The Inner Sea: Maritime Literary Culture in Early Modern Portugal

240 Pages·2022·7.442 MB·English

by  Josiah Blackmore

The Inner Sea

The Inner Sea
Maritime Literary Culture
in Early Modern Portugal
•
Josiah Blackmore
Th e University of Chicago Press Chicago and London
Th e University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
Th e University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2022 by Th e University of Chicago
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief
quotations in critical articles and reviews. For more information, contact the
University of Chicago Press, 1427 East 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637.
Published 2022
Printed in the United States of America
31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 82046- 0 (cloth)
ISBN- 13: 978- 0- 226- 82047- 7 (e- book)
DOI: https:// doi .org/ 10 .7208/ chicago/ 9780226820477 .001 .0001
Th e University of Chicago Press gratefully acknowledges the generous
support of the Robert C. Smith Jr. Fund for Portuguese Studies at
Harvard University toward the publication of this book.
Page ii: Alfredo Roque-G ameiro, aft ercastle of a fi ft eenth-c entury Portuguese
caravel. From História da Colonização Portuguesa do Brasil (Porto: Litografi a
Nacional, 1921). Photograph: © DeA Picture Library / Art Resource, New York.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Blackmore, Josiah, 1959– author.
Title: Th e inner sea : maritime literary culture in early modern Portugal / Josiah
Blackmore.
Description: Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2022. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2021062111 | ISBN 9780226820460 (cloth) | ISBN 9780226820477
(ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Camõe s, Luís de, 1524?–1580—Criticism and interpretation. |
Sea in literature. | Seafaring life in literature. | Portuguese literature—Classical
period, 1500–1700—History and criticism.
Classifi cation: LCC PQ9196.Z9 B47 2022 | DDC 869.09/32162—dc23/eng/20220103
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021062111
Th is paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1 992 (Permanence of Paper).
D eep in the mind there is an ocean
I would fall within it . . .
Jack Spicer,
“A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Landscape”

Contents
List of Figures ix
List of Abbreviations xi
Note on Texts and Translations xiii
Introduction:
Immense and Possible Oceans 1
1. Saltwater Poetics 19
2. Epic Seas 47
3. Lyric Seas 91
4. Th e Sunken Voice 146
Acknowledgments 171
Notes 175
Works Cited 203
Index 217

Figures
1. St. Brendan celebrates Mass (1621) 23
2. African landscape (1576) 61
3. Illuminations of ships (1543) 62
4. Miniatures of ships (ca. 1563) 69
5. Vasco da Gama (ca. 1563) 70
6. Isle of Love (1772) 88
7. Sea nymphs (1772) 128
8. Nereids (1502) 129