College Cork
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Extract

Paolo Giovio’s Descriptio Britanniae, Scotiae, Hyberniae et Orchadum presents several problems for the historian of early modern Ireland. Published in 1548, but composed for the most part during the early 1540s, it offered a comparatively detailed portrait of Irish geography, culture and politics to an international audience whose appetite for Irish affairs had been whetted by the recent Henrician Reformation. Yet the text offers scant commentary on Irish politics; its geographical information is often confused; its ethnography is evocative but rarely moralising; and its focus on Ulster and the lifestyle of Conn O’Neill is suggestive but tantalisingly so. The author’s sources are as obscure as his intentions. Nevertheless, Giovio’s text was still being read and cited by leading European and even Irish authors up to a hundred years later. It was a seminal treatment of Ireland and the Irish that found few parallels in international print-houses until the gradual emergence of the writings of Giraldus Cambrensis towards the end of the sixteenth century. This article sets the Descriptio in the twin context of early modern geographical humanism and the international fallout of the Henrician Reformation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 35 , Issue 139 , May 2007 , pp. 265 - 288
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 2007

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References

1 Giovio, Paolo, Descriptio Britanniae, Scotiae, Hyberniae et Orchadum (Venice, 1548)Google Scholar. There is a modern edition in Iovii, Pauli,Opera, ed. Travi, Ernesto and Penco, Mariagrazia, ix: Dialogi et descriptiones (Rome, 1984)Google Scholar.

2 For recent discussion of the text see Cochrane, Eric, Historians and historiography in the Italian Renaissance (Chicago, 1981), pp 366-77CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mayer, T. F., ‘Reginald Pole in Paolo Giovio’s Descriptio: a strategy for reconversion ’ in Sixteenth-Century Journal, xvi (1985), pp 431-50Google Scholar; Haywood, Eric, ‘Is Ireland worth bothering about? Classical perceptions of Ireland revisited in Renaissance Italy’ in International Journal of the Classical Tradition, ii (1996), pp 467-86CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, ‘Paolo Giovio’s Descriptio Hyberniae: humanist chorography or political manifesto?’ in Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Bariensis (Tempe, Ariz., 1998), pp 315-22Google Scholar.

3 On the reception of the Descriptio in general see Cochrane, Historians & historiography, pp 366–77. In his Theatrum orbis terrarum (Antwerp, 1570) Abraham Ortelius cited Giovio as a source, while Eric Haywood has demonstrated that Sebastian Munster simply plagiarised Giovio’s description of Ireland (Haywood, ‘Descriptio Hyberniae’, pp 321–2). As regards Giovio’s influence on Irish authors, see, for example, Book I of Philip O’Sullivan Beare, Zoilomastix (c. 1626).

4 Giraldus’ writings, though influential in manuscript, appeared in print gradually in successive stages: Ortelius, Abraham, Theatrum orbis terrarum (Antwerp, 1573)Google Scholar; Hooker, John, ‘Ireland’ in Raphael Holinshed (ed.), Chronicles, ii (2nd ed., London, 1587)Google Scholar; and Camden, William, Anglica (Frankfurt, 1602)Google Scholar.

5 For biographical details see Zimmermann, T.C.Price, Paolo Giovio: the historian and the crisis of sixteenth-century Italy (Princeton, 1995)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, ‘Giovio, Paolo’ in Dizionario biografico degli Italiani, lvi (Rome, 2001), pp 430-40Google Scholar.

6 Mayer, ‘Reginald Pole’, pp 432–3. On Lily’s contribution see Cochrane, Historians & historiography, p. 367; and on Lily in general see Hirsh, E.F., ‘The life and works of George Lily’ (Ph.D. thesis, Yale University, 1935)Google Scholar. Although the extent of the collaboration is in question here, Giovio does acknowledge Lily and mentions him favourably in the Descriptio.

7 On the political context of the Descriptio see Mayer, ‘Reginald Pole’; refuted by Haywood, ‘Descriptio Hyberniae’. On Pole’s legation see Mayer, T.F., ‘A diet for Henry VIII: the failure of Reginald Pole’s 1537 legation’ in Jn. Brit. Studies, xxvi (1987), pp 305-31CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8 L.&P. Hen. VIII, 1540–41, nos 754–5.

