Copy of a Letter of the King of Portugal Sent to the King of Castile Concerning the Voyage and Success of India
Copy of a Letter of the King of Portugal Sent to the King of Castile Concerning the Voyage and Success of India
TRANSLATED BY Sergio J. Pacifici
Copyright Date: 1955
Edition: NED - New edition
Published by: University of Minnesota Press
Pages: 40
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctttsv1q
Search for reviews of this book
Book Info
Copy of a Letter of the King of Portugal Sent to the King of Castile Concerning the Voyage and Success of India
Book Description:

This is the first English translation of a rare historical document, the complete title of which is Copy of a Letter of the King of Portugal Sent to the King of Castile Concerning the Voyage and Success of India. Published in 1505 in Rome, the document purported to be a copy of a letter of Manual the Fortunate, king of Portugal, though some doubt exists among scholars as to whether the text was that of a letter of the king of simply a news publication. In any case, the document is historically significant, since it gives a contemporary account of the first commercial sea voyages to India by the Portuguese. The original publication from which this translation was made is in the James Ford Bell Collection in the University of Minnesota library.

eISBN: 978-1-4529-3685-7
Subjects: History
You do not have access to this book on JSTOR. Try logging in through your institution for access.
Log in to your personal account or through your institution.
Table of Contents
Export Selected Citations Export to NoodleTools Export to RefWorks Export to EasyBib Export a RIS file (For EndNote, ProCite, Reference Manager, Zotero, Mendeley...) Export a Text file (For BibTex)
Select / Unselect all
  1. Front Matter
    Front Matter (pp. [i]-[iv])
  2. Introduction
    Introduction (pp. [v]-[vi])
    John Parker

    When Vasco da Gama returned to Lisbon from India on August 29, 1499, he brought a century of Portuguese exploration and reconaissance to its conclusion, and inaugurated a new era of commercial and colonial expansion in the East. After Portuguese navigators had made countless voyages along the west coast of Africa to seek the products of that continent, contact with the legendary Christian kingdom of Prester John, and an all-water route to India, da Gama finally proved that the much-wanted spices of India could be brought to Europe by a route around the Cape of Good Hope.

    Manuel the Fortunate,...

  3. Translator’s Note
    Translator’s Note (pp. [vii]-2)
    Sergio J. Pacifici
  4. Copy of a Letter of the King of Portugal Sent to the King of Castile Concerning the Voyage and Success of India
    Copy of a Letter of the King of Portugal Sent to the King of Castile Concerning the Voyage and Success of India (pp. 3-25)

    Although, my Catholic King and Lord, I have advised more than once Your Most Serene Majesty of our success in other letters of mine, after we had already begun our traffic and trade in the lands of India in our name, yet, at the present time, because of the arrival of some of our ships, it has seemed opportune to me to make a report of their news. And repeating whatever we have written in our previous letters, in order that you might be excellently informed of everything, it has seemed opportune to me to recall all the information from...

University of Minnesota Press logo