Navigations

The Portuguese Discoveries and the Renaissance

Malyn Newitt

• Publisher: Reaktion Books
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781836392071, 9781789147025
• eBook ISBN: 9781789147346
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

A critical reassessment of world-shaping Portuguese voyages of discovery that places these quests in historical context. The lasting impact of historic Portuguese voyages of discovery is unquestionable. The slave trade, the diaspora of the Sephardic Jews, and the intercontinental spread of plants and animals all make clear these voyages' long-term global significance. Navigations reexamines these Portuguese quests by placing them in their medieval and Renaissance settings. It shows how these voyages grew out of a crusading ethos, as well as long-distance trade with Asia and Africa and developments in map-making and ship design. Malyn Newitt also narrates these voyages of discovery in the framework of Portuguese politics, describing the role of the Portuguese ruling dynasty—including its female members—in the flowering of the Portuguese Renaissance, the creation of the Renaissance state with its distinctive ideology, and in the cultural changes that took place within a wider European context.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• CONTENTS
• Author’s Note
• Introduction
• 1 Western Europe and the World before the Fifteenth Century
• 2 The Princes of the Avis Dynasty and the Beginning of Portuguese Maritime Exploration
• 3 The Social and Economic History of the Portuguese Atlantic Empire
• 4 The Portuguese Exploration of the West African Coast in the Second Half of the Fifteenth Century
• 5 Portuguese Royal Women in the Age of Discovery
• 6 Vasco da Gama, Pedro Álvares Cabral and Renaissance Portugal
• 7 Duarte Pacheco Pereira: Portugal’s Complete Renaissance Man
• 8 Magellan: The Navigator as Epic Hero
• 9 Understanding the Portuguese Voyages of Discovery: A Long-Term Perspective
• GLOSSARY
• THE AVIS DYNASTY
• REFERENCES
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• PHOTO ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• INDEX