9 Zimmermann, Paolo Giovio, p. 24.

10 Giovio, Paolo, Historiarum sui temporis tomus primus (Florence, 1550)Google Scholar; tomus secundus (Florence, 1552).

11 “ See Parry, V.J., ‘Renaissance historical literature in relation to the Near and Middle East (with special reference to Paolo Giovio)’ in Lewis, Bernard and Holt, P.M. (eds), Historians of the Middle East (Oxford, 1962), pp 277-89Google Scholar. My interpretation of Giovio’s political outlook is largely indebted to the works of T. C. Price Zimmermann, in particular his recent intellectual biography, Paolo Giovio ... (1995).

12 ‘totius cogniti orbis imperia, et regiones, Regum opes, ingenia, res gestae, gentium item mores, viri bellica virtute, aut literis clari, terrarumque demum dotes, atque miracula’ (Descriptio, f. 2r).

13 ‘Nostri autem muneris erit, attigisse clarissimos Reges, et praesentis seculi faciem legentium oculis subiecisse, universa scilicet Insula in ampliores, nobilioresque provincias divisa’ (ibid., f. 2v).

14 ‘fama Regis, qui, cum antea ab illustri pietate, virtuteque animi in summum verae gloriae fastigium esset provectus, ab inusitata demum mentis perturbatione commotus, inde deciderit’ (ibid., f. 2r).

15 Mayer, ‘Reginald Pole’, p. 435.

16 Descriptio, f. lv.

17 The development of Giovio’s Latin style, from the early influence of ‘silver Latin’ and Greek to later Ciceronianism, as well as his participation in various debates about Latinity, is discussed by Zimmermann, Paolo Giovio, pp 20–24, 96–8,110-11, 188–9. The Plinys seem to have been something of a recurring reference point in his career, even to the extent of his settling and establishing a museum in a villa associated with them.

18 On barnacle geese and other Irish legends see Boivin, J.M., L’Irlande au moyen âge (Paris, 1993), pp 84-8,109-45Google Scholar; Barry, John, ‘A wild goose chase: Giraldus Cambrensis and natural history’ in Petersmann, Gerhard (ed.), Grazer Beitraege Supplementband IX, 2005. The role of Latin in early modern Europe: texts and contexts (Horn/Vienna, 2005), pp 1–11 Google Scholar. I am grateful to John Barry for letting me see this article before publication.

19 ‘Sed haec monstrifera loca, inusitataque pericula narrantibus, nemo nisi inverecundus fidem astruxerit, aut improbus elevarit. Nos autem in praeclaro testimonio recentis historiae, ut in certissima veritatis luce consistemus: nec in adulatione dulcissima aegris, aut ociosis animis fabulosa ad voluptatem scribere videamur’ (But only a shameless person would put his trust in those who describe this monster-bearing place and these extraordinary perils, while only an unwise person would deal lightly with them. Hence we will take a stand with the distinguished testimony of recent history as though in the most certain light of faith; then we will not seem to write sweet things fawningly to please the suffering mind or fabled things to please the idle) (Description f. 42r).

20 See Strauss, Gerald, ‘Topographical-historical method in sixteenth-century German scholarship’ in Studies in the Renaissance, v (1958), pp 87–101 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Cf. Haywood, ‘Is Ireland worth bothering about?’, pp 484—5; idem, ‘Descriptio Hyberniae’, pp 319–21. Haywood quotes Giovio’s reference to ‘sepositis historiis’, but this alludes to having set aside his Histories of Italy in order to focus on the Descriptio, not to having set aside the writing of history itself.

21 For discussion of topography and reading practices see Harris, Jason, ‘Reading the first atlases: Ortelius, De Jode and T.C.D. volume M. aa. 9’ in Long Room, xlix (2004), pp 28–53 Google Scholar.

