Paper short abstract:

This presentation examines knowledge transfer and textual production within the Iberian Atlantic through an exploration of the piracy of Jesuit Fernão Cardim’s manuscripts on Brazil by English Corsair Frances Cooke.

Paper long abstract:

At the turn of the seventeenth century, European missionaries and traveling mercantilists were buzzing with news of the Americas: telling tales of uncharted territories full of potential products from exotic worlds and never-before-seen lands and peoples. Whether a settlement was religious in scope or economic in design—or, both, as in the case of Jesuit missionary settlements—understanding the people, as well as native flora and fauna, and their regional uses across the globe was fundamental to the vitality of imperial expansion. Given the nature of the Jesuits' enterprise, their letters and natural histories were filled with information on local raw materials, goods, medicines, and culture. Jesuits produced a high volume of ethnographic narratives that detailed their initial encounters with native groups throughout the globe. The information collected by Jesuit missionaries was not only important to the religious order as well as the Crown/imperial state but was also coveted on the international market by competing European imperial powers. On March 5th, 1583, the Portuguese Jesuit Father Fernão Cardim departed for Brazil aboard the Chagas de São Francisco as the secretary accompanying Visitador Father Cristóvão de Gouveia. Cardim's journey took him along the coast of Brazil through Bahia, Ilhéus, Porto Seguro, Pernambuco, Espírito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, and São Vicente—the Jesuit missionary settlement just southeast of what is now São Paulo—within the seven-year span of 1583 to 1590. During this time Cardim compiled a compendium of information now known as the Tratados da Terra e Gente do Brasil.