The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama Book

When Vasco da Gama (c.1469-1524) became the first known European to travel to India by sea in 1498, his place in the pantheon of Great Explorers of the Renaissance seemed assured. Rivalled only by Columbus and his landfall in the Americas six years earlier, da Gama was acclaimed throughout Europe, and alongside his new title of Admiral, he proceeded to amass a small personal fortune as well as return to India on two subsequent occasions before his death there in 1524. However, as Sanjay Subrahmanyam points out in his magisterial biography The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama, da Gama's legacy was far from straightforward. Carefully reassessing published and unpublished sources on his life and career, Subrahmanyam, an expert in the field of Portuguese trade and exploration, weaves a fascinating account of the political intrigue which led to da Gama taking charge of the first fateful expedition to India in 1497. The book follows the pragmatic and often ruthless subsequent career of da Gama, persistently overturning more romantic accounts of one of the heroes of Portuguese history, and offering a wonderfully rich contextual history of the Lusitanian empire at its zenith. Reasserting the importance of da Gama's place within world history, while also sceptical of the myths which have built up around the man himself, Subrahmanyam's biography is destined to become a classic study not only of da Gama, but also of the ways in which myth- making creates the figure of a national hero. A fine biography. -- Jerry BrottonRead More