Jean de Léry

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Title of the book by Jean de Léry about his trip to Brazil

Jean de Léry (* around 1536 in "La Margelle terre de St-Seine", ( Lamargelle , Côte-d'Or ), France ; † around 1613 in L'Isle , Switzerland ) was a French Calvinist clergyman, traveler and writer. He was in Brazil from 1556 to 1558 and is considered to be one of the most important early explorers of the Brazilian indigenous population.

Life

He grew up in Burgundy and learned the craft of shoemaker. He converted to Protestantism and went to Calvin in Geneva in 1552 . In 1556 he joined the company France Antarctique under Vice-Admiral Nicolas Durand de Villegagnon and accompanied a group of Protestant ( Huguenot ) clergy and scholars, including André Thevet , to Brazil under the protection of Admiral Gaspard de Coligny (1519–1572) , a relative of Louise de Coligny and leading patron saint of the failed French colony of Fort Caroline in Spanish Florida, led by Jean Ribault in 1562 .

In March 1557 they reached the French branch Fort Coligny on the Villegagnon Island ( France Antarctique ) , located in the bay of Rio de Janeiro . He stayed there for eight months, until he and his fellow believers were expelled from Villegagnon to the mainland, where he came into contact with the Tupinambá tribe . Two months later, in January 1558, he returned to France on the next ship that had arrived at the colony.

His famous travelogue Histoire d'un voyage fait en la terre du Brésil , written in 1563, could not appear in print until 1578. In it Léry describes the conditions in the French settlement, the strangest animals and plants in Brazil. The main focus of his work are the manners and customs of the cannibalist Tupinamba, which he himself observed.

After his return from America he helped the Protestant population of Sancerre against the siege of the imperial troops from March to August 1573. This report was the first book published by him (German under the title The Memorable History of the City of Sancerre ). He describes the hunger situation in the city. His experience in Brazil helped the population to survive the siege. Léry describes cases of cannibalism and compares the behavior of his contemporaries with his observations of the Brazilian indigenous population.

His influence ranged from the essayist Michel de Montaigne (his Des cannibales ) in the 16th century to the modern anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss , who arrived in Brazil with a copy of Léry in his pocket and later referred to the book as the “ Breviary of the Ethnographer ”spoke.

Fonts

  • Histoire mémorable du siège de Sancerre (1574)
  • Histoire d'un voyage fait en la terre du Brésil (1578)
German editions
  • The history of the Statt Sancerre. Mostly includes / the fornication / besieging / nearing / storm and other used violence: so having besieged the place / Desgleychen the resistance and male acts / the severe hunger / to the complete removal of the besieged. The zal der Karthonenschütz through the days and appear / sampt the register / who died and were injured in the war / to the end of the book one after the other. Everything is faithfully drawn up in the same place and brought together / by Johann von Lery. Now by Niclausen Manuel zu Bernn / in French spoke to Teütsch transferred. Bern, Bey Bendicht Ulman / and Vincentz Im Hoff 1575
  • Johann von Lery's trip to Brazil. Translated from the improved and increased edition organized by the author himself. With notes and explanations. Münster 1794 (Online: ULB Münster )
  • Among ogreers on the Amazon. Brazilian Diary, 1556–1558 . Foreword by M.-R. Mayeux. From d. Franz. Transl. by Ernst Bluth u. reviewed, ed., with e. Annexed by Karl H. Salzmann. 2nd edition Tübingen u. a. : Erdmann, 1977 (old adventurous travel and discovery reports)
Fonts online

Web links

Commons : Jean de Léry  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual proof

  1. ↑ Third book Americae, in it Brasilia: by Johann Staden von Homberg from Hessen, from personal experience described in Teutsch. Item Historia of the ship type Ioannis Lerij in Brazil, which he himself published, now Germanized by newem, by Teucrium Annaeum Priuatum, C. The Innwoner being unheard of from poaching, of all sorts of strange animals and plants, sampt a colloquio, in the wild language, 2nd edition, Frankfurt am Main 1606, pp. 118-133.
personal data
SURNAME Léry, Jean de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French Calvinist clergyman, traveler and writer
DATE OF BIRTH around 1536
PLACE OF BIRTH Lamargelle
DATE OF DEATH around 1613
Place of death L'Isle