Promotor Prof. dr. Jürgen Pieters Vakgroep Letterkunde Decaan Prof. dr. Marc Boone Rector Prof. dr. Anne De Paepe Pour Zoé & Noa Alle rechten voorbehouden. Niets uit deze uitgave mag worden verveelvoudigd, opgeslagen in een geautomatiseerd gegevensbestand, of openbaar gemaakt, in enige vorm of op enige wijze, hetzij elektronisch, mechanisch, door fotokopieën, opnamen, of enige andere manier, zonder voorafgaande toestemming van de uitgever. Faculteit Letteren & Wijsbegeerte Britt Dams Comprehending the New World in the Early Modern Period: Descriptions of Dutch Brazil (1624-1654) Proefschrift voorgedragen tot het behalen van de graad van Doctor in de Letterkunde 2015 Acknowledgements To engage in scientific research may seem to be a solitary enterprise. I was, however, fortunate to have chosen a field in which one is surrounded by people with whom one can start dialogues. I cannot express my gratitude to these figures from the past, but I can to all those who have accompanied me in this adventure in the present. First of all, my sincere thanks goes to my supervisor, Jürgen Pieters, with whom the subject of this research was first outlined. Not only did he believe, against all odds, that I would find my way through, along the years he also continued to give me the necessary advice, insight, support and encouragement. Moreover, he was the one who taught me to properly ‘speak with the dead’. I also wish to express my gratitude to all the colleagues at the Faculty of Letters of Ghent University with whom I shared a workplace, had conversations or became friends. I will not mention them, the list would be too long and I am too afraid to forget someone. Those who read these words will recognize themselves. I want to thank the many colleagues in the academic world who have given advice on my work in progress or with whom I had the chance to exchange viewpoints. A special thanks goes to my friend Lotte, who helped me when I struggled with the English grammar and vocabulary. Furthermore, I am grateful to my family. My parents not only passed me the travelling bug when I was a child, my father also fed my curiosity about faraway places and people when he told me stories about his childhood and youth in Africa. I would particularly like to thank Filiep, my partner in life but also my partner in this journey. He is inevitably obliged to share my passion for Latin America and Brazil in particular. He accompanied me on numerous transatlantic trips and will vii hopefully continue to do so in the future. I want to thank him for his care, his patience, his wit and his love. Finally, this dissertation is dedicated to Zoé and Noa, my daughters, who made the finalization of this work a real challenge but without whom my life would not be complete anymore. viii List of Figures CRISTINA COSTA RÊGO O BOI VOADOR (1992) 1 JAN VAN DER STRAET AMERICA (CA. 1580) 6 TITLEPAGE FRANCIS BACON INSTAURATIO MAGNA, LONDON (1620) 27 TITELPAGE JOHANNES DE LAET NIEUWE WERELDT, LEIDEN (1625) 33 PROVINCIA DE BRASIL CUM ADIACENTIBVS PROVINCIIS J. DE LAET/H. GERITSZ. LEIDEN : ELSEVIER (1625) 45 DETAIL TITLE PAGE NIEUWE WERELDT (1630) 51 JAN MOSTAERT WEST INDIES LANDSCAPE (CA. 1640) 73 TITLE PAGE JOHANNES DE LAET IAERLIJCK VERHAEL (1644) 89 HIRSZEL HENRYK KRZYSZTOF ARCISZEWSKI, NATIONAL MUSEUM KRAKOW 132 TABLE OF CONTENTS CASPAR BARLAEUS RERUM PER OCTENNIUM (1660) 167 BLAEU MAP OF PERNAMBUCO IN RERUM PER OCTENNIUM (1647) 174 ALBERT ECKHOUT AFRICAN WOMAN WITH CHILD (1641) 214 FRONTISPIECE HISTORIA NATURALIS BRASILIAE (1648) 235 BLU & JEWEL FROM CARLOS SALADANHA RIO 2 (2014) 237 JAN VAN KESSEL THE ELDER AMERICA (1666) 255 'ARMADILLO' HISTORIA NATURALIS BRASILIAE (1648) 264 ALBERT ECKHOUT DANCE OF THE TAPUYA (1661) 268 'IPECACUANHA' HISTORIA NATURALIS BRASILIAE (1648) 283 ix Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS VII LIST OF FIGURES IX INTRODUCTION 1 0.1 BOI VOADOR 3 0.2 THE DESIRE TO DESCRIBE 5 0.3 FIRST WRITINGS ABOUT THE NEW WORLD 9 0.4 QUA PATET ORBIS - THE DUTCH EXPANSION 11 0.5 MAURITIOPOLIS 15 0.6 HYBRIDITY 17 0.7 NATURAL HISTORY 18 0.8 EVOLUTION OF THE PARADIGM IN FOUR WORKS 20 0.9 METHODOLOGY 22 0.10 CURIOSITAS 26 0.11 AN ABSENCE 30 NIEUWE WERELDT 33 1.1 DISENCHANTMENT 35 1.2 JOHANNES DE LAET 38 1.3 NIEUWE WERELDT 42 1.4 VENISTI TANDEM 48 1.5 NEW NETHERLAND: HET DERDE BOECK VIRGINIA 51 1.6 THE AMERICAN LAND 53 1.7 THE PEOPLE OF NORTH AMERICA 58 1.8 CONTROVERSY WITH HUGO DE GROOT 65 1.9 DESCRIPTION OF BRAZIL: THE LAND, THE FAUNA AND FLORA 68 1.10 THE PEOPLE OF BRAZIL 76 1.11 MAPPING A DISENCHANTED NEW WORLD 87 IAERLIJCK VERHAEL 89 2.1 ENCOUNTER WITH A HYBRID REALITY 91 2.2 IAERLIJCK VERHAEL AND THE HYBRIDITY OF COLONIAL BRAZIL 93 2.3 HYBRIDITY TODAY 95 2.4 IAERLIJCK VERHAEL: A 13-YEAR CHRONICLE 99 2.5 BLACK GOLD 107 2.6 FURTHER ON THE WAY TO BRAZIL 115 xi 2.7 BAHIA 117 2.8 RECIFE – A NEW LEVEL OF COMPREHENSION 121 2.9 GO-BETWEENS 124 2.10 CHRISTOPHER ARCISZEWSKI 131 2.11 MANOEL DE MORAES: HYBRIDITY AND THE MEANING OF BETRAYAL 148 2.12 A LOST AMULET 164 2.13 IAERLIJCK VERHAEL: MORE THAN A SIMPLE CHRONICLE OR A COMPILATION OF LOGBOOKS 165 RERUM PER OCTENNIUM 167 3.1 ‘OH LINDA!’ 