| Product Summary |
 |
|
|
Portuguese Voyages, 1498–1663: Tales from the Great Age of Discovery edited by C D Ley
|
|
 |
| Guide Rating - |
 |
|
| Pros |
• An excellent selection of first hand accounts
• Interesting range of experiences and encounters
• Useful footnotes help explain unusual terms
|
|
| Cons |
• Translations feel dated
• No index and a very limited table of contents
|
|
|
The Bottom Line -
A great collection of accounts which are otherwise hard to obtain. The shipwreck accounts, especially, are detailed and graphic, and give a fascinating view of early European exploration around Africa.
|
|
|
| Product Description |
|
| • |
Hardback/Paperback: 360 pages
|
| • |
Publisher: Phoenix Press, 2000
|
| • |
ISBN: 1-84212-109-X
|
|
|
|
| Guide Review |
|
Portuguese Voyages, 1498–1663: Tales from the Great Age of Discovery edited by C D Ley
Translations of primary source material, four of the seven sections of this book are of particular relevance to Africa: an account of Vasco da Gama's first voyage to India (1497–9), extracts from Francisco Alvares' The Lands of Prester John (1520–6) – the first European book written about Abyssinia, accounts of the shipwreck of the São João on the Natal coast in 1552 and the Santiago off Mozambique in 1585, and Father Jerónimo Lobo's account of The Jesuits in Abyssinia (1625–34), which describes the conflict between Jesuits who considered the Abyssinian Christian church to be "a dangerous error from which the country must be saved" and the Abyssinains who considered the Jesuits with "suspicion and hostility."
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
