Sea Control - Sea Control 554 Maritime Diplomacy, Espionage & Nautical Science in the 15th-17th Centuries with Dr. Nuno Vila-Santa

Episode Date: October 25, 2024

Links1. Knowledge Exchanges Between Portugal and Europe: Maritime Diplomacy, Espionage, and Nautical Science in the Early Modern World (15th-17th Centuries), by Nuno Vila-Santa, Amsterdam University Press, 2024. 

You're listening to Sea Control, hosted by the Center for International Maritime Security. Aloha, shipmates, and welcome back aboard Sea Control. My guest today is Dr. Nuno Villasanta, and we're going to be discussing his book, Knowledge Exchanges Between Portugal and Europe, Maritime Diplomacy, Espionage, and Nautical Science in the Early Modern World, 15th to 17th Centuries. So, Nuno, welcome. Could you tell the audience a little bit more about yourself, please? Well, thank you very much, Jared, for your invitation. I'm Nuno Villacenta. I'm a Portuguese historian. I was trained at Nova University of Lisbon, where I completed my MA and my PhD

in the history of Portuguese overseas expansion and early modern history. And in 2019, I had the luck of integrating this project, a retro project, a project financed by the European Research Council, in which I have been investigating these questions that led me to publish this book on the Portuguese maritime knowledge circulation to European rivals. and I would like just to make a brief comment on the project's goals and why I started to dig in a bit on this topic. So the Router project attempts to study the emergence of global conceptions about the Earth as a planet as we know it today from the voyages of the 15th and 16th centuries using a corpus,

a documental corpus, that is very interesting for historians of science in particular, which is that of the nautical writers, particularly the Portuguese and the Spanish ones, because the Portuguese and the Spanish were the first to launch systematic overseas expansion and

alongside this process they had to create these documents, the nautical writers, that address the sailing of all the oceans, let's say, but not just the technical details of the sailing, but also various other details related to ethnography, also to the study of nature and so on. And within this project, there are several, let's say, research lines

and the project is clearly divided within these research lines. Audience can check the Rutter Project website and can see this very easily. And I was, let's say, interested with studying the circulation of what I termed in this book the Portuguese maritime knowledge to European rivals. Well, thank you very much for the audience. We will drop that website address

down in the show notes there. So if you're interested, head down there and check it out. As a reminder, all opinions are our own and not reflective of any institution with which we might be otherwise associated. And Nuno, what are you referring to when you reference maritime knowledge in the book?

And how did Portugal come to predominate this field early on? Well, in my book, I use this terminology all the time, let's say, of Portuguese maritime knowledge. And I tried to explain from the beginning what I termed when I used this expression. So it's, let's say, a body of many knowledges. And the first thing that I'm always thinking of when using this expression is really the knowledge that allowed European powers to launch in a systematic way oceanic voyages. And here I would like to start by making really a sort of distinction between what is an oceanic voyage and the coastal voyages that were made by the Europeans within the Mediterranean or even the North Sea. So, the Portuguese, when they started their overseas expansion, they were basically the first to do this in the 15th century, when they started in the Atlantic.

And in order to do this, they had to start making and compiling a lot of information on the currents, for instance. And this was noted down in what we call today the nautical records. So when I speak about Portuguese maritime knowledge, the first category I'm always hinting is the Portuguese nautical relatives, but also associated with the Portuguese nautical relatives, I'm also thinking very closely on the Portuguese, which evolved from the framework of medieval European cartography, of course, but had to be enlarged to encompass these challenges of oceanic navigation. But it also deals with the actors of both these knowledges, the nautical vortices and the nautical charts, which are obviously the pilots, the chart makers, and the cosmographers, which are the persons, let's say, that usually work with this kind of knowledge, and that, when circulating to other places, become the agents for the transmission of this kind of knowledge. But I'm also addressing, for instance, the nautical treatises themselves. So authors of famous treatises on navigation, on oceanic navigation in this case, coming from the Iberian Peninsula, when they are basically circulating to Europe, they are disseminating again this knowledge. But I also include in here what we usually call in historiography the classical maritime espionage information, so information about the voyages that are being prepared in other places that are targeted against, for instance, Portuguese or Spanish interests. And this is included also in, let's say, maritime knowledge, because in many of those cases, there are attempts, as I also try to explain in the book, to disrupt these voyages, especially from the Portuguese side, for instance, against the English or the French or the Dutch. And so I also encompass all of this in this concept of Portuguese maritime knowledge. And the main argument that I try to make in the book is that the circulation of this Portuguese maritime knowledge, these various bodies of knowledge, was so intense that it really had an impact on the Portuguese maritime rivals.

