Between East and West: John Pory’s Translation of Leo Africanus’s Description of Africa
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Sally Abed
Abstract
Al-Hasan al-Wazzan, better known as Leo Africanus, was a sixteenth-century Andalusian diplomat, who moved with his family to Fez, Morocco, after the Spanish Reconquista was completed in 1492. On a diplomatic mission for the Sultan of Fez, he was kidnapped by corsairs near the island of Djerba (off the coast of Tunisia) and presented as a gift to Pope Leo X in Rome. There, he converted to Christianity, was named Leo after the Pope’s name, and wrote his Description of Africa (1526) for a Western audience while in captivity. In his work, he reintroduced an Africa to his audience that runs counter to their long-held assumptions. Leo Africanus’s account assumed a global aspect throughout the different translations. In 1600, John Pory, an English administrator and traveler, translated Africanus’s work into English, which remains the only English translation until today. This paper mainly examines the additions Pory made to his translation, as well as the way in which he introduced both text and author to the English audience at the beginning of his book. Pory’s interpolations and address to the reader underscore questions of identity, lineage, and ways of charting and imagining the world and its inhabitants in early modern England.
Abstract
Al-Hasan al-Wazzan, better known as Leo Africanus, was a sixteenth-century Andalusian diplomat, who moved with his family to Fez, Morocco, after the Spanish Reconquista was completed in 1492. On a diplomatic mission for the Sultan of Fez, he was kidnapped by corsairs near the island of Djerba (off the coast of Tunisia) and presented as a gift to Pope Leo X in Rome. There, he converted to Christianity, was named Leo after the Pope’s name, and wrote his Description of Africa (1526) for a Western audience while in captivity. In his work, he reintroduced an Africa to his audience that runs counter to their long-held assumptions. Leo Africanus’s account assumed a global aspect throughout the different translations. In 1600, John Pory, an English administrator and traveler, translated Africanus’s work into English, which remains the only English translation until today. This paper mainly examines the additions Pory made to his translation, as well as the way in which he introduced both text and author to the English audience at the beginning of his book. Pory’s interpolations and address to the reader underscore questions of identity, lineage, and ways of charting and imagining the world and its inhabitants in early modern England.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Globalism in the Pre-Modern World? Questions, Challenges, and the Emergence of a New Approach to the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age 1
- Global Inferno: Medieval Giants, Monsters, and the Breaching of the Great Barrier 99
- Swords as Medieval Icons and Early “Global Brands” 147
- Ecce! A Ninth-Century Isidorean T-O Map Labeled in Arabic 189
- Going Rogue Across the Globe: International Vagrants, Outlaws, Bandits, and Tricksters from Medieval Europe, Asia, and the Middle East 221
- Modifying Ancestral Memories in Post-Carolingian West Francia and Post-Tang Wuyue China 247
- Scalping Saint Peter’s Head: An Interreligious Controversy over a Punishment from Baghdad to Rome (Eighth to Twelfth Centuries) 273
- A Global Dialogue in al-Kindī’s “A Short Treatise on the Soul” 293
- Globalism in Paul of Antioch’s Letter to a Muslim Friend and Its Refutation by Ibn Taymiyya 315
- The Global Fable in the Middle Ages 351
- Globalism in the Late Middle Ages: The Low German Niederrheinische Orientbericht as a Significant Outpost of a Paradigm Shift. The Move Away from Traditional Eurocentrism 381
- The Germanic Translations of Lanfranc’s Surgical Works as Example of Global Circulation of Knowledge 407
- Brick by Brick: Constructing Identity at Don Lope Fernández de Luna’s Parroquieta at La Seo 445
- Quello assalto di Otranto fu cagione di assai male. First Results of a Study of the Globalization in the Neapolitan Army in the 1480s 463
- The Diplomat and the Public House: Ioannes Dantiscus (1485–1548) and His Use of the Inns, Taverns, and Alehouses of Europe 485
- Globalism During the Reign of Queen Elizabeth I 509
- Between East and West: John Pory’s Translation of Leo Africanus’s Description of Africa 537
- The Old and the New – Pepper, Bezoar, and Other Exotic Substances in Bohemian Narratives about Distant Lands from the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period (up to the 1560s) 553
- John Dee and the Creation of the British Empire 581
- Eberhard Werner Happel: A Seventeenth-Century Cosmographer and Cosmopolitan 595
- Globalism Before Modern Globalism 613
- List of Illustrations 623
- Biographies of the Contributors 627
- Index 635
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Globalism in the Pre-Modern World? Questions, Challenges, and the Emergence of a New Approach to the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age 1
- Global Inferno: Medieval Giants, Monsters, and the Breaching of the Great Barrier 99
- Swords as Medieval Icons and Early “Global Brands” 147
- Ecce! A Ninth-Century Isidorean T-O Map Labeled in Arabic 189
- Going Rogue Across the Globe: International Vagrants, Outlaws, Bandits, and Tricksters from Medieval Europe, Asia, and the Middle East 221
- Modifying Ancestral Memories in Post-Carolingian West Francia and Post-Tang Wuyue China 247
- Scalping Saint Peter’s Head: An Interreligious Controversy over a Punishment from Baghdad to Rome (Eighth to Twelfth Centuries) 273
- A Global Dialogue in al-Kindī’s “A Short Treatise on the Soul” 293
- Globalism in Paul of Antioch’s Letter to a Muslim Friend and Its Refutation by Ibn Taymiyya 315
- The Global Fable in the Middle Ages 351
- Globalism in the Late Middle Ages: The Low German Niederrheinische Orientbericht as a Significant Outpost of a Paradigm Shift. The Move Away from Traditional Eurocentrism 381
- The Germanic Translations of Lanfranc’s Surgical Works as Example of Global Circulation of Knowledge 407
- Brick by Brick: Constructing Identity at Don Lope Fernández de Luna’s Parroquieta at La Seo 445
- Quello assalto di Otranto fu cagione di assai male. First Results of a Study of the Globalization in the Neapolitan Army in the 1480s 463
- The Diplomat and the Public House: Ioannes Dantiscus (1485–1548) and His Use of the Inns, Taverns, and Alehouses of Europe 485
- Globalism During the Reign of Queen Elizabeth I 509
- Between East and West: John Pory’s Translation of Leo Africanus’s Description of Africa 537
- The Old and the New – Pepper, Bezoar, and Other Exotic Substances in Bohemian Narratives about Distant Lands from the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period (up to the 1560s) 553
- John Dee and the Creation of the British Empire 581
- Eberhard Werner Happel: A Seventeenth-Century Cosmographer and Cosmopolitan 595
- Globalism Before Modern Globalism 613
- List of Illustrations 623
- Biographies of the Contributors 627
- Index 635
