BOOK: Nuno VILA-SANTA, Knowledge Exchanges Between Portugal and Europe Maritime Diplomacy, Espionage, and Nautical Science in the Early Modern World (15th-17th Centuries) (Amsterdam: University Press, 2024). ISBN: 9789048560479, pp. 372, € 141,00

 

(Source: AUP)

ABOUT THE BOOK

Following recent historiographical appeals on the need to study knowledge exchanges between European maritime rivals and their impact on overseas expansionist processes, this book makes this study for the Portuguese overseas empire between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. As the first European maritime power to systematically launch long-distance voyages, Portugal became a model worth emulation when Spain, France, England and the Dutch Republic started their own overseas enterprises. In different chapters that each adopt a case study relation (Portugal-Spain, Portugal-England, Portugal-France and Portugal-Dutch Republic), this book documents how Portuguese maritime knowledge was outsourced by its maritime rivals. The impact that Portuguese nautical knowledge had is evaluated, resorting particularly to a wide range of diplomatic and espionage documents. Finally, the book discusses the alleged Iberian secrecy policies regarding maritime knowledge, explaining why there is no serious reason to consider their success.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nuno Vila-Santa is a post-doctoral fellow from the RUTTER project founded by the European Research Council. His main works deal with the history of the Portuguese overseas empire in Asia and with Portuguese connections to Europe in the 16th century

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Maritime History and History of Knowledge for the 16th Century European History

1. The First Global Exchange and Dispute Over the Globe: The Portuguese–Spanish Nautical Interchange (1415–1580)

2. Unexpected or Predictable Espionage and Diplomacy? Portuguese Nautical Knowledge and the English Voyages to West Africa (1551–59)

3. Spying Ambassadors for a French Overseas Empire? Michel de Seure and Jean Nicot’s Maritime and Cosmographical Espionage in Portugal (1557–61)

4. Mare Clausum and Secret Science: João Pereira Dantas and the Portuguese Strategies to Control French and English Overseas Plans (1557–68)

5. A Spy or a Go–Between? Jan Huygen van Linschoten, the Itinerario, and the Rise of Dutch Overseas Expansion (1583–1611)

Conclusion: Five Connected Histories of Knowledge? Portugal, Spain, France, England, the Dutch Republic, and the Attempted Secrecy Policies

Illustrations

Quoted Bibliography and Sources

Index

More information with the publisher.