Bernardo Gomes de Brito

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Bernardo Gomes de Brito (born May 20, 1688 in Lisbon , † around 1759/1760 in Portugal ) was a Portuguese publisher. He became known through the book Historia Tragica Maritima , which contains unique eyewitness accounts of castaways from the middle to the end of the 16th century. It is an important work of Portuguese travel literature .

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First volume of the Historia Tragica Maritima (1735)

Nothing is known to this day about the life of Bernardo Gomes de Brito. Only his date of birth has been handed down by a church historian, his date of death is not known. The missing data can possibly be explained by the underestimated importance of the work by contemporaries or the aftermath of the turmoil caused by the earthquake of 1755 . No other works by the author are known. The first edition appeared in 1735, the second in 1736.

The work, with the full title Historia tragico maritima, em que de escrevem choronlogicamente os naufragios, tiverão as naus de Portugal, depois que se poz em exercio navegaçao da India (“History of tragic seafaring, which chronologically shows which ships are on their way to India shipwrecked ”), contained around twelve reports from contemporary witnesses and survivors who had survived the most serious shipwrecks and made their way to ports and cities in Portuguese India in an arduous way by land . The period in which these events took place spanned the years 1552 to 1602.

The work should provide information or warnings about what could happen to you on a boat trip, how you should then act and how improvements in various areas of seafaring could possibly be achieved.

The work is significant as an important contribution made by Portugal to travel literature. It became a bestseller in Portugal in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

The work was later published in English and German. In Germany alone it has so far been published in four different editions.

German editions

  • Historia Tragico Maritima . Scientific Book Society, 1926.
  • Portuguese castaway reports, 1552–1602, recorded by eyewitnesses . Kiepenheuer-Verlag, 1985.
  • Historia tragico maritima - reports from the great days of Portuguese seafaring - 1552–1602 . Greno Publishing House, 1987.
  • Historia Tragico maritima . Edition Erdmann, 1991.

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personal data
SURNAME Brito, Bernardo Gomes de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Portuguese editor
DATE OF BIRTH May 20, 1688
PLACE OF BIRTH Lisbon
DATE OF DEATH around 1759
Place of death Portugal