Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T19:03:14.147Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR NOTES TO PART III (TEXTS)

GUIAS de Albuquerque, Luis Mendonça, Os guias naúticas de Munique e Evora (Lisbon, 1965). The lists of Guinea latitudes on pp. 115-17. The Munich list can be seen on plate 6 in J.H. Parry, The Age of Reconnaissance (London, 1963).Google Scholar
PMC Cortesão, A. and da Mota, A. Teixeira, eds., Portugaliae monumenta cartographica (6 vols.: Coimbra, 1960–1963).Google Scholar
PP Pereira, Duarte Pacheco, Esmeraldo de situ orbis (Côte occidentale de Sud Marocain au Gabon), ed. Mauny, R. (Bissau, 1956).Google Scholar
ROTEIROS Peres, Damião, ed., Os mais antigos roteiros da Guiné (Lisbon, 1942). Pagination only noted when the two roteiros differ.Google Scholar
VF Fernandes, Valentim, Description de la Côte Occidentale d'Afrique (Sénégal au Cap de Monte, Archipels), eds. Monod, T., da Mota, A. Teixeira, and Mauny, R. (Bissau, 1951).Google Scholar
VFS Fernandes, Valentim, Description de la Côte d'Afrique de Ceuta au Sénégal, eds. de Cenival, P. and Monod, T. (Paris, 1938).Google Scholar
Ardener, E.W., “The Trading Polities between Rio del Rey and Cameroons, 1500-1650,” in Lewis, I.M., ed., History and Social Anthropology (London, 1968), pp. 81–126.Google Scholar
Blake, J.W., Europeans in West Africa, 1450-1560 (London, 1942).Google Scholar
Brásio, A., Monumenta missionaria Africana: Africa Ocidental (13 vols.: Lisbon, 1950–1968).Google Scholar
de Ca' da Mosto, Cadamosto Alvise, The Voyages of Cadamosto, ed. Crone, G.R. (London, 1937). Text checked against Damião Peres, Viagens de Luís de Cadamosto (Lisbon, 1948), since the new edition by Leporace (note 1 to this article) was not available to me.Google Scholar
Coote, C.H., Three Mappemondi (London, 1898).Google Scholar
de la Fosse, Eustache, “Voyage à la côte occidentale d'Afrique (1479-1480),” Revue Hispanique 4 (1897): 174–201.Google Scholar
Gomes, Diogo, De la première découverte de la Guinée, eds. Monod, T., Mauny, R., and Duval, G. (Bissau, 1959).Google Scholar
Hair, P.E.H., “An Ethnolinguistic Inventory of the Upper Guinea Coast,” African Language Review 6 (London, 1967): 32–70.Google Scholar
Hair, P.E.H., “An Ethnolinguistic Inventory of the Lower Guinea Coast, Part I,” African Language Review 7 (1968): 47–73.Google Scholar
Hakluyt, Richard, The Principall Navigations Voiages and Discoveries of the English Nation (London, 1589; facsimile, Cambridge, 1965).Google Scholar
Herbert, E.W., “Aspects of the Use of Copper in Pre-Colonial West Africa,” Journal of African History 14 (1973): 179–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jobson, Richard, The Golden Trade (London, 1623; reprint, Teignmouth, 1904).Google Scholar
de Matos, Luis, Les Portugais en France au XVIIe siècle (Coimbra, 1952).Google Scholar
Münzer, J., “Itinerario: II, De inventione Africae maritimae,” ed. de Vasconcelos, B., O Instituto 83 (1932): 140–90.Google Scholar
Ott, A., “Akan Gold Weights,” THSG 9 (1968): 17–42.Google Scholar
del Pulgar, Fernando, Crónica de los Reyes Católicos, ed. Carriazo, J. de Mata (Madrid, 1943).Google Scholar
Ramusio, G.B., Navigationi et viaggi (3 vols.: Venice, 1550–1560).Google Scholar
Ryder, A., Benin and the Europeans, 1485-1897 (London, 1969).Google Scholar
da Mota, A. Teixeira, Topónimos de origem Portuguesa na costa ocidental de Africa (Bissau, 1950).Google Scholar
da Mota, A. Teixeira, “A viagem do navio ‘Santiago’ à Serra Leoa e Rio de S.Domingos em 1526 (livro de armação,” Boletim Cultural da Guiné Portuguesa 24 (1969): 529–79 (also separata 53 of AECA, Lisbon).Google Scholar
da Mota, A. Teixeira, Além, Além Mar (Lisbon, 1972).Google Scholar
Thevet, André, La Cosmographie Universelle (Paris, 1575).Google Scholar
Vogt, J., “Portuguese Gold Trade: An Account Ledger from Elmina, 1529-1531,” THSG (14 (1973): 93–103.Google Scholar