GALVÃO, António (A. Galvano). Lisbon 1490? — Lisbon 11.3.1557. Portuguese Historian of Colonial India. Son of the chronicler Duarte G. (c. 1445–1517). From 1527 in the Moluccas, 1536-40 Governor in Ternate, established Portuguese rule in the islands and acted strongly on behalf of mission, destroying temples, etc. His last 17 years he spent in disfavour and (relative) poverty concentrating on his literary work. The book published by his friend Francisco de Sousa Tavares contains a comprehensive account of Portuguese and Spanish voyages until 1550. The second was used by J. de Barros and D. de Góis, but then disappeared.
Publications: Tratado dos diversos e desvairados caminhos por onde nos tempos passados a pimenta e especiaria veyo da India ás nossas partes, e assim de todos os descobrimentos antigos e modernos que são feitos em a era de 1550. 80 f. Lisbon 1563, new ed. 1731, English transl. by R. Hakluyt, 1601, new ed. as The discoveries of the world, from their first original unto the year of Our Lord 1555. 4+242 p. London 1862 (full title of the first ed.: Tratado. Que compôs o nobre & notauel capitão A. G., dos diversos & desvayrados caminhos, por onde nos tempos passados a pimenta & especcaria veyo da India ás nossas partes, e assi de todos os descobrimentos antigos & modernos, que são feitos até a era de míl & quinhentos & cincoenta. Com os nomos particulares das pessoas que os fizeram: & om que tempos & as suas alturas, obra carto muy notauel & capiosa).
– Manuscript of a ten volume Historia das Molucas, da natureza, e descubrimento daquellas terras – the remaining fragment ed. by H. Jacobs: A treatise on the Moluccas (c. 1544) probably the preliminary version of António Galvão’s lost História das Molucas. Edited, annotated, and translated into English from the Portuguese manuscript in the Archivo general de Indias, Seville. 8+402 p. Rome. 1971.
Sources: Grande Enc. Portuguesa e Bras. 12, 100f.; Wikipedia with picture.
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