Transcrição do André Pires (manuscrito francês)

The manuscript MS Portugais 40 in the French national Library is a compilation of Portuguese nautical texts from the first half of the 16th century. The first and last thirteen folios present quadrennial tables of solar declination. Among them are André Pires’ Livro de Marinharia, ten itineraries and a travelogue.This digital publication of the RUTTER Project is the first complete edition of the manuscript. Luana Giurgevich pointed out in 2021 that there were three partial editions published, first by Albuquerque in 1963, then by Manguin in 1972 and Semedo de Matos in 2018. The largest of these, which includes the most detailed study of the manuscript, is that by Albuquerque, dedicated to André Pires' Livro de Marinharia. The editions by Manguin and Semedo de Matos both refer to the route from Malacca to China.The manuscript is not dated, but it is believed to have been written before 1530, probably by a single person. It is also unsigned. Albuquerque and Manguin believe it may be an autograph by André Pires himself or a book by another pilot, his contemporary.The volume was part of the library of Jean Nicot, French ambassador to Portugal between 1559 and 1561. No details are known about where or when Nicot bought the manuscript, but some of the most likely hypotheses were commented on by Nuno Villa-Santa in 2024It remains to be said that not much is known about André Pires. The Book attributed to him is based on João de Lisboa’s Livro de Marinharia, from which he takes several sections and adds others. Some of these sections were copied in full, others were altered, corrected or augmented. The variants between the two books have already been noted by Luís de Albuquerque in his edition of the book. The remaining texts are mostly anonymous or by the writer of the manuscript. The only case in which there is a reference is the account of Ferdinand Magellan’s voyage to the Moluccas, which is said to come from “a notebook of a Genoese pilot who was on the said ship”.