A imagem do mundo e as navegações ibéricas

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to show up how the lberian navigations, in the quest for a way to India, contributed for the formation of an exact imagem of the world. It begun with the exploration of the east coast of Africa, in the first half of the XIV century under Prince Henry the Navegatior. The idea of a way to Jndia around Africa as testified in Fra Mauro planisferic map, proved true when Vasco da Gama arrived in lndia in 1498. However the way to India by west, as suggested in maps developed on basis of Ptolomeu' s Geography data, in which distance between the Awres and Asian islands was shortened, lended Columbus to undertake his voyage discovering America, but certain he reached Jndia. But soon afterward Columbus mistake turned out evident. Magellan discovered a southern passage to the Pacijic, and his captain Sebastian E/cano completed thefirst voyage around the World in 1952. The Pacijic was then explored and maped by Spanish captains and cosmographers. ln 1529 the geographic data recovered by Portuguese and Spanish explorations was already sufjicient to permit drawing of the first world map on pure scientific records by Diego Ribeiro.