22 Quoted in Zimmermann, Paolo Giovio, p. 25.

23 More correctly Isamnium, since Ismenium was a place in Greece.

24 Caesar, , Commentarii belli Gallici, v, 13 Google Scholar; Pliny, , Naturalis historia, ii, 187, iv, 103Google Scholar; Tacitus, De vita Julii Agricolae, ch. 18; idem, Annales, xiv, 30.

25 Tacitus, De vita Julii Agricolae, ch. 24.

26 Polydore Vergil, Anglica historia, i.

27 Thus Giovio attributes to the Boyne wonderful salmon fishing, which was more commonly associated with the Bann. For example, see Leger’s, St gloss of the Bann as ‘the place where all the salmon fishing is’ (L. & P. Hen. VIII, 1542, no. 340)Google Scholar.

28 Cochrane, Historians & historiography, p. 367.

29 On the medieval tradition see Boivin, L’Irlande au moyen âge,passim; Barry, ‘Wild goose chase’.

30 L. & P. Hen. VIII, 1542, nos 102, 554. On the Jesuit embassy to Ireland see Bangert, William V., Claude Jay and Alfonso Salmeron (Chicago, 1985), pp 167-71Google Scholar; McCoog, Thomas M., The Society of Jesus in Ireland, Scotland and England, 1541–1588 (Leiden, 1996), pp 14–24 Google Scholar; Millett, Benignus, ‘The pastoral zeal of Robert Wauchope’ in Seanchas Ardmhaca, ii, no. 1 (1956), pp 35-7Google Scholar; Durkan, John, ‘Robert Wauchope, archbishop of Armagh’ in Innes Rev., i (1950), pp 48–66 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Edwards, R.D., Church and state in Tudor Ireland (Dublin, 1935), pp 117-18Google Scholar.

31 Bradshaw, Brendan, The Irish constitutional revolution of the sixteenth century (Cambridge, 1979), pp 247-8CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32 For documentation of the negotiations see Cal. S.P. Ire., 1509–73, pp 35–65; L. & P. Hen. VIII, 1540–41, no. 1072; ibid., 1542, nos 831–3; Cal. Carew MSS, 1515–74, no. 167; Rymer, Thomas (ed.), Foedera: conventiones, literae et... acta publica inter reges Angliae et alios (10 vols, London, 1741), vi, pt 3, pp 101-2Google Scholar. For discussion see Bradshaw, Constitutional revolution, pp 209–10; Brady, Ciaran, ‘The attainder of Shane O’Neill and the problems of Tudor state-building’ in idem and Ohlmeyer, Jane (eds), British interventions in early modern Ireland (Cambridge, 2005), pp 43-5CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Harold O’Sullivan, ‘Dynamics of regional development: processes of assimilation and division in the marchland of south-east Ulster in late medieval and early modern Ireland’, ibid., pp 55–8.

33 Their accounts are preserved in Salmeronis, Epistolae P. Alphonsi, ed. Raimundus Vaudurre and Federico Cervos (2 vols, Madrid, 1906-7), i, 2–10 Google Scholar; and Broeti, Epistolae P. P., Jayi, Claudii, Joannis Codurii et Simonis Rodericii, ed. Federico Cervos (Madrid, 1903), pp 23–31 Google Scholar. See also Hogan, Edmund, Ibernia Ignatiana, i (Dublin, 1880), pp 1–8 Google Scholar; Sancti Ignatianii de Loyola Societatis Iesu fundatoris epistolae et instructiones, ed. Mariano Lecina, Augusti, V. and Restrepo, D. (12 vols, Madrid, 1903-11), i, 174-81, 727–31Google Scholar. Salmeron and Zapata were arrested by the English in France, where they were interrogated (L. & P. Hen. VIII, 1542, no. 554).

34 Pole seems to have regarded Ireland as a barren, dangerous place, and discouraged the Jesuits from going there; likewise, Ignatius Loyola gave up hopes of pursuing the mission there (McCoog, Society of Jesus, pp 19, 24)Google Scholar.

