Álvaro Velho (15th-16th century, born in

Barreiro Barreiro may refer to: People * Bruno Barreiro (born 1965), American politician * Gustavo Barreiro (1959–2019), American politician * Manu Barreiro (born 1986), Spanish footballer Places * Barreiro, Portugal ** Barreiro Municipality, a mu ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

) was a

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sailor or soldier who took part in the first Portuguese expedition by sea to India, led by Vasco da Gama in 1497. Velho is one of the purported authors of the anonymous ''Journal of Vasco Da Gama's trip of 1497'' (the other being João de Sá). This work survives in a single manuscript copy preserved at the Biblioteca Pública Municipal of Porto and first published in

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

in 1838 by Diogo Kopke. In 1945, historian Franz Hümmerich identified the author of this manuscript with an Álvaro Velho who had spent eight years in Guinea and provided information about the Gambia region to

Valentim Fernandes Valentim Fernandes (died 1518 or 1519) was a printer who lived in Portugal. An ethnic German originally from Moravia, he moved to Lisbon, Portugal in 1495 where he lived and worked for 23 years, he was a writer and a translator of various classica ...

. However, more recent studies by Carmen Radulet have exposed weaknesses in this theory and attributed the ''Journal'' with more certainty to scrivener João de Sá.

References

Editions of the ''Journal'': * Diogo Kopke and Antonio da Costa Paiva (eds.), ''"Roteiro da viagem que em descobrimento da India pelo Cabo da Boa Esperança fez dom Vasco da Gama em 1497": Segundo um manuscripto da Bibliotheca publica portuense'', Porto: Typographia Commercial Portuense, 1838 (first edition of the manuscript, in Portuguese). Scan available a
Biblioteca Brasiliana Mindlin
* Ernest George Ravenstein (ed.), ''A journal of the first voyage of Vasco da Gama, 1497–1499'', London:Hakluyt Society, 1898 (first English translation). Scan available a
Archive.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Velho, Alvaro Portuguese travel writers Maritime history of Portugal People from Barreiro, Portugal 15th-century Portuguese people 16th-century Portuguese people Portuguese explorers 15th-century explorers Explorers of Asia Portuguese male writers Portuguese Renaissance writers