Four texts and some ideas about the role of translation and “astrolomy” in Portuguese maritime expansion in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries

Abstract

The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in Portugal are recognized as a period of a great diversity of translations, which certainly spurred and also were spurred by nautical development. Likewise, an outline factor in the maritime expansion was the strong presence of Arabic speaking and Jew astrologers, although astrology, at that time, was still amalgamated to astronomy, so we can call it “astrolomy”. In this paper, four texts of that period will be analyzed and articulated with some ideas, and this can reveal the important role of translation in the transmission of scientific texts. In addition, it can clarify a little bit the very concepts of translation and science.