169 3.2 JOHAN MAURITS VAN NASSAU-SIEGEN 175 3.3 RERUM PER OCTENNIUM IN BRASILIA ET ALIBI NUPER GESTARUM, SUB PRAEFECTURA ILLUSTRISSIMI COMITIS I. MAURITII, NASSOUVIAE, &C. COMITIS … 180 3.4 RE-WRITING 184 3.5 EVOLUTION IN THE DESCRIPTIONS OF THE NATIVES 187 3.6 HUMAN PATCHWORK 190 3.7 DESCRIPTION OF THE TAPUYA - JACOB RABE’S REPORT 194 3.8 INCOMPREHENSION OF THE AFRICAN SLAVES? 206 3.9 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE CAPTAINCY PARAÍBA 218 3.10 THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS 231 HISTORIA NATURALIS BRASILIAE 235 4.1 THE SPIX’S MACAW 237 4.2 FROM MAPPING TO CLASSIFYING 239 4.3 RISE OF NATURAL HISTORY 242 4.4 COMPREHENDING THROUGH COLLECTING & CLASSIFICATION 245 4.5 O BRASILEIRO 249 4.6 MARCGRAVE’S INQUIRIES 257 4.7 THE ARMADILLO 264 4.8 THE ASTRONOMER’S GAZE 271 4.9 PISO – ‘THE MEDICINE MAN’ 276 4.10 DE MEDICINA BRASILIENSI 279 4.11 SUGAR 285 4.12 PISO ‘S DESCRIPTIONS OF THE LOCAL PEOPLE 286 4.13 CAPTURING THE OTHER - BOOK 8 290 4.14 THE LIMITS OF COMPREHENSION 296 EPILOGUE 299 BIBLIOGRAPHY 303 PRIMARY SOURCES 303 SECONDARY STUDIES 305 xii Introduction O que importa não é a verdade intrínseca das coisas, mas a maneira como elas vão ser contadas ao povo.1 Calabar, Chico Buarque Figure 1: Cristina Costa Rêgo O Boi Voador (1992) 1 ‘It is not the intrinsic truth of things that is important, but the way in which they will be narrated to the people’. Buarque and Guerra Calabar. 1 0.1 BOI VOADOR On the 28th of February 1644, Johan Maurits of Nassau Siegen opened the first bridge of Recife, known today as the Ponte Maurício de Nassau.1 On the occasion of his last days in Brazil, Maurits wanted a large crowd to honor his departure. Because the Dutch West India Company (WIC) refused to support this project financially, Maurits had to invest his own savings. To regain the money invested, he organized an opening feast and asked the visitors to pay a fee to cross the bridge. In order to attract more crowds, the Count also spread the news that an ox would fly over the bridge on the day of the festivities. For this purpose, Maurits borrowed Melchior’s ox, famous in colonial Recife because it frequently ran around in the city, walking up steps and entering the houses of the inhabitants. On the morning of the opening ceremony, Melchior’s ox was put in front of the Government’s palace. Even if the citizens could not believe that the ox would fly, they were curious to see what would happen. In the meantime, Maurits asked his servants to find a piece of leather of the same color as Melchior’s ox, to mould it in the shape of an inflatable balloon and to fill it with straw. The fake ox was then attached to ropes, controlled by sailors, who had it bounce in the air. The spectacle took place before a large crowd watching open-mouthed. Maurits had kept his promise: he made the ox fly and was therefore admired by everyone on 1 The Ponte Maurício de Nassau –or Maurits of Nassau Bridge- is the oldest bridge of Latin America. The original bridge was made of wood and built by the Jewish engineer Baltazar da Fonseca. In 1917 the original structure was replaced by a reinforced concrete one and the bridge, after having undergone different name changes over the past few centuries, regained its original name. More about the Maurits of Nassau Bridge, see: Hannadea Van Nederveen Meerkerk (1989) Recife: the rise of a 17th century trade city from a cultural-historical perspective, Assen: Van Gorcum, 100-04 and Fernando Antônio Gonçalves (1997) O Capibaribe e as pontes: dos ontens bravios aos futuros já chegados, Recife: Comunigraf. 3 account of this sample of creativity and astuteness. The performance of the flying ox was also a great success for the colonial money trunks, resulting in no less than 20.800 florins.2 Until today, the flying ox is a recurrent symbol in Brazil, appearing in many songs and children’s books. It still participates every year in Recife’s carnival parade and the ox is also kept alive in the Portuguese idiomatic expression: ‘Isto é coisa de boi voador!’ (This is a flying ox thing!),referring to promises that are being kept.3 The ox is not the only remnant of the Dutch colonization of North-Eastern Brazil that still resonates in the memory of the present-day country.