(; ''Decades of Asia'') is a history of the Portuguese in Asia (particularly

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

) and

southeast Africa Southeast Africa, or Southeastern Africa, is an African region that is intermediate between East Africa and Southern Africa. It comprises the countries Botswana, Eswatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanza ...

collected and published by

João de Barros João de Barros (; 1496 – 20 October 1570), nicknamed the "Portuguese Livy", is one of the first great Portuguese historians, most famous for his (''Decades of Asia''), a history of the Portuguese in India, Asia, and southeast Africa. Early y ...

between 1552 and 1563, while living abroad. His work was continued by

Diogo do Couto Diogo do Couto (Lisbon, c. 1542 – Goa, 10 December 1616) was a Portuguese historian. Biography He was born in Lisbon in 1542 to Gaspar do Couto and Isabel Serrão Calvos. He studied Latin and Rhetoric at the College of Saint Anthony the Great ...

and

João Baptista Lavanha João Baptista Lavanha () (c. 1550 – 31 March 1624) was a Portuguese cartographer, mathematician and geographer in the service of the Spanish kings Philip II and Philip III. Life Lavanha was born in the middle of 16th century. His parents ...

Publication

The first volume of appeared in 1552, and its reception was such that the king straightway ordered Barros to write a chronicle of King Manuel. His many occupations, however, prevented him from undertaking this book, which was finally composed by Damião de Góis. The second Decade came out in 1553 and the third in 1563, but he died before publishing the fourth Decade. In 1602, Diogo de Couto continued the , adding nine more volumes to the collection. The fourth volume of the was published posthumously in 1615 at Madrid by the Cosmographer and Chronicler-Royal João Baptista Lavanha, who edited and compiled Barros' scattered manuscript. In 1778–1788, a modern edition of the whole appeared in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

in 14 volumes as ("About João de Barros' Asia, and what the Portuguese did to discover and conquer the seas and lands of the East"). The edition was accompanied by a volume containing a life of Barros by the historian Manoel Severim de Faria and a copious index of all the Decades.

Content

contains the early history of the Portuguese in India and Asia and reveals careful study of Eastern historians and geographers, as well as of the records of his own country. It is distinguished by clearness of exposition and orderly arrangement, and by the liveliness of the accounts, for example when describing the king of Viantana's killing of the Portuguese ambassadors to

Malacca Malacca (), officially the Historic State of Malacca (), is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state in Malaysia located in the Peninsular Malaysia#Other features, southern region of the Malay Peninsula, facing the Strait of Malacca ...

with boiling water and their bodies being fed to the dogs.

Bibliography

References

1552 1602 1613 Portuguese books History books about India {{Asia-stub