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Fernao Mendes Pinto 8: First in Japan

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Nanban byōbu, by Kanō Sanraku, 17th century - (Wikimedia)

The first Europeans wash up on Japanese shores, bringing the musket as they do so, and Pinto would have you believe that he is with them.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

  • The Travels of Mendes Pinto, edited and translated by Rebecca D. Catz. University of Chicago Press, 1989.

  • Cooper, Michael. The Southern Barbarians: The First Europeans in Japan. Kodansha, 1971.

  • Lidin, Olof G. Tanegashima: The Arrival of Europe in Japan. Routledge, 2003.

  • Perrin, Noel. Giving Up the Gun: Japan's Reversion to the Sword, 1543-1879. David R. Godine, 1979.

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Fernao Mendes Pinto 7: A Traveller's Guide to Ming China

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A Fisher in Autumn - Tang Yin

Pinto's story continues, and the Portuguese traveller makes his way across China as a prisoner, describing some its towns, cities, and countryside as he goes. His China, which he may not have actually visited himself, is dotted with the remnants of previous Portuguese actions, an envoy's gravestone and the remnants of failed embassies.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

  • The Travels of Mendes Pinto, edited and translated by Rebecca D. Catz. University of Chicago Press, 1989.

  • Hart, Thomas R. “Style and Substance in the Peregrination.” Portuguese Studies 2 (1986): 49–55. 

  • Hart, Thomas R. “True or False: Problems of the ‘Peregrination.’” Portuguese Studies 13 (1997): 35–42.

  • Rubiés, Joan-Pau. "The Oriental Voices of Mendes Pinto, or the Traveller as Ethnologist in Portuguese India." Portuguese Studies 10 (1994): 24–43.

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Fernao Mendes Pinto 6: Grave Robbery and Leeches

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From 14th-Century Traite de Medecine by Aldebrande de Florence - (Biblioteca del Palacio Nacional de Ajuda)

Our Portuguese adventurer resumes his piratical ways and runs into trouble on the coast of China. He and de Faria find silver in abundance, but also shipwreck, poverty, and leeches.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

  • The Travels of Mendes Pinto, edited and translated by Rebecca D. Catz. University of Chicago Press, 1989.

  • Hart, Thomas R. “Style and Substance in the Peregrination.” Portuguese Studies 2 (1986): 49–55. 

  • Hart, Thomas R. “True or False: Problems of the ‘Peregrination.’” Portuguese Studies 13 (1997): 35–42.

  • Rubiés, Joan-Pau. "The Oriental Voices of Mendes Pinto, or the Traveller as Ethnologist in Portuguese India." Portuguese Studies 10 (1994): 24–43.

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The Medieval Winter and Other Seasons Since

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Detail from an image of December in the Da Costa Book of Hours - Morgan Library

Not a Christmas episode, but a winter one: winter in various Old English sources and winter now. Happy New Year and thanks for listening!

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

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Fernao Mendes Pinto 5: Revenge and a Little Piracy Too

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16th-century depiction of Portuguese ships used in India at the time.

Portuguese ships of the 16th century - (Wikimedia)

Pinto and his colleagues embark on a quest for revenge against a certain pirate, and in the process indulge in quite a bit of piracy themselves along the coasts of Champa and Hainan. Ships are seized, silks are stolen, and brains are squeezed out.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Source:

  • The Travels of Mendes Pinto, edited and translated by Rebecca D. Catz. University of Chicago Press, 1989.

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Fernao Mendes Pinto 4: The Aceh Sultanate and Further Suffering at Sea

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Aceh in the 18th century - (Wikimedia)

Fernao Mendes Pinto recovers from shipwreck and captivity, neither his first nor his last, and returns to the story of the Aceh Sultanate.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

I'm on Twitter @circus_human, Instagram @humancircuspod, and I have some things on Redbubble.

Sources:

  • The Travels of Mendes Pinto, edited and translated by Rebecca D. Catz. University of Chicago Press, 1989.

  • Aceh Sultanate: State, Society, Religion and Trade (2 vols.): The Dutch Sources, 1636-1661, edited by Takeshi Ito. Brill, 2015.

  • Göksoy, İsmail Hakkı. "Ottoman-Aceh relations as documented in Turkish sources," in Mapping the Acehnese Past, edited by R. Michael Feener, Patrick Daly, and Anthony Reed. Brill, 2011.

  • Pinto, Paulo Jorge De Sousa. The Portuguese and the Straits of Melaka, 1575-1619: Power, Trade and Diplomacy. NUS Press, 2012.

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Medieval Halloween: Signs in the Sky, Strange Children, etc

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Depiction of the sky over Nuremberg on April 14th, 1561.

From William of Newburgh's 12th-century chronicle, "History of English Affairs," these stories aren't really about Halloween, but they do feel a little Halloween-ish. There's no Michael Myers, zombies, or vampires, but there are strange portents in the sky, toads locked in stone, faerie banquets, green children, and a good number of demons.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

3 Things:

Sources:

  • The Church Historians of England, translated by Joseph Stevenson. Seeley's, 1856.

  • Watkins, C.S.. History and the Supernatural in Medieval England. Cambridge University Press, 2007.

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Fernao Mendes Pinto 3: Melaka and the Embarrassed Envoy

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16-century Malacca as drawn by Gaspar Correia

Our 16th-century traveller, among so many other things, arrives in Malacca (Melaka). From there he is sent out as envoy, leading to misadventure, near death, and criticism of the Portuguese Empire.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

Sources:

  • The Travels of Mendes Pinto, edited and translated by Rebecca D. Catz. University of Chicago Press, 1989.

  • The Commentaries of the Great Afonso Dalboquerque, Second Viceroy of India, translated by Walter de Gray Birch. Hakluyt, 1875.

  • Boxer, C.R. The Portuguese Seaborne Empire 1415-1825. Carcanet, 1991.

  • Diffie, Bailey Wallys. Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, 1415-1580. University of Minnesota Press, 1977.

  • Newitt, Malyn. A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansion 1400–1668. Routledge, 2004.

  • Paine, Lincoln. The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World. Knopf Doubleday, 2015.

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Fernao Mendes Pinto 2: The Red Sea and the Siege of Diu

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16th-Century Painting of an Ottoman Fleet - (Wikimedia)

Pinto visits the "Land of Prester John," faces trouble on the Red Sea, and brushes up against the 1538 Siege of Diu. He takes part in combat on the waters and along the Indian coast, grumbles as to his lot in life, and is whisked about by boat to Massawa, Mokha, Qeshm, Chaul, Goa, Honnavar, and Diu, before heading further east.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

3 Things:

  1. Article on ambergris, a substance which makes fairly frequent appearances on this podcast.

  2. Podcast episode on “The Ottoman Red Sea.”

  3. Article on the Ottoman coffee crackdown.

Sources:

  • The Travels of Mendes Pinto, edited and translated by Rebecca D. Catz. University of Chicago Press, 1989.

  • Casale, Giancarlo. The Ottoman Age of Exploration. Oxford University Press, 2010.

  • Pearson, N.M. The Portuguese in India. Cambridge University Press, 2006.

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Fernao Mendes Pinto 1: From Lisbon, Poverty, and Pirates

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Detail from Duarte de Armas’ Livro das Fortalezas - (Wiki)

Fernão Mendes Pinto, respected by many of his contemporaries for the expertise knowledge which he'd gained through his travels, absolutely synonymous for others with lies and exaggerations. 

From humble beginnings and vaguely unfortunate events in his early life, Pinto would find a place for himself in the 16th-century world of colonial Portugal, would write himself into it if necessary.

He was, he said, “13 times a prisoner and 17 a slave.” As Rebecca Catz writes, he served as a “soldier, merchant, pirate, ambassador, missionary, doctor—the list is not complete.” He ran afoul of pirates, was shipwrecked, and robbed royal tombs. The characters in his story included a saint, an Indonesian ruler, the mother of Prester John, a Japanese lord, and someone who may or may not have been the Dalai Lama. He claimed to be among the very first Europeans to set foot in Japan, but then he claimed to be a lot of things.

If you like what you hear and want to chip in to support the podcast, my Patreon is here.

3 Things:

  1. Article on the history of the mango and a Portuguese connection.

  2. Article about the discovery of a shipwreck, thought to have come from Vasco da Gama’s armada.

  3. The story of the rhino of Lisbon.

Sources:

  • The Travels of Mendes Pinto, edited and translated by Rebecca D. Catz. University of Chicago Press, 1989.

  • The Portuguese in West Africa, 1415–1670: A Documentary History, edited by Malyn Newitt. Cambridge University Press, 2010.

  • Pearson, N.M. The Portuguese in India. Cambridge University Press, 2006.