Following our previous blog posts on the circulation of maritime experts in Europe (Travelling Cosmographical Knowledge between Elizabethan England and Valois France and Fernão de Oliveira: a Globalization Agent of Iberian Maritime Knowledge), it is impossible not to mention the case of Portuguese cosmographer Bartolomeu Velho.
A renowned cartographer and mathematician, Bartolomeu Velho designed in 1561, for King Sebastian of Portugal (1557-1578), a world map known as the Carta Geral da Orbe. His works caught soon the attention of Valois France. Raymond de Forqueveaux, the French ambassador to Philip II’s court between 1565 and 1572, used a contact in France to negotiate Velho’s entry into the service of French King Charles IX (1560-1574). Through the commercial networks that Francesco d’Albagno, an Italian merchant from Luca, had in Lisbon, Velho was offered conditions to come to France. Velho would provide the French monarchy with cosmographical information relating to an unoccupied land (by the Portuguese and the Spanish) that France was likely to explore in South America. In exchange, he was offered valuable conditions to pass to Valois France in 1566, including the possibility of bringing all his family.
Almost at the same time, a deal was struck to have Father Fernão de Oliveira, who at that time was also completing his Ars Nautica, the first European treatise on nautical construction, enter Valois service too. The maneuver was avoided by the Spanish ambassador in Lisbon, who managed to hire Oliveira for Spain’s service (although there is no sign that Oliveira ever left Portugal). In the meantime, owing to Velho’s arrival in France, Portugal asked Philip II to imprison Velho, who was already in Spain on his way to France. This effort, however, did not succeed.
Velho arrived in France in 1567 and soon finished his famous Cosmographia (preserved today at the Bibliothéque Nationale de France), dedicated to King Charles IX. He also brought with him a new instrument that was to help France in the preparation for a French expedition to explore unknown lands. A full inventory of all the goods that Velho brought to France is also known. Still, Charles IX did not have much time to profit from the Portuguese cosmographer’s work and expertise, as he died in 1568 at Nantes, and it is unknown if Velho had time to make further contributions to that planned French expedition.
Velho’s story was not a unique case, even in his time. However, it is an enlightening example of the key role played by information networks used by ambassadors, to successfully acquire the rival’s maritime knowledge. The consequent globalization of cosmographical knowledge in sixteenth-century Europe, as Velho’s case illustrates, was, thus, an unstoppable process, and ambassadors played a pivotal role in this reality. [Nuno Vila-Santa]
No comments:
Post a Comment