Died 1525 | ||
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João de Lisboa (c.1470 – 1525) was a Portuguese explorer. It is known to have sail together with Tristão da Cunha, and to have explored Río de La Plata and possibly the San Matias Gulf, around 1511-12. The Brazilian historian Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen remarks that he was in Ferdinand Magellan circumnavigation voyage:
He is the author of a Treatise of Seamanship that includes 20 remarkable maps and a Treatise on the Nautical Needle, dated by himself in 1514 (1508, in manuscript).
He died in 1525 while traveling in the Indian Ocean.
Treatise of Seamanship
It is composed by the Brief Treatise on Seamanship and a "Treatise on the Nautical Needle found by João de Lisboa in the year 1514", and within its pages there are 20 singular chart maps.
The 20 charts present:
The book can be found in Torre do Tombo National Archive (Colecção Cartográfica nº166), with an additional information that the maps are made of parchment.
This date 1514, written by João de Lisboa, conflicts with the knowledge presented in the maps. For instance, the Magellan Strait, or Japan (which was only reported by the Portuguese in 1543, after the death of the author). On the other hand, the position of the Portuguese flags in the World Map is not consistent with events after 1514, nor with any other official account. In one of the charts, Portuguese castles are clearly drawn in Inca territory, something that was never reported in any official document. Armando Cortesão remarks that there are a posteriori inclusions in the charts, and due to the names found in the charts, namely Japan, he is forced to date it "circa 1560", which would imply another author (however he does not explain any further details).