Albuquerque, Afonso d'
Second, preferred, edition, with corrections by the author, the definitive text of the commentaries of Albuquerque, describing the Portuguese conquest of India, the Persian Gulf and Arabia: "Esta edição é muito mais estimavel que a primeira" (Innocêncio). The first edition was printed in Lisbon, 1557; both it and the second are rare, and have been confused by some bibliographers (see Innocêncio).
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This Commentarios are the classic account of the founder of the Portuguese empire in Asia. Between 1506 and his death in 1515, Afonso d'Albuquerque, second viceroy of India, conquered Malacca, gained control of the Persian Gulf, and made Goa the seat of Portuguese administration in the East, thereby ensuring its permanence. The Comentários were composed by Albuquerque's illegitimate son Brás de Albuquerque (1500-1580), who later assumed the name "Afonso" at King Manuel's request. Based on letters written by Albuquerque to King Manuel, the work is a history of events in India, Malacca and the Persian Gulf, rather than a biography of Albuquerque.
Innocêncio erroneously calls for an index in this edition that only appeared in the first, which he had not seen, and for which he does not give a collation. Martins de Carvalho, apparently following Innocêncio, also calls for an index, and Anselmo calls for an index with 36 unnumbered leaves. Every description of an actual copy, however, including those in Palha, King Manuel, Azevedo-Samodães, Monteverde, Salvá and Heredia, calls for the same collation as our copy.
There are two issues of this edition. Our copy, like the one described in the King Manuel catalogue, has the table of contents on the recto of the second leaf and the dedication on the verso. The other issue has a slightly different reading on the title page (see Europe Informed), and the dedication is on the recto of the second leaf, with the verso of that leaf blank.
Very rare, no copies of the second edition have sold at auction since 1939, apart from a defective example, missing 45 pages, sold at Koller Auctions in 2021 for CHF 4,750 (RBH); a single copy of the first edition (1557) was offered at Christie’s in 2004 for GBP 60,000 – 80,000 (not sold).
Provenance: bookplate of Edward Faridam to front pastedown; from the library of Nicholas Ingleton.
Innocêncio I, 7; King Manuel 155; cf. 89; Pinto de Mattos p. 6: "Das tres edições apontadas é mais estimada a segunda."; Barbosa Machado I, 25-26; Anselmo 222; Adams A568; Palha 4135-36; Azevedo-Samodães 60; Salvá 3263; Heredia 3271; Bell, Portuguese Literature, pp. 201-2.
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