André Thevet (; ; 1516 – 23 November 1590) was a French

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

cosmographer The term cosmography has two distinct meanings: traditionally it has been the protoscience of mapping the general features of the cosmos, heaven and Earth; more recently, it has been used to describe the ongoing effort to determine the large-scal ...

and writer who travelled to the Near East and to South America in the 16th century. His most significant book was ''

The New Found World, or Antarctike ''The New Found World, or Antarctike'' is the English title of an account first published in French in 1557 by the French Franciscan priest and explorer André Thevet after his experiences in France Antarctique, a French settlement in modern Rio ...

'', which compiled a number of different sources and his own experience into what purported to be a firsthand account of his experiences in ''

France Antarctique France Antarctique (formerly also spelled ''France antartique'') was a French colony in Rio de Janeiro, in modern-day Brazil, which existed between 1555 and 1567, and had control over the coast from Rio de Janeiro to Cabo Frio. The colony quickly ...

,'' a French settlement near modern

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

Life

Andre Thevet Cosmographie du Levant 1556 Lyon

Thevet was born in

Angoulême Angoulême (; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Engoulaeme''; oc, Engoleime) is a communes of France, commune, the Prefectures of France, prefecture of the Charente Departments of France, department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwestern Franc ...

in southwestern France. At ten years of age, he entered the

convent A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...

of Franciscans of Angoulême. He visited Italy at the same time as

Guillaume Rondelet Guillaume Rondelet (27 September 150730 July 1566), also known as Rondeletus/Rondeletius, was Regius professor of medicine at the University of Montpellier in southern France and Chancellor of the University between 1556 and his death in 1566. He ...

. In 1549, thanks to the support of John, Cardinal of Lorraine, he embarked on an extended exploration trip to Asia, Greece, Rhodes,

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

and

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

. He accompanied the French ambassador

Gabriel de Luetz Gabriel de Luetz, Baron et Seigneur d'Aramon et de Vallabregues (died 1553), often also abbreviated to Gabriel d'Aramon, was the French Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1546 to 1553, in the service first of Francis I, who dispatched him to ...

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

. Almost immediately after this expedition, he set sail again as the

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

of the fleet of

Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon Nicolas Durand, sieur de Villegaignon, also Villegagnon (1510 – 9 January 1571) was a Commander of the Knights Hospitaller, Knights of Malta, and later a French naval officer (vice-admiral of Brittany) who attempted to help the Huguenots in Fra ...

, which intended to establish a French colony near what is now

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

. Thevet arrived there on 10 November 1555 but only stayed in the colony for about 10 weeks before returning to France. He was made an almoner to

Catherine de Médici Catherine de' Medici ( it, Caterina de' Medici, ; french: Catherine de Médicis, ; 13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589) was an Florentine noblewoman born into the Medici family. She was Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 by marriage to King H ...

and later was employed by the king. AndréThevet image print Les singularitez de la France Antarctique 1557

Thevet claimed in his ''Histoire de deux voyages'', inaccurately, to have accompanied

Guillaume Le Testu Guillaume Le Testu, sometimes referred to as Guillaume Le Têtu (c. 1509-12 – April 29, 1573), was a French privateer, explorer and navigator. He was one of the foremost cartographers of his time and an author of the Dieppe maps. His maps were ...

to America in 1550. Thevet died in Paris on 23 November 1590.

Written works

Soon after Thevet's return to France from the near East in 1554, he published an account of his voyage under the title ''Cosmographie du Levant''. On his return from the Americas, Thevet published a book titled '' Les singularitez de la France Antarctique'' in 1557 or 1558. Although purportedly based on his own firsthand experiences, Thevet also used previous published sources as well as verbal accounts from other explorers and sailors and from indigenous Canadians who had been brought back to France. Thevet later settled a court case with another scholar who claimed to have been responsible for the actual writing. An edition of ''Les singularitez de la France Antarctique'' was printed in Antwerp by Plantin in 1558, and an English edition, ''The New Found World, or Antarctike'', was printed in 1568. Thevet's use of such a variety of sources not otherwise printed, despite the considerable errors and contradictions, means that his work remains valuable for the ethnography of both eastern Canada and Brazil. ''Les singularitez de la France Antarctique'' contains the first descriptions in European texts of plants such as the

manioc ''Manihot esculenta'', commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated a ...

pineapple The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been cultivated for many centuri ...

peanut The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible Seed, seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics, important to both small ...

and

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

, as well as of the animals macaw,

sloth Sloths are a group of Neotropical xenarthran mammals constituting the suborder Folivora, including the extant arboreal tree sloths and extinct terrestrial ground sloths. Noted for their slowness of movement, tree sloths spend most of their li ...

and

tapir Tapirs ( ) are large, herbivorous mammals belonging to the family Tapiridae. They are similar in shape to a pig, with a short, prehensile nose trunk. Tapirs inhabit jungle and forest regions of South and Central America, with one species inhabit ...

.' The text also includes an account of

cannibalism Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, b ...

that was one of the influences on Montaigne's essay on cannibalism. Once Thevet was established as cosmographer to the French court, he compiled his ''Cosmographie Universelle'', intended to describe every part of the known world. A dispute arose with a collaborator, François de Belleforest, who left Thevet's employ to publish his own ''Cosmographie'' in 1572 before Thevet's work finally appeared in 1575. In 1584, Thevet published a collection of biographies, ''Vrais pourtraits et vies des homes illustres'', which was critical of Protestants. He left two unpublished manuscripts. One, ''Grand Insulaire'', was an almanac of islands, and the other, ''Histoire de deux voyages'', was an account of his travels.

Works

* 1554 ''Cosmographie de Levant.'' Lyon : Ian de Tournes et Guil. Gazeau, * 1557/8 ''Les singularitez de la France Antarctique'' (in English in 1568 as ''The New found vvorlde, or Antarctike'') * 1575 ''La Cosmographie Universelle d'Andre Thevet Cosmographe dv Roy. Illvstree de diverses figvres des choses plvs remarqvables veves par l'auteur, & incogneues de noz anciens & modernes'', Paris, Pierre l'Huilier

* 1584 ''Vrais pourtraits et vies des homes illustres'' * MS: ''Grand Insulaire,'' * MS ''Histoire de deux voyages''

References

Sources

*Cantacuzene, J. M
Frère André Thevet (1516-1590)
''Miscellanea'' (PDF file).

External links

Les singularitez de la France Antarctique (Paris: 1558).
Digitized by the

John Carter Brown Library The John Carter Brown Library is an independently funded research library of history and the humanities on the campus of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The library's rare book, manuscript, and map collections encompass a variety of ...

and available on

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

The new found worlde, or Antarctike (London: 1568).
Digitized and available on

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Thevet, Andre 1516 births 1590 deaths People from Angoulême French explorers Historiography of Brazil French military chaplains French Navy chaplains France Antarctique