First edition, important history of the Portuguese early expansion to the East and the newly discovered territories, in the form of a chronicle of the reign of King Manuel I (1495 – 1521), a most productive period of Portuguese exploration and conquest; it contains an account of the early voyages of the Portuguese to the East Indies, the discovery of the sea route to India, the coast of now-a-days Brazil, and the foundational discoveries in Africa, Asia and America (Brazil). For his chronicle, Osorio borrows from historians such as Lopes de Castaneda, and includes the relations of Vasco da Gama, Magellan, Cabral, Almeida, Albuquerque and others.
“Osorio deserves a word in his own right... he was such a stylist in Latin that he became known as the Portuguese Cicero” (Boies Penrose, Travel and Discovery in the Renaissance, p.349). He was later described by Montaigne as the best Latin historian of his century.
“Treats in detail of the discovery of Brazil” (Maggs).
A detailed chronicle of the reign of Manuel I of Portugal (1495-1521). During this critical quarter of a century, the Portuguese discovered the sea route to India and established the foundations of their empire in Africa, Asia and the New World. The work contains accounts of the achievements of Afonso de Albuquerque, Vasco da Gama, Magellan, Pedro Álvares Cabral, Francisco Almeida and Gaspar de Lemos.
The pioneering initiatives taken by Afonso de Albuquerque, who served as the second Governor of Goa and was known as the ‘Caesar of the East’, were of crucial importance to the creation of the first diplomatic and commercial ties between the Portuguese and China. Albuquerque authorised the missions of Jorge Álvares and Rafael Perestrello to southern China, which were the earliest European expeditions to reach China by sea. Although relations between the Chinese and Portuguese soured after 1521, leading to a period of hostilities and mistrust, the knowledge and experience gleaned by Portuguese visitors to China in this early phase was invaluable to those who followed in their footsteps from the 1540s on, including the first Jesuit missionaries.
Osorio (1506-1580) was a Portuguese learned writer, churchmen, and historian, son of the Ouvidor Geral of India; after a period studying at Salamanca, Bologna and Paris, he came back to Portugal where he swiftly gained a name in King John III’s court, tutoring his son. Amongst his most famous works we find the De Nobilitate. His vast library was seized by Essex and brought to England, where it still remains.
Provenance: from the collection of Nicholas Ingleton.
Alden & Landis, 571/29; Borba de Moraes, 120; Sabin, 57804; Brunet, 4, 249; Samodaes, 2292.