And the other argument that I also make here in the book connected to this is that as Portugal was basically the first one to launch the systematic overseas expansion, it was somehow, let's say, natural that when the other maritime players started to emerge, Spain, France, England and the Dutch Republic, of course, that it would be somehow natural for them to look a bit on Portugal and try to learn a bit how did the Portuguese made this. And part of my book is also trying to explain how did this happen, how this went on. How did the Portuguese-Spanish nautical exchange begin and evolve? Well, this is a very interesting question. It really began, in my opinion, already in the 15th century. So when you had in one side Portugal and on the other side you did not have already formally Spain. As I explained also in the first chapter of my book, you had Castile. But ever since the union of Castile and Aragon, you had, of course, what we turn today a bit of Spain.

Although Spain only was born really, as we know it today, in the 18th century. But I called, I turned Spain here from the Catholic kings onwards. And from this marriage of the Catholic kings, Portugal was always being, let's say, closely watched in Castile on this oceanic expansion. We have several indirect hints of this, especially with the relations with the papacy and the fact that the Castilian kings were always watching over the Portuguese developments in terms of navigation in the coast of West Africa. But when the Catholic kings really started their reign in Spain, things changed a bit because of the first Castilian-Portuguese war with a clear Atlantic dimension, and there were interventions on the Castilian side, on West Africa, and this prompted, let's say, the clear Spanish interest for overseas expansion, very clearly. And Portugal, on the meantime, had also outsourced, as I also explained in my chapter, let's say Spanish academic knowledge that was used to bolster Portuguese overseas expansion. And then all this process had, let's say, the first natural consequence of all of this, which is the history of Christopher Columbus, which is a history of exchange precisely between Portugal and Spain. Columbus goes to serve Spain, yes, but he had been learning a lot of nautical knowledge and cartographical knowledge and geographical knowledge in Portugal.

This was absolutely needed for him to plan his first voyage. And after Columbus, there is a sort of, let's say, several histories that I recount on the first chapter of my book. Ferdinand Magellan is the second most well-known, but there is also the history of João Dias de Soules, a Portuguese sailor. And then there are several others. And this starts really to become, let's say, a natural process for both sides to engage the knowledge of the other. So, of course, at the beginning of Spanish overseas expansion, Spanish are relying more on Portuguese maritime knowledge than the reverse. But Portugal is always also trying to be aware of what are the Spaniards doing in terms of their overseas expeditions, but also on their knowledge. And sometimes they are appropriating it through espionage missions and disrupting of Spanish overseas missions, as I also explain in the book. So it was, let's say, I would say, a very natural phenomenon. And what is interesting to observe here between the Spanish and the Portuguese is that they created a sort of a pattern that was the same pattern that we later observed in terms of chronology for French and the Spanish, for the Portuguese and the Spanish, for the Portuguese and the English, and later for the Portuguese and the Dutch.

Well, good transition. What role did the nautical exchange play then in the roles of voyages of discovery? Well, as I tried to argue in the book, it was a very important role because even several cosmographers from the 16th century used to say in their cosmographical treatises that the voyage has to be prepared before departing, really. And one part of the preparation was really to gather all the geographical knowledge of the area where they wanted basically to sail and to go. And the other part was really, if possible, to gather the best possible pilots, for instance. And this is how, again, Portugal ended up making a contribution to other overseas expansions

on other European players, because as I tried to document in all the chapters of the book, there was a policy of all these players, Spain, France, England, and also of the Dutch, to hire Portuguese pilots because they had this knowledge, they had this experience, and this experience was, let's say, much valued when really planning the voyage because the pilot's knowledge could mean the difference between the expedition being a success or a failure in terms of nautical knowledge.

And this is, as I mentioned in the previous question, is really a process that we start to see that is going on with all the maritime players, depending on, of course, the chronologies of 16th century and the players that we are hinting in, of course. But we have stories for all of these. So in the previous question, I mentioned for Spain, Columbus, Magellan, and Soles, which are just the three most well-known.

I could mention here, as a sort of example, for France, Jean Alphonse, better known in France as Jean Alphonse de Saint-Ange. I could mention here for England the very important case of António Llanos Penteado, and also for the Dutch, here not a Portuguese pilot, really, but a guild between Jan Nugent van Linsvotten, the Dutch traveler that really acquired the Portuguese and the Spanish main nautical letters and that brought them to the Dutch Republic,

and with its publication kicked off, really, as Dutch historians have long argued, Dutch overseas expansion. So you mentioned a number of Portuguese pilots assisting rivals of the Portuguese crown, how do the Portuguese and Spanish monarchs view individual sailors helping their rivals? Well, this is again a very interesting question because it deals a bit with the so often called secrecy policies, first of Portugal but also of Spain

and this has been the object of various academic debates. I start in the first chapter of my book, I really provide concrete examples between the Portuguese and the Spanish of how this directly reached the king's minds and the king

