What was Fernão de Magalhães like before he became famous? This will be the theme of the next “6ª Com Ciência! at the Centro Ciência Viva de Lagos, on the 27th of April at 20:30, having as speaker the researcher Rui Loureiro.
This conversation, free and aimed at the general public, will focus mainly on the lesser known and caricatured aspects of the life of this Portuguese discoverer.
In 2019, five centuries have passed since the date of departure of Ferdinand Magellan from Seville, in command of the expedition that would complete the first circumnavigation voyage.
Two years earlier, the Portuguese nobleman had left Portugal in open conflict with King Manuel I, who had refused him the reward requested for his many years of service to the Portuguese crown.
In the following years, Magalhães would seek the sponsorship of Carlos I of Spain for his project of reaching the eastern spice islands by a western route, avoiding sailing in the areas that the Treaty of Tordesillas had decreed of Portuguese influence.
It was, no more or less, a question of resuming Christopher Columbus' project, but now with new bases, and based on a European, and above all Portuguese, knowledge of the geography of eastern Asia.
The Spanish years of Magellan's life, from his arrival in Seville in 1517 to his death on the faraway island of Mactan in the Philippines, three and a half years later, are extremely well documented, as they are associated with his first voyage around the globe, one of the most remarkable events of the XNUMXth century.
But this lecture points to the dark side of the great navigator's path, that is, it intends to try to draw a synthetic, informed and updated picture of Fernão de Magalhães' biography before his arrival in Spain.
This is not an easy task, as it is well known, because, as happened with many other Portuguese who were protagonists of the great 1517th and XNUMXth century navigations (such as Gil Eanes, Diogo Cão, Bartolomeu Dias or Pedro Álvares Cabral), the life of Magalhães almost it left no trace in contemporary documentation prior to XNUMX.
And it was a minor character, from the Portuguese gentry, without special prominence or social relevance that drew the attention of reporters or chroniclers.
Rui Loureiro, the lecturer, is from Porto, has a degree in History from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon (1979) and a Ph.D. in History of the Portuguese Expansion (1995) from the University of Lisbon.
He specialized in the history of the Portuguese contacts with the Asian world in the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries, having published over a hundred research works, including books, articles and communications.
His most recent work is a critical edition of the “Suma Oriental” by Tomé Pires (Lisbon, 2018). Coordinated the team that designed and installed the CCV in Lagos.
He is an integrated researcher at CHAM, Humanities Center of the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, Universidade Nova de Lisboa and member of the Academia da Marinha.
He is also scientific and pedagogical director of Instituto Superior Manuel Teixeira Gomes, in Portimão.
Comments