35 Jefferies, H. A., Priests and prelates of Armagh in the age of the Reformation, 1518–1558 (Dublin, 1997), pp 58–60, 123–4,143Google Scholar; Edwards, Church & state, pp 111–16; Millert, ‘Pastoral zeal of Robert Wauchope’, p. 34; Durkan, ‘Robert Wauchope’, p. 50.

36 L. & P. Hen. VIII, 1542, no. 721; the gifts are described in detail, ibid. no. 924.

37 O’Neill, with the Irish council’s backing, sought the earldom of Ulster, but the king objected, and hence he received only that of Tyrone (ibid., nos 249, 885).

38 This is noted by Mayer, ‘Diet for Henry VIII’, p. 326. Norfolk’s closeness to Gardiner, whose behaviour in pursuit of Pole was suspiciously slack, may be significant. Norfolk was also the person who initially passed on the news of Henry’s displeasure to Pole, as is revealed by the latter’s letter to Somerset in 1549 (Cal. S.P. Ven., 1534–54, no. 575).

39 This was in spite of the fact that Norfolk had led the ruthless suppression of the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536, the smouldering embers of which were the target of Pole’s legation in the following year. On Norfolk’s reputation abroad see, for example, Cal. S.P. Ven., 1527–33, no. 694.

40 Ibid., 1534–54, no. 284.

41 Giovio was fascinated by the fecundity of the northern seas, particularly with regard to herring; he discusses the subject at greater length towards the end of the book: ‘Caeterum quum in alto piscationi incumbunt, tanta Aringarum visitur multitudo, ut earum densissima, infinitaque agmina perpetuo transcursu liquidissimi aequoris nitorem obscurent, indeque pigrescant fluctus, et opposita incidentium impetu retia saepissime rapiantur’ (For the rest, when they are engaged on deep-sea fishing, such a multitude of herrings appears that their thick and countless droves, ceaselessly darting around, obscure the splendour of the purest sea; hence the waves become sluggish, and very often the opposed nets may be dragged asunder by the force of those caught) (Descriptio, f. 41r).

42 Zimmermann, Paolo Giovio, p. 24.

43 See Haywood, ‘Descriptio Hyberniae’. As regards classical ethnography and its applications see Barry, John, ‘Richard Stanihurst’s De rebus in Hibernia gestis’ in Renaissance Studies, xviii (2004), p. 4 Google Scholar; Bartlett, Robert, Gerald of Wales, 1146–1223 (Oxford, 1982), pp 158–210 Google Scholar.

44 See Tierney, J.J., ‘The Celtic ethnography of Posidonius’ in R.I.A. Proc., lx (1960), sect. C, pp 189–275 Google Scholar; Freeman, Philip, Ireland and the classical world (Austin, Tex., 2000)Google Scholar.

45 See Gillingham, John, ‘The English invasion of Ireland’ in Bradshaw, Brendan, Hadfield, Andrew and Maley, Willy (eds), Representing Ireland: literature and the origins of conflict, 1534–1660 (Cambridge, 1993), pp 24–42 Google Scholar; Morgan, Hiram, ‘Giraldus Cambrensis and the Tudor conquest of Ireland’ in idem (ed.), Political ideology in Ireland, 1541–1641 (Dublin, 1999), pp 22–44 Google Scholar.

46 Ellis, Steven, ‘The Kildare rebellion and the early Henrician Reformation’ in Hist. Jn., xix (1976), p. 825.Google Scholar

47 ‘ex provincialibus suis exquisito etiam delectu quattuor millia equitum, et triplo maiorem peditum numerum in aciem eduxit’ (below, pp 282, 285).

