The Return of Hans Staden This page intentionally left blank The Return of Hans Staden A Go- between in the Atlantic World EVE M. DUFFY & ALIDA C. METCALF The Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore © 2012 The Johns Hopkins University Press All rights reserved. Published 2012 Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper 2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1 The Johns Hopkins University Press 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Mary land 21218- 4363 www .press .jhu .edu Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Duff y, Eve M. The return of Hans Staden : a go- between in the Atlantic world / Eve M. Duff y, Alida C. Metcalf. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN- 13: 978- 1- 4214- 0345- 8 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN-13 : 978- 1- 4214- 0346- 5 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN- 10: 1- 4214- 0345- 5 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN-10 : 1- 4214- 0346- 3 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Staden, Hans, ca. 1525–ca. 1576— Travel—Brazil. 2. Staden, Hans, ca. 1525– ca. 1576. Warhaftige Historia und Beschreibung eyner Landtschaff t der wilden, nacketen, grimmigen Menschfresser Leuthen in der Newenwelt America gelegen. 3. Brazil— Description and travel— Early works to 1800. 4. Indians of South America— Brazil. 5. Tupinamba Indians— Social life and customs. 6. Brazil— Early works to 1800. 7. America— Early accounts to 1600. I. Metcalf, Alida C., 1954– II. Title. F2511.D84 2011 980'.01—dc22 2011013721 A cata log record for this book is available from the British Library. Special discounts are available for bulk purchases of this book. For more information, please contact Special Sales at 410- 516- 6936 or [email protected]. The Johns Hopkins University Press uses environmentally friendly book materials, including recycled text paper that is composed of at least 30 percent post- consumer waste, whenever possible. For our students This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS List of Illustrations ix Ac know ledg ments xi A Note on Spelling and Citation xv Introduction 1 1 Staden Goes to Sea 12 2 The Lying Captive 48 3 The Traveler Returns 77 4 Staden’s Images 103 Epilogue 136 Notes 145 Bibliography 171 Index 187 This page intentionally left blank ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Staden’s Voyages 2 2. Title Page Woodcut, from Hans Staden, Warhaftige Historia 6 3. The Town of Kassel in Hesse 14 4. A Lansquenet with Harquebus 21 5. Staden Leaves Hesse 24 6. The City of Lisbon 26 7. São Vicente 49 8. Staden Dances with Women and Children 54 9. French Sailors Refuse Staden 64 10. The Cannibalism of the Guarani Slave 67 11. Staden’s Return 72 12. Landgrave Philipp 78 13. The City of Marburg in Hesse 83 14. Johannes Dryander 86 15. Vesalius’s Brain and Dryander’s Brain 88 16. Staden Prays 95 17. Staden’s Cross 96 18. An Unidentifi able Staden Fights with the Tupinambá 101 19. Title Page of Staden’s True History 104 20. Title Page Woodcut of the Second, Frankfurt Edition 108 21. Woodcuts of the Sky in the Nuremberg Chronