“A History of Water” explores European bafflement and fear at new ideas of globalisation in the 16th century
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskIt is an unusual manifesto for a chronicle, one of history’s drier literary forms. But to fulfil his expansive vision of his task, de Góis ranged freely across everything from the history of the Shia faith to the scholarship of Queen Mother Eleni of Abyssinia. Edward Wilson-Lee applauds such generous curiosity; in some ways he seeks to replicate it.
He travelled farther still in his reading and writing. Portugal had initiated the age of exploration and was, in this period, the primary conduit—for goods, information and, less happily, people—between Europe and the rest of the globe. The royal archive in the Torre do Tombo, the Tower of Records, was a central clearing-house for Europe’s awareness of the world beyond. De Góis, always drawn to marginal voices and ideas, had access to it all.
Mr Wilson-Lee interleaves the life of de Góis with that of his contemporary, Luis de Camões, the author of “The Lusiads”, an epic poem celebrating Portugal’s voyages of discovery. Often in prison and always in penury, de Camões led a violent, disreputable existence. He spent 17 years in exile in far-flung Portuguese trading posts in Goa, Macau, Mozambique and elsewhere.
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