48 ‘Ultra Scethlandias ad dextram aliae quoque parvae, et ob innumerabiles insulae, immanium scopulorum effigie, toto eo Oceano se diffundunt, quo horrentia gelu, et tenebris Norvegiae litora quatiuntur, non longe enim abest illud extremum Norvegorum caput ... In extremis porro, et nivosis Noruegiae litoribus homines feros monstroso aspectu, et praelongis undique setis, et crinibus coopertos, maximeque horribiles versari tradunt, qui terribili garritu pro sermone utantur, minoresque plantas admiranda vi manibus revellant. In Oceano quoque, et fluviis mirifice corripiendis piscibus urinentur, et per glaciem, et duratas nives firmo vestigio stantes, in corticibus arborum, praeustisque innixi contis decurrant, ut feras consectentur: Ab his eiectos in litus peregrinos homines per noctem, quod perosi lucem in tenebris maxime grassentur, fustibus interimi, devorarique asseverant, immanium Canibalium more’ (Beyond the Shetlands further to the right there are other small islands scattered throughout that whole Ocean which are innumerable and have the appearance of monstrous rocks. Bristling in the ice and darkness, they jostle against the shores of Norway, and indeed not distant is the farthest headland of the Norwegians ... Moreover, they say that on the farthest snow-filled shores of Norway live wild men with a monstrous appearance, covered with bristles all over their bodies and with long flowing hair; they are extremely unsightly, employ a frightful jabbering for speech, and tear out small shrubs by their hands with remarkable strength. Amazingly, they dive into the ocean and rivers to catch fish. To catch wild animals, they sail over the ice and hardened snows, standing firmly on the charred bark of trees and balancing on poles. When by these they are cast forth onto the coastline, it is said that at night-time (since they hate the light and normally travel in darkness) they kill foreign men with their clubs and eat them in the manner of inhuman Cannibals) (Descriptio, ff 41v-42r).

49 ‘Hos C. Caesari fuisse cognitos videmus’ (ibid., f. 4r).

50 ‘Id genus hominum bello ferox, victu, cultuque asperum, diversum lingua, non usque barbarum videtur, ut summas virtutes, pietatem, iustitiam, probitatem non agnoscat, quandoquidem Sylvestres nihil omnino vel Scotis sociis, vel Anglis hostibus concedant, si mores, actionesque omnes ad equitatem, atque animi magnitudinem revocentur, facile enim hos, et illos contumeliae nomine fallaces, improbos, et raptores vocant, quum ipsi Hybernica simplicitate, et quadam Romana gravitate mirabiles, spectatae frugis, et ob id innoxiam ducant vitam, et peregrini luxus illecebras aspernentur’ (ibid.).

51 ‘Proximi sunt lingua sicuti, et terrarum situ Hyberniae propulis, Holtaniisque praesertim, quibus uti consanguineis, per commercia miscentur’ (ibid.).

52 Vergil, Anglica historia, xiii.

53 L. & P. Hen. VIII, 1542, no. 806.

54 Ibid., 1544, pt 1, nos 477, 575, 654; ibid., pt 2, no. 284; ibid., 1546, pt 1, no. 1279.

55 See Haywood, ‘Is Ireland worth bothering about?’.

56 Carroll, Cf.Clare, ‘Barbarous slaves and civil cannibals: translating civility in early modern Ireland’ in eadem, and King, Patricia (eds), Ireland and postcolonial theory (Cork, 2003), pp 63–78 Google Scholar.

57 On O’Neill’s reduced means and difficulties with galloglas families see L. & P. Hen. VIII, 1542, nos 340, 367, 422, 460, 664, 668; ibid., 1544, pt 2, no. 284. On Ormond’s contribution of troops see ibid., nos 562, 819, 1046.

58 Zimmermann, Paolo Giovio, pp 206–7. Note in particular Giovio, Paolo, Illustrium virorum vitae (Florence, 1549)Google Scholar and idem, Elogia virorum bellica virtute illustrium (Florence, 1551).

59 Barber, Peter, ‘England II: monarchs, ministers, and maps, 1550–1625’ in Buisseret, David (ed.), Monarchs, ministers, and maps (Chicago, 1992), p. 62 Google Scholar. See also Mayer, ‘Reginald Pole’; Zimmermann, Paolo Giovio, pp 149–50.

60 Caution has been urged by Haywood, ‘Descriptio Hyberniae’.

61 McCoog, Society of Jesus, p. 19.

62 The Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences has made possible the research for this article by providing financial support for the Centre for Neo-Latin Studies in University College Cork. I should like to thank Hiram Morgan, John Barry and Eric Haywood for reading drafts.