in person, personally had policies for this so, for instance, just to give you a concrete example of both sides of this happening one of the very well-known cases is that of Ferdinand Magellan's defection for the Spanish

and there are clear instructions to try to get him back, signed by the Portuguese king at the time, Manuel I. And also there are instructions, even after Magellan died and Elcano returned to Spain, the new Portuguese king, John III, provides instructions directly to his ambassador in Spain to work for the return of several of the Portuguese that had been participating in Magellan's expedition. So this is a clear example. But you have also the reverse example, which is that I also provide there, which is that of Charles I of Spain, who at some point is very, very worried with this Portuguese espionage attempts at Seville near the Casa de la Contratación to basically try to revert this process of Portuguese pilots going to serve in Spain.

And there is a concrete case, that of Jacobo Luiz, who is a very important Portuguese sailor, who is basically working on the Casa de la Contratación and teaching Spanish pilots on the Plates River and also the Strait of Magellan. And he sends an order for the Casa authorities stating very clearly that they should do everything to stop him of any idea of returning to Portugal. And this is written really by the king's hand, personal hand. So this gives you a hint of how really this question of the career of pilots was really in the king's personal heads when they were, let's say, ruling. And I just give you here two examples from the Portuguese and the Spanish. But the same happens if you go, for instance, with Spain, with France and England, you have exactly the same kind of issue. For instance, when you look at the career of Jean Riboud, the famous French seaman, who has his career between France and England. So there are times, as I explained, where Jean Riboud is retained by force in the Tower of London, while on the other side, Colin is making all the best he can to get him back to France.

So this is another example. And if you go a little bit more in chronology, you have at the end of the 16th century, a very well-known case, that of the English sailor John Davies between Elizabethan England and the Dutch, because John Davies comes to pilot one of the Dutch famous expeditions to Asia. And then when he returns, of course, Richard Hecliot on the other side of the channel is very worried about this. He wants to stop the drainage of English nautical knowledge to the Dutch Republic because the Dutch are becoming rivals of the English. And so he tries to negotiate his return. And of course, that he's doing all of this with the acknowledgement of Queen Elizabeth I. So here again, we have all these questions demonstrating that kings and queens are always aware of this and the consequences of the circulation of maritime knowledge and the impact it can have even on their, let's say, European policies in general. What were the Portuguese secrecy policies and why did you ultimately conclude that they had failed?

Well, the question on the Portuguese secrecy policies is a very important one because this has triggered for a long time ago a very important debate between Portuguese academics and also had an impact in Anglo-Saxon historiography. because there has been this theory that from the early 15th century the Portuguese tried to protect the knowledge from their voyages overseas, knowledge being here, of course, nautical knowledge, so the nautical letters, the nautical cartography, nautical treatises, the palettes, and their circulation, and so on. And this would justify, in the pen of one of the famous authors of this, that there would be on the part of the Portuguese crown, as he argues, a systematic policy to try to disrupt the circulation of this kind of information.

And even this would have an impact on the historical sources that we have today and the fact that we do not hold on the Portuguese archives so many accounts of these voyages and all of this because of this alleged Portuguese secrecy policy. So, what I argue here is that, yes, there was a secrecy policy, but I do not consider, as I try to explain in my book, with the several examples that I give, that this secrecy policy was coherent from the beginning to its end. so what we have is in when we start to study that concrete cases of the circulation of portuguese pilots and portuguese treaties nautical treaty size portuguese nautical letters and so on is a very very flexible pattern in which you see that in many cases of yes the portuguese crown is trying to intervene to disrupt this from happening so the pilot from circulating to spain to england to france to the dutch republic but when they make this usually they go always too much too late so They did not make, let's say, the homework, and the homework would be to retain the pilot, for instance, in the Portuguese service, and they did not make this.

They only intervened too late when the pilot was already abroad, he was being offered better conditions, and of course that when he's offered better conditions, he's most probably going to stay there and not returning to Portugal. And this is, for instance, what happens precisely with Ferdinand Magellan, as I told you, also with Jean-Alphonse in France, Antoine-Yann Spintard, and many other cases that I also documented. So this is, for me, the example or the situation in which we can state that there is a difference here, very clearly, between what it is the Portuguese crown's intentions and the actual results of it. And we should not confuse the both. And I think this has been done for so many times. And this has, let's say, worse effects because many studies in Anglo-Saxon academia seem to consider that this Portuguese secrecy policy was there and was coherent from the beginning to its end. And it had a great degree of success. And the circulation was so intense, as I argued, that I think we should start really to discuss if we are not facing more or less a great failure of this Portuguese attempted secrecy policies.

