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Book/Printed Material Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama to India, 1497-1499. Roteiro da primeira viagem de Vasco da Gama à Índia, 1497-1499

About this Item

Title

  • Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama to India, 1497-1499.

Other Title

  • Roteiro da primeira viagem de Vasco da Gama à Índia, 1497-1499

Summary

  • This manuscript is the only known copy of a journal believed to have been written on board ship during Vasco da Gama's first voyage to India. The lost original of the journal most often has been attributed to Álvaro Velho, who accompanied Vasco da Gama to India in 1497-99, but who did not return to Portugal with the expedition but remained for eight years in Gambia and Guinea. The manuscript is anonymous and undated, but paleographic analysis dates it to the first half of the 16th century. The document describes the voyage to India and contact with different peoples on the coasts of Africa and India. It discusses diseases, plants and animals, hostages, titles and professions, weapons of war, food, precious stones, navigational challenges, and much else. Appended to the main body of the text are a description of some of the kingdoms of the Orient, a list of spices and other merchandise and their prices, and a vocabulary of the Calicut language. In a different handwriting, new titles were added, Descubrimento da India por Vasco da Gamma (Discovery of India by Vasco da Gama) on the cover page, and Relação do descubrimento da India por Vasco da Gamma (Report of the discovery of India by Vasco da Gama) on the front free endpaper. The manuscript was for centuries in the collections of the Monastery of Santa Cruz of Coimbra. In 1834 it was transferred to the Municipal Library of Porto. Vasco da Gama's voyage around the Cape of Good Hope to India was an event of enormous historical significance. Apart from being one of the great acts of European seamanship, it laid the basis for the Portuguese Empire, which was to last for centuries, and it established new contacts between Europe and the civilizations of Asia, marking an early milestone in the process that later came to be called "globalization." The journal of Vasco da Gama's first voyage to India was inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2013.

Names

  • Velho, Álvaro Attributed Name.

Created / Published

  • [place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], [1500 to 1550]

Headings

  • -  India
  • -  Portugal
  • -  1497 to 1499
  • -  Description and travel
  • -  Explorers
  • -  Gama, Vasco da, 1469-1524
  • -  Memory of the World
  • -  Portugal -- History -- Period of discoveries, 1385-1580
  • -  Voyages and travels

Notes

  • -  Title devised, in English, by Library staff.
  • -  Original resource extent: 45 folios ; 29 centimeters.
  • -  Original resource at: The Municipal Library of Porto.
  • -  Content in Portuguese.
  • -  Description based on data extracted from World Digital Library, which may be extracted from partner institutions.

Medium

  • 1 online resource.

Source Collection

  • World History

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2021667835

Online Format

  • compressed data
  • pdf
  • image

Additional Metadata Formats

IIIF Presentation Manifest

Rights & Access

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Credit Line: [Original Source citation], World Digital Library

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Velho, Álvaro Attributed Name. Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama to India, -1499. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, to 1550, 1500] Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/2021667835/.

APA citation style:

Velho, Á. A. N. (1500) Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama to India, -1499. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, to 1550] [Pdf] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2021667835/.

MLA citation style:

Velho, Álvaro Attributed Name. Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama to India, -1499. [Place of Publication Not Identified: Publisher Not Identified, to 1550, 1500] Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2021667835/>.