The common between worlds: the first impressions of European travelers towards the African continent in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries

• Grant number: 17/27155-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: June 10, 2018
• End date: August 09, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Ancient and Medieval History
• Principal Investigator: Susani Silveira Lemos Franca
• Grantee: Paula Sposito Almeida
• Supervisor: José Manuel Damião Soares Rodrigues
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais (FCHS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Franca. Franca , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
• Associated to the scholarship: 17/10546-1 - The common between worlds: European travelers first impressions of the African continent in fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, BP.MS

Abstract

This project integrates the Master's research that is dedicated to the study of the Portuguese presence on the west coast of Africa in the middle of the 15th century and beginning of the 16th century, which aims to analyze the indications of common features between African and European customs described by travelers. Some of those who were sent by the Portuguese crown to those places were able to observe only the African towns and places very quickly; others, on the contrary, were able to stay longer or combine information brought by other travelers. Observing the differences in the descriptions of each other according to their travel experience or knowledge gained from other travelers, as well as what they recognized as familiar in those peoples from afar is the goal of the masters project in development. This project, in turn, aims to improve a fundamental part of this major research, which is to better understand the itinerary of these trips that occurred during about 80 years and which led to the recognition of places and peoples. In other words, the survey of studies and sources in Portugal will be aimed at deepening the geography of travel, with emphasis on the parameters of travelers' knowledge at the time they traveled. (AU)