And I think we should also start to make here a connection because, as Portugal was, as I mentioned in the beginning, the first to start systematic overseas expansion. And this is a process that we also observe for the other maritime players. So, for instance, Spain also had its own attempted secrecy policies, and in most of the cases it also failed. So I think that possibly what we need to start debating is whether these attempted secrecy policies were not destined from their in-heart to really fail. Because they had not conditions. The Portuguese kings, the Spanish kings, the English kings, the French kings, they do not have conditions to control the circulation of this multitude of knowledge and people. And this, of course, had a very deep impact in the history of European overseas expansion, in my opinion. It was an uncontrollable process in a certain way.

Then a final question. What was the diplomatic relationship between England and Portugal and how their nautical exchange affect early English voyages specifically to West Africa? well the case of england is a very is a very interesting case because if we think just on portugal and england everyone knows that portugal and england had one of the world's ancient military alliances from the late 14th century but the fact that they were let's say allies does not mean that they did not become rivals from the very start on maritime issues and this alliance as i tried to argue with the episodes that i studied in the book had a very deep impact on the circulation of portuguese maritime knowledge to england and especially on how the english received this knowledge because there was always this question of the alliance going on

there and this alliance is even often mentioned either on the portuguese document side and even on the english documental side so it had really an important impact in the second chapter of my book, I tried to explain how this impact was made with a concrete example, which is that of the English maritime and overseas reawakening of voyages to West Africa in the 1550s, using a set of very poorly known Portuguese archival documents that detail all the Portuguese maritime protests on the English voyages to West Africa in the 1550s. The main conclusion from the study of of all these documents is that all these protests that are being made on behalf of Portuguese ambassadors

and agents and even spies dispatched to England to disrupt all these English voices in the 1550s, they are all closely related to the history of one pilot, Antonio Jansch-Pintado, who is the pilot who comes to London to propose Thomas Weidmann's voyage to Guinea, but he does not simply propose the voyage. We know from English sources that he teaches the knowledge related to astronomical navigation.

He teaches the English really how to sail to West Africa. He teaches the English how to trade in West Africa, eluding Portuguese vigilance. And this has a clear impact because although he dies in the return voyage to England, all the knowledge that he passed on to the English is used later by Richard Adam when he published, when he starts to make translations based on materials

that Pintiado had brought to England. when he makes, starts composing works, and later on, firstly, when it is published, the first English nautical writer of the voyage to West Africa, which is that of the voyage of John Locke, which is the successor of Weidmann's voyage. So there is here a clear impact. But again, this story is a mere, let's say, sort of little repetition of what happened already in the beginning of the 16th century, with John Cabot's own voyages to Newfoundland, in which they were employed again portuguese that had been working the portuguese sellers court real court guys in the voyages there so this exchange was going on there it was again impossible for the portuguese

to control it although of course they tried to do it but one thing is the intention the other very different is the actual outcome of it and the fact that they were able to circulate and impact in this way of course that directly in my opinion influenced the english maritime reawakening from the 1550s onwards, and it helps to explain why on that time it was irreversible. It was not as it was in the beginning of the 16th century, when it had a bit of a slowdown with the beginning of Henry VIII's reign, as I also argue in the book. Well, unfortunately, that's all that we have time for today. I'd like to thank my guest, Dr. Nuno Villasanta. Nuno, where can we find you online, and what are you working on next? Well, you can find all of my works, including the book,

in open access so the book is open access so everyone can really download it either from my academia edu or from the rutter project website or even from amsterdam university press website and concerning my plans and my works now i'm continuing to work on this topic so the circulation of portuguese maritime knowledge to europe but more broadly on the portuguese connections to European relations with Europe. This is why I have some works that I'm working with right now relating to this.

So I have now a work that I'm doing related to a papal nuncio, papal apostolic collector, sorry, named Giovanni Andrea Caligari, who was in Portugal some years before the Alcazar-Cubir battle

and wrote very interesting reports about the Portuguese reality and also its European connections again, so I'm working on this to publish this. I'm also working to publish the Portuguese version of this book and I'm also finally working with Anne-Marie Jordan de Chouin on an edited volume which is related to the dynastic and familiar connections between Queen Catherine of Austria,

Princess Juana of Austria, so the sister of Philip II, and also the King Sebastian of Portugal to try to document what was going on here in terms of circulation of knowledge, how Portuguese and Spanish history are completely entangled and dependent on each other. And from September onwards,

I will also start working on another European Research Council funded project at the Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona, which is the BADEMS project, the cultural history of blackness in early modern Spain. So I would like really to thank you

for the opportunity to be here with you. It was my pleasure. well thank you so much again for joining us as some of those projects come to fruition i hope you'll reach out to us and we can bring you back to discuss them but listeners thank you for tuning in we'll see you next time © transcript Emily Beynon We'll be right back.