Francisco Faleiro and Scientific Methodology at the Casa de la Contratación in the 16th Century (original) (raw)
Related papers
Life and Travel of Ferdinand Magellan
The timeliness in reviving this work of Diego Barros Arana on the “Vida y Viajes de Hernando de Magallanes (Life and Travel of Ferdinand Magellan - 1480-1521)” at this time lies in the fact that we are able to rouse the consciousness of the whole Philippine nation to give this man utmost importance and recognition today because he had died and sacrificed his life in order for us to be able to receive the nominal Christian baptism that brought us into the catholic faith some 560 years ago. Apart from this, another importance of Ferdinand Magellan’s travel is the fact that he had scientifically proven to humankind that planet Earth was round and not flat because his armada in 1521 (1520?) had finally circumnavigated the world for the first time. The original Spanish of this work was downloaded from http://bdh-rd.bne.es in 1 August 2018 and transcribed for translation into English using the online facility of Google Translate by Dominador N. Marcaida Jr., which transcription was started 2 August 2018 and finished on 4 August 2018. The translation into English was finished on 7 August 2018.
BIOGRAPHICAL REPORT ON FERDINAND MAGELLAN (Navarrete's Viajes Vol. 4)
Given here is the complete Volume 4 English translation of Martin Fernandez de Navarrete’s Coleccion de Viages (Madrid, 1829). English translation using the online internet facility Google Translate is still ongoing. This particular Volume contains the reports on Ferdinand Magellan's Voyage to the East.
Ambix, 2008
The subject of gases was on the agenda of many learned scientifi c gentlemen in the second half of the eighteenth century. This was not only because of the extraordinary account that had been given as to the physical and chemical composition of the third state of matter, but also, and perhaps mainly, because of the extraordinary properties that at least one of these gases seemed to offer for food preservation, the medicinal properties of natural waters and medical applications. These putative practical applications were highly sought after by society at the time, particularly for longdistance sea journeys. This paper focuses on the Portuguese polymath João Jacinto de Magalhães (1722-1790), also known as John Hyacinth de Magellan. It shows some specifi c aspects of his activities as a disseminator of Priestley's discoveries on pneumatics, mainly in Flanders, Holland and France, and through his large network of scientifi c correspondents. Early days João Jacinto de Magalhães, 1 later widely known as John Hyacinth de Magellan, was born in Aveiro (Portugal) in 1722 and was a descendant of the youngest brother of the great navigator Fernão de Magalhães. 2 When he was eleven years old, he 1 Aveiro (Portugal), 4 November 1722; London/Islington (UK), 7 February 1790. An earlier description of Magellan's work and life in the context of eighteenth-century science was developed in the author's Ph.D.
ANTONIO PIGAFETTA, A CULTURAL MEDIATOR DURING THE EXPEDITION OF MAGELLAN-ELCANO
Territorial Identity and Development, 2019
Although it is difficult to legitimize lately, in a way, who the supreme title holder is of the first circumnavigator among Magellan and Elcano, each one has his undeniable merits. Beyond the difficult route and the obstacles encountered, or the successes achieved on several levels (geographic, anthropological, economic, etc.), what stands above all is the significance of self-discovery and of the Other. In order to facilitate the encompassing of the significance of the discoveries, what interests most is the message, sometimes apparently codified from the point of view of writing, of a message of hope for the descendants, of a certain godliness to the divinity, and of the idea that such civilizing gestures could ever be repeated. The emblem of this testimony, but also of a kind of paradoxical happy testament of the supreme sailors, or of the several unknown illustrious people, is, of course, the fierce and powerful Antonio Pigafetta who, together with his masters in navigation and survival beyond human limits, completes the splendid earthly trinity of the explorers.
This paper aims at illuminating the links between spherical geography, Catholic empire and the Atlantic origins of the scientific revolution. Boldly put, the theory of the sphericity of the earth stood at the center of Iberian expansion and its imaginary; in turn, imperial patronage contributed to give a new status to that theory and to transform it into one of the sources for the early modern worldview.Three main moments constitute the previous argument. First, voyages developed along with spherical geography, in which lumps of earth were located in terms of latitude and longitude. Second, Iberian voyages of discovery developed spherical geography by enlarging the Greek known world, or oikumene, and gave new ground to the theory of the sphericity of the earth in the midst of medieval competing models, specifically one that held that the sphere of the earth was suspended over a sphere of water too large to be navigated. Third, imperial voyages together with spherical geography, prac...
Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, 2018
The aim of this work is to describe different kinds of astronomical and astrological works written in the sixteenth century, with special emphasis on Portuguese and Spanish texts. This period is especially relevant in the development of astronomical culture in Portugal and Spain, since this was the age of the great overseas explorations, when astronomical navigation became of fundamental importance. The astronomical culture of that time involved ancient and new concepts, and old revisited narratives about the cosmos and its influence in many facets of the sublunary world. The present research describes the influence and transformation of the classical and medieval astronomical culture in the specific context of sixteenth century Iberian texts. There were different publics involved in the production and study of those works, such as navigators, priests, physicians, farmers, astrologers and scholars. Those different aspects of astronomical and astrological knowledge were not distinct, there was a significant overlap between them; and the educated public required some broad acquaintance with those several approaches. Some popular treatises, called Chronographia, or Reportorio dos tempos, provided astronomical and astrological information required by the general public. This overview of those sources can contribute to a better and more comprehensive understanding of the astronomical culture in that period.
Culture & History, 2020
The voyages of exploration and discovery during the period of European maritime expansion and the immense amount of information and artefacts they produced about our knowledge of the world have maintained a difficult, if not non-existent, relationship with the main historiographical lines of the history of early modern science. This article attempts to problematize this relationship based on a historical account that seeks to highlight the scientific and institutional mechanisms that made the Magellan-Elcano voyage, the first modern voyage, possible. The text argues that this voyage was the first modern voyage because it allowed the construction of a new scientific and cartographic image of the globe and contributed to our understanding of the world as a global world, altering the foundations on which modern European economic and geographic thought was based. In that sense, the voyage was something extraordinary, but not completely unexpected. It responded to a complex process of expansionary policy and technical development that dated back to the 15th century, which in 1519 was sufficiently articulated to carry out a great feat.
As travei and navigation became increasingly important in sixteenth-century Spain, a number of cosmographers, experts trained in astronomy and geography, struggled to reform ocean navigation by changing it from a craft into a science. The pilots doing the navigating resisted these reforms at every turn, objecting to the emphasis of theoretical understanding over experience at sea, and the concomitant reliance on land-based teaching. The pilots and cosmographers remained in conflict with each other throughout the century, with essentially unchanging rhetoric on both sides. This seeming stasis hid a shifting reality. The cosmographers wanted to change both how pilots acted at sea (what methods they used) and how they conceived of navigation (as a craft or a science). The arguments about the latter obscured the changes made in the former. In the 1550s both sides saw operations that were in essence applications of observational astronomy (such as finding latitude at sea from the sun or north star) as something to be taught by cosmographers. By the 1580s, however, the pilots were claiming these same operations as practical knowledge, part of what needed to be taught at sea. Thus the continuing conflicts over the extent to which astronomical knowledge was necessary served to hide the extent to which its practical benefits were already being assimilated.
COLOMBO versus COLON: The weaver from Italy was not the navigator from Spain
Columbus vs. COLÓN: The weaver from Italy was not the navigator from Spain, 2024
. I believe that his doctoral dissertation is a milestone in the Portuguese historiography, but it is a limited milestone. The milestone was only in what we can say with the certainty of historians. Yes, it is what we can prove through the scientific method. History is a science, it is a human science, but it is a science with a scientific method. And, therefore, everything that I can affirm without the scientific method contradicting me... And therefore, my position is that there is a fact that seems to me to be indisputable. What is indisputable is that Cristóbal Colón was not a Genoese weaver Christopher Columbus. That is impossible. There is no chance. No matter how many other historians tell me otherwise, it is impossible for him to have been a Genoese weaver Christopher Columbus. It is impossible because of one reason, above all others..., the big argument against the Genoese weaver has always centered on Filipa Moniz (his wife). The fact that Filipa Moniz was noble is already sufficient evidence of his noble birth. And therefore, just to reiterate what Manuel Rosa has presented, Cristóbal Colón, was certainly born in Portugal, he wrote in Portuguese. Cristóbal Colón, was certainly a nobleman, there is no other explanation! He is appointed Viceroy by the Queen of Castile, who knew who he was. He was also revered here in Portugal. He married here an individual of significant relevance in the social context of the second half of the 15th century. Cristóbal Colón, had to inevitably be a nobleman to be in this marriage. There is one other thing, and that is for me, the key fact, it will be the title of my book that I hope to publish next year called Colón the Viceroy. And Viceroy is the key argument for me, and I don't know how people pretend that this fact doesn't exist. Cristóbal Colón before setting sail, before having done anything of any relevance in any way to make himself significant. A social act, a sword fight, killing a random guy in a battle. Something like that. When he set sail, before he is sent... the promised reward he got was not the promise that King D. Afonso V had made to all those who were going to venture out into the Atlantic, which was to be Lords of the islands they discovered. Not even in a more centralizing way as King D. João II did, no longer promising the lordship as his father did, he promised only the captaincy of the discovered islands. The Queen of Spain does not promise a title of Lordship or a title of Captain. She promised him the title of Viceroy! It is a matter of seeing who was made Viceroy in the Iberian Peninsula in the 15th and 16th centuries. Has any weaver ever been captain of anything, let alone Viceroy? And therefore, we cannot create history by going against the facts of history.