The Chronicles Of Fernao Lopes And Gomes Eannes De Zurara PDF Download

The following translation of Azurara's Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea is the first complete English version that has appeared of the chief contemporary authority for the life-work of Prince Henry of Portugal, surnamed the Navigator; and we may remind members of the Hakluyt Society, and other readers, that we have but lately passed the fifth centenary of the Prince's birth (March 4th, 1394).The first volume includes about half of the text, together with an Introduction on the Life and Writings of Azurara, which it is hoped will be found more exhaustive and accurate than any previous notice of the historian.In the second volume (which is due for the year 1897) will be given the rest of the Chronicle, with an Introduction on the Geographical Discoveries of the Portuguese, and Prince Henry's share in the same. It will also contain notes for the explanation of historical and other questions arising out of certain passages in the text of both volumes. To illustrate the condition of geographical knowledge in the period covered by the present installment, we have included four reproductions of contemporary (or almost contemporary) maps: (1) Africa, according to the Laurentian Portolano of 1351 in the Medicean Library at Florence. This is the most remarkable of all the Portolani of the fourteenth century. Its outline of W. and S. Africa, and more particularly its suggestion of the bend of the Guinea Coast, is surprisingly near the truth, even as a guess, in a chart made one hundred and thirty-five years before the Cape of Good Hope was first rounded. (2) N.-W. Africa, the Canary Isles, etc., according to the design of the Venetian brethren Pizzigani, in 1367. (3) The same according to the Catalan Map of 1375 in the Bibliotha que Canary Islesue Nationale at Paris. The interior of Africa is filled with fantastic pictures of native tribes; the boatload of men off Cape Bojador in the extreme S.-W. of the map probably represents the Catalan explorers of the year 1346, whose voyage in search of the "River of Gold" this map commemorates. (4) The same, with certain other parts of the world, according to Andrea Bianco in 1436. In the succeeding volume, we hope to offer some illustrations of the cartography of Prince Henry's later years, as well as a likeness of the Prince himself, either from the Paris portrait (MSS. Port. 41, fol. 5 bis) or from the statue at Belem. We had expected to be able to furnish our readers with a copy of the portrait of the Prince from the important oil-painting on board preserved in a corridor of the extinct monastery adjoining the Church of S. Vicente de Fara in Lisbon, but the photograph, which was taken by Senhor Camacho with the permission of His Eminence the Cardinal Patriarch, proved unsatisfactory, owing to the position of the picture and want of sufficient light.