Portugal, Spain, and the African Atlantic, 1343-1490


Book Description

This collection consists of 17 studies on 14th- and 15th-century historical topics. The topics include the English political, diplomatic and military interventions in the affairs of the peninsular kingdoms, and the maritime expansion of Portugal in the African Atlantic.




Europeans and Africans


Book Description

In Europeans and Africans Michał Tymowski analyses the cultural and organizational aspects of contacts of both sides on the West African coast in the 15th and early 16th centuries, and the creation of the image of ‘other’ – African for Europeans, and European for Africans.




The Chronicles of Fernão Lopes


Book Description

Volume V of the first complete English translation of the chronicles of Fernão Lopes, containing the general bibliography and a comprehensive index containing all people and place names mentioned in the chronicles Until now, the chronicles of Fernão Lopes (c.1380-c.1460) have only been available in critical editions or in partial translations. Comparable to the works of Froissart in France or López de Ayala in Spain, the chronicles provide a wealth of detail on late fourteenth-century politics, diplomacy, warfare and economic matters, courtly society, queenship and noble women, as well as more mundane concerns such as food, health and the purchasing power of a fluctuating currency. Lopes had a keen eye for detail and a perspective especially attuned to the common people, and his chronicles provide an invaluable source for the history of Western Europe in the later Middle Ages.




A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansion 1400-1668


Book Description

A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansion 1400-1668 provides an accessible survey of how the Portuguese became so influential during this period and how Portuguese settlements were founded in areas as far flung as Asia, Africa and South America. Malyn Newitt examines how the ideas and institutions of a late medieval society were deployed to aid expansion into Africa and the Atlantic islands, as well as how, through rivalry with Castile, this grew into a worldwide commercial enterprise. Finally, he considers how resilient the Portuguese overseas communities were, surviving wars and natural disasters, and fending off attacks by the more heavily armed English and Dutch invaders until well into the 1600s. Including a detailed bibliography and glossary, A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansion 1400-1668 is an invaluable textbook for all those studying this fascinating period of European expansion




The Portuguese in West Africa, 1415–1670


Book Description

The Portuguese in West Africa, 1415–1670 brings together a collection of documents - all in new English translation - that illustrate aspects of the encounters between the Portuguese and the peoples of North and West Africa in the period from 1400 to 1650. This period witnessed the diaspora of the Sephardic Jews, the emigration of Portuguese to West Africa and the islands, and the beginnings of the black diaspora associated with the slave trade. The documents show how the Portuguese tried to understand the societies with which they came into contact and to reconcile their experience with the myths and legends inherited from classical and medieval learning. They also show how Africans reacted to the coming of Europeans, adapting Christian ideas to local beliefs and making use of exotic imports and European technologies. The documents also describe the evolution of the black Portuguese communities in Guinea and the islands, as well as the slave trade and the way that it was organized, understood, and justified.




Navigations


Book Description

A critical reassessment of world-shaping Portuguese voyages of discovery that places these quests in historical context. The lasting impact of historic Portuguese voyages of discovery is unquestionable. The slave trade, the diaspora of the Sephardic Jews, and the intercontinental spread of plants and animals all make clear these voyages’ long-term global significance. Navigations reexamines these Portuguese quests by placing them in their medieval and Renaissance settings. It shows how these voyages grew out of a crusading ethos, as well as long-distance trade with Asia and Africa and developments in map-making and ship design. Malyn Newitt also narrates these voyages of discovery in the framework of Portuguese politics, describing the role of the Portuguese ruling dynasty—including its female members—in the flowering of the Portuguese Renaissance, the creation of the Renaissance state with its distinctive ideology, and in the cultural changes that took place within a wider European context.




The Brave New World


Book Description

"A history of early America that is continental in scope, inclusive in content, and intriguing in thematic argument, this course book describes the building of the nation and the daily lives of its people up to 1776. The author's main effort in revising the book for its third edition was to expand the geographical scope of the book"--




The Chronicles of Fernão Lopes


Book Description

This 5 volume set represents the first complete English translation of one of the major chronicles of medieval Europe, by 'the father of Portuguese historiography' Covering the reigns of Pedro I, Fernando I and João I up to the signing of the 1411 treaty with Castile which confirmed the survival of the Portuguese kingdom, the chronicles provide a wealth of detail on late fourteenth-century politics, diplomacy, warfare and economic matters, courtly society, queenship and noble women, as well as more mundane concerns such as food, health and the purchasing power of a fluctuating currency. Lopes had a keen eye for detail and a perspective especially attuned to the common people, and his chronicles provide an invaluable source for the history of Western Europe in the later Middle Ages. The first four volumes are accompanied by introductions and bibliographies setting the translations in context, and the fifth volume contains a general bibliography and a comprehensive general index encompassing all of the chronicles.




Real Lives in the Sixteenth Century


Book Description

Real Lives in the Sixteenth Century presents a global history using four sets of biographies to illustrate similar situations in different geographical regions. The vibrant narratives span four continents and include the following pairs: Henry IV of France and Hideyoshi of Japan, Hürrem Sultan (Roxelana) of the Ottoman Empire and Lady Zheng of the Ming Dynasty, Afonso I of Kongo and Elizabeth I of England, and Pope Clement VII and Moctezuma II of Mexico. Through exploring the lives of eight individuals from a variety of cultural settings, this book encourages students to think about the ‘big questions’ surrounding human interactions and the dynamics of power. It introduces them to a number of key historical concepts such as feudalism, dynasticism, religious syncretism and slavery, and is a springboard into the history of the wider world, blending together aspects of political, cultural, intellectual and material history. Accessibly written and containing timelines, genealogical tables and a number of illustrations for each biography, Real Lives in the Sixteenth Century is the ideal introductory text for undergraduates of pre-modern World History and of the sixteenth century in particular.




Jan van Eyck and Portugal's 'Illustrious Generation'


Book Description

This book investigates Jan Van Eyck's patronage by the Crown of Portugal and his role as diplomat-painter for the Duchy of Burgundy following his first voyage to Lisbon in 1428-1429, when he painted two portraits of Infanta Isabella, who became the third wife of Philip the Good in 1430. New portrait identifications are provided for the Ghent Altarpiece (1432) and its iconographical prototype, the lost Fountain of Life. These altarpieces are analysed with regard to King Joao I's conquest of Ceuta, achieved by his sons, who were hailed as an "illustrious generation." Strong family ties between the dynastic houses of Avis and Lancaster explain Lusitania's sustained fascination with Arthurian lore and the Grail quest. Several chapters of this book are overlaid with a chivalric veneer. A second "secret mission" to Portugal in 1437 by Jan van Eyck is postulated and this diplomatic visit is related to Prince Henry the Navigator's expedition to Tangier and King Duarte's attempts to forge an alliance with Alfonso V of Aragon. Late Eyckian commissions are reviewed in the light of this ill-fated crusade and additional new portraits are identified. The most significant artist of Renaissance Flanders appears to have been patronized as much by the House of Avis as by the Duchy of Burgundy. Barbara von Barghahn is Professor of Art History at George Washington University and a specialist in the art history of Portugal, Spain, and their colonial dominions, as well as Flanders. In 1993, she was conferred O Grao Comendador in the Portuguese Order of Prince Henry the Navigator. She has spent nearly a decade completing research about Jan van Eyck's diplomatic visits to the Iberian Peninsula.