António Galvão (c. 1490–1557), also known as Antonio Galvano, was a Portuguese soldier,

chronicle A chronicle ( la, chronica, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and ...

r and administrator in the

Maluku islands The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located ...

, and a

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ide ...

historian who was the first person to present a comprehensive report of the leading voyages and explorers up to 1550 by Portuguese explorers and those of other nationalities. His works, especially the Treaty of Discovery that was published in Lisbon in 1563 and in English by

Richard Hakluyt Richard Hakluyt (; 1553 – 23 November 1616) was an English writer. He is known for promoting the English colonization of North America through his works, notably ''Divers Voyages Touching the Discoverie of America'' (1582) and ''The Pri ...

in 1601, are notably accurate.

Life

António Galvão was the son of

Duarte Galvão Duarte Galvão (1435/1440 – 9 June 1517) was a Portuguese courtier, diplomat and chronicler. Duarte was born at Évora between about 1435 and 1440. His father, Rui Galvão, was a clerk of the royal chamber (''escrivão da cámara'') before 142 ...

, who was chief diplomat and chronicler to King

Afonso V of Portugal Afonso V () (15 January 1432 – 28 August 1481), known by the sobriquet the African (), was King of Portugal from 1438 until his death in 1481, with a brief interruption in 1477. His sobriquet refers to his military conquests in Northern Afri ...

. In 1527, António Galvão sailed for

Portuguese India The State of India ( pt, Estado da Índia), also referred as the Portuguese State of India (''Estado Português da Índia'', EPI) or simply Portuguese India (), was a state of the Portuguese Empire founded six years after the discovery of a s ...

where he became captain of Maluku and governor of the fort of

Ternate Ternate is a city in the Indonesian province of North Maluku and an island in the Maluku Islands. It was the ''de facto'' provincial capital of North Maluku before Sofifi on the nearby coast of Halmahera became the capital in 2010. It is off the ...

from 1536 to 1540. He is described in Chapter II of the Fifth "Decade of Asia" as a respected governor, having sent a mission to Papua and received local embassies. He funded a seminar in Ternate, where he spent 12,000 ''

cruzados The Cruzados were a 1980s rock band from Los Angeles, California. History The Cruzados were formed in 1983 by the members of The Plugz, featuring members Tito Larriva, Tony Marsico, Steven Hufsteter, Chalo Quintana, The band's self-titled a ...

'' from the inheritance he had received from his father, and was known for his integrity. In 1540, Galvão handed the governance of the fortress to D. Jorge de Castro and returned to Portugal, where he learned he had fallen into disgrace. He spent his last years in anonymity and poverty in the Royal Hospital awaiting a pension. He died in the hospital and was buried in 1557.

Works

António Galvão left two manuscripts; one was the treaty of the discoveries that was printed in 1563 in Lisbon by his friend Francisco de Sousa Tavares. The work, which was based on numerous written sources and documents, presented for the first time a synthesis of all of the discoveries that were made by Portuguese and Spanish explorers until 1550.

had the treaty translated into English and published in 1601 as "The discoveries of the world - by Antonio Galvano". The second manuscript was a history of the

Moluccas The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located ...

(Maluku) with the title: "Historia das Molucas, da natureza, e descubrimento daquellas terras divida em 10 livros". ("History of the Moluccas, nature and discovery of the lands divided into 10 books"). This remained unpublished; Francisco de Sousa Tavares passed the manuscript to the crown. It is referred to by 16th-century chroniclers

João de Barros João de Barros () (1496 – 20 October 1570), called the ''Portuguese Livy'', is one of the first great Portuguese historians, most famous for his '' Décadas da Ásia'' ("Decades of Asia"), a history of the Portuguese in India, Asia, and southe ...

and

João Baptista Lavanha João Baptista Lavanha (c. 1550 – 31 March 1624) was a Portuguese cartographer, mathematician and geographer in the service of the Spanish kings Philip II and Philip III. Life Lavanha was born in the middle of 16th century. His parents were ...

; a good part of it is said to have been reproduced verbatim within

Damião de Góis Damião de Góis (; February 2, 1502January 30, 1574), born in Alenquer, Portugal, was an important Portuguese humanist philosopher. He was a friend and student of Erasmus. He was appointed secretary to the Portuguese factory in Antwerp in 152 ...

's 1566-67 '' Chronica del rey D. Manuel'' but all trace of the original Galvão manuscript disappeared after Góis's death.Diogo Barbosa Machado (1741) ''Bibliotheca Lusitana'', v.1, p.285 In 1928, a document was found in the

Archivo General de Indias The Archivo General de Indias (, "General Archive of the Indies"), housed in the ancient merchants' exchange of Seville, Spain, the ''Casa Lonja de Mercaderes'', is the repository of extremely valuable archival documents illustrating the history ...

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Penins ...

with a history of the Maluku that was identified as being part—perhaps an early draft—of António Galvão's lost document. It was published in 1971 a in bilingual (Portuguese-English) edition that was arranged by Hubert Jacobs with the title ''A Treatise on the Moluccas (c. 1544), probably the preliminary version of António Galvão's lost Historia das Moluccas'' (Rome: Jesuit Historical Society).

Life

Works

See also