Scandia

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Scandia

Scandia was a name used for various uncharted islands in Northern Europe

Northern Europe

Northern Europe is the northern part or region of Europe. The United Nations defines Northern Europe as including the following countries and dependent regions:...
by the first Greek and Roman geographers. The name originated in Greek sources, where it had been used for a long time for different islands in the Mediterranean region. In the Iliad

ILiad

The iLiad is an electronic handheld device, or e-book device, which can be used for document reading and editing. Like the Sony Reader or Amazon Kindle, the iLiad makes use of an electronic paper display....
the name denotes an ancient city in Kythira

Kythira

Kythira is an island of Greece, historically part of the Ionian Islands. It lies opposite the eastern tip of the Peloponnesos peninsula. It is administratively part of the Piraeus Prefecture although geographically distant from the prefecture's population center....
, Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
. The first attested written source using the name for a Northern European island is the work of Roman Pliny the Elder

Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient author, naturalist or natural philosopher and naval and military commander of some importance who wrote Natural History ....
, Naturalis Historia

Naturalis Historia

Naturalis Historia is an encyclopedia written circa AD 77 by Pliny the Elder. It is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman empire to the modern day, and was one of the first reference works developed in the Classical period to examine natural and man-made objects, both organic and mineral, as well as many natura...
of circa AD 77.

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Scandia was a name used for various uncharted islands in Northern Europe

Northern Europe

ILiad

Kythira

Greece

The first attested written source using the name for a Northern European island is the work of Roman Pliny the Elder

Pliny the Elder

Naturalis Historia

Britannia

Britannia was the term originally used by the Roman Empire to refer to the island of Great Britain. The term was later used to describe a Roman province covering much of the island, apart from the area beyond the Antonine Wall belonging to the Picts in the north, which was known as Caledonia....
. This island does not appear to be the same as the island Pliny calls "Scatinavia"

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a historical and geographical subregion in northern Europe that includes the Scandinavian Peninsula. It consists of the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark; some authorities also include Finland and some might even include Iceland....
, located near Cimbri

Cimbri

The Cimbri were a Celtic or Germanic peoples tribe who together with the Teutones and the Ambrones threatened the Roman Republic in the late 2nd century BC....
. In Claudius Ptolemy's Geographia, written in the second century AD, Scandia is described as the most easterly of the Scandiae islands, a group of islands located east of the Cimbrian peninsula. This is the region where Pliny had located "Scatinavia". The name "Scandia" was therefore after Ptolemy generally associated with the southern part of Scandinavian peninsula

Scandinavian Peninsula

The Scandinavian Peninsula is a geographic region in northern Europe, consisting of Norway and Sweden. The name Scandinavian is etymology Scania, a region at the southernmost extremity of the peninsula....
by the early Roman geographers, who thought of Scandinavia as an island.

When Scandinavian scholars became familiar with the Roman records in the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

File:Karl 1 mit papst gelasius gregor1 sacramentar v karl d kahlen.jpgThe Middle Ages of European history are a period in history which lasted for roughly a millennium, commonly dated from the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century to the beginning of the Early Modern Period in the 16th century, marked by the division of Western Christi...
, Scandiae was used as an alternative Latin name for Terra Scania

Skåneland

Sk?neland, or Sk?nelandskapen, are Swedish scientific denominations, used in historical contexts for the historical lands of Denmark in southern Scandinavia, which as the autonomous polity Scania joined Zealand and Jutland in the formation of a Denmark state in the early 800s....
. The early 13th century Latin paraphrase of the Scanian Law

Scanian Law

Scanian law is the oldest Denmark provincial law and one of the first Nordic countries provincial laws to be written down. It was used in the geographic region of Danish Sk?neland, which at the time included Scania, Halland, Blekinge and the island of Bornholm....
is called Lex Scandiae provincialis.

In the 16th century, Olaus Magnus

Olaus Magnus

Olaus Magnus was a Sweden ecclesiastic and writer, who did pioneering work for the interest of Nordic countries people. He was reported as born in October 1490 in ?sterg?tland, and died on August 1, 1557....
, a Swedish cartographer who was familiar with Pliny's writings, created a map where he placed the name "Scandia" in the middle of today's Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and it is connected to Denmark by the ?resund Bridge in the south....
. In Olaus Magnus' map, the name denotes an area including "Svecia" (Svealand

Svealand

Svealand or Sweden Proper is the historical core Lands of Sweden of Sweden. It is located in south central Sweden, bounded to the north by Norrland and to the south by G?taland....
), "Gothia

Gothia

Gothia is a name given to various places where the Goths lived during their migrations:* G?taland, the traditional original homeland of the Goths....
" and "Norvegia" (Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a constitutional monarchy in Northern Europe that occupies the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula....
), where he places various tribes described by the ancient geographers.

Although mainly a historical name, Scandia is still occasionally used today as a Latin name for Scandinavia

Scandinavia

Scandinavian Bishops Conference

The Scandinavian Bishops Conference is an episcopal conference of Roman Catholic bishops covering the Nordic countries of Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Iceland....
, an Episcopal Conference

Episcopal Conference

In the Roman Catholic Church, an Episcopal Conference, Conference of Bishops, or National Conference of Bishops is an official assembly of all the Bishop of a given territory....
organized by the Roman Catholic Church

Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church, officially known as the Catholic Church is the world's largest Christianity Ecclesia , representing over half of all Christians and one-sixth of the world population....
since 1923, is called Conferentia Episcopalis Scandiae.