Description
Vasco da Gama (?1469-1524) is well referred to as considered one of a generation of discoverers, at the side of Magellan, Cabral, and Columbus. Yet little is understood about his life, or concerning the context within which he ‘found out’ the all-sea route to India in 1497-99. This book, in line with a mass of published and unpublished sources in Portuguese and other languages, delineates Gama’s career and social context, that specialize in the subtle balance between ‘career’ and ‘legend’. The book addresses broad questions of myth-building and nationalism, even as never losing sight of Gama himself.