Descripción del proyecto
Derroteros, una fuente histórica sobre la historia del océano
Los derroteros y los cuadernos de bitácora son documentos que contienen información importante sobre la navegación oceánica. Estos registros contienen información adicional a las distancias y latitudes y resultan interesantes para muchas disciplinas. La información geográfica, oceanográfica, meteorológica y geofísica de estos documentos de enorme valor los convierte en fuentes importantes de conocimiento histórico. Los derroteros podrían desvelar los procesos históricos a través de los que se desarrollaron ideas generales sobre el planeta. El proyecto financiado con fondos europeos RUTTER se propone describir la forma en la que los navegantes de los siglos XVI y XVII observaban la Tierra. El proyecto también identificará y clasificará información de derroteros y cuadernos de bitácora ibéricos de dicha época.
Objetivo
Early modern nautical rutters (sailing directions) are the earliest Western documents that testify to the stable and regular lived experience of traversing the earth’s oceans on a global, planetary scale. Nautical rutters (and ship’s loogbooks) are technical documents that collect and analyse critical information for the successful accomplishment of oceanic navigation. This includes elements of strict nautical nature (courses, distances, and latitudes), as well as information on oceanography (currents and tides), meteorology (winds and storms), geography, geophysics (magnetic declination) and the natural world. Their unique value lies not only in the fact that they are exceptional historical repositories of information about the world on a planetary scale but, more importantly, that they document the emergence of global concepts about the earth. In fact, no earlier documents contain information about the earth on a comparable worldwide scale. Thus, their historical value is peerless. Using these exceptional, yet poorly known sources, the main objective of this project is to write a narrative of the scaling up of a scientific description of the earth in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, from the lived experience of travelling and observing the earth in long-distance sea voyages. As a preliminary task, a systematic search, identification and classification of the information contained in early modern Iberian rutters and ship’s logbooks will be performed. This will be followed by an extensive multidisciplinary study of their content aiming at radically improving our present knowledge of the historical process that led to the formation of global concepts about the earth.
Ámbito científico
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
ERC-ADG - Advanced GrantInstitución de acogida
1749-016 Lisboa
Portugal