Duarte Barbosa

Duarte Barbosa
Bornc. 1480
Died1 May 1521
NationalityPortuguese
Occupation(s)Writer, scrivener, explorer
Signature
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Duarte Barbosa (c. 1480 – 1 May 1521) was a Portuguese writer and officer from Portuguese India (between 1500 and 1516). He was a scrivener in a feitoria in Kochi, and an interpreter of the local language, Malayalam. Barbosa wrote the Book of Duarte Barbosa (Portuguese: Livro de Duarte Barbosa) c. 1516, making it one of the earliest examples of Portuguese travel literature.

In 1519, Barbosa embarked on the first expedition to circumnavigate the world, led by his brother-in-law Ferdinand Magellan.[1] Barbosa was killed in 1521, at a banquet held by Rajah Humabon in the Philippines, a few days after the Battle of Mactan on Cebu Island.

  1. ^ One theory suggests that there were two people named Duarte Barbosa, on the basis of subsequent reporting of João de Barros in "Decades of Asia", that refers to one clerk named Duarte Barbosa in 1529 in Cannanore Island. The majority of documents confirm, however, that the author of "The Book of Duarte Barbosa" and participant in the expedition of Ferdinand Magellan Island where the same, see the entry for "Duarte Barbosa, Mansel Longworth Dames, The Book of Duarte Barbosa: An account of the countries bordering on the Indian Ocean and their inhabitants ", Asian Educational Services, 1989, ISBN 81-206-0451-2.