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Some Minor Sources for Guinea, 1519-1559: Enciso and Alfonce/Fonteneau

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

P.E.H. Hair
P.E.H. Hair*
Affiliation:
University of Liverpool
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Extract

The earliest detailed account of Upper Guinea was written by Cadamosto, probably in 1463, and published in Italian in 1507. In the decade 1500-1509, a more detailed account was compiled by Valentim Fernandes, and a similar account of the whole Guinea coast was prepared by Pacheco Pereira—but neither of these Portuguese works was published in the sixteenth century, and even Portuguese writers of the period do not appear to have seen the manuscripts. Late fifteenth century roteiros (guides to nautical routes, “rutters” in sixteenth century English) also remained in manuscript, but being in regular use were more easily borrowed and copied: detailed roteiros for Guinea certainly contributed to Pacheco Pereira's text, and less detailed information from roteiros seems t o have trickled through to some of the non-Portuguese sources we are about to discuss. The position regarding maps was very similar; thus, non-Portuguese writers on Guinea during the first half of the sixteenth century had available the following limited sources of information: (a) references, mainly mythological, in ancient and classical accounts of Africa—e.g., Herodotus, Pliny, and Ptolemy; (b) Cadamosto's account, after its publication in 1507; (c) later experience of seamen in Guinea, passed on orally, or from notes and roteiros not now extant; (d) maps based on some or all of the above sources.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 3 , 1976 , pp. 19 - 46
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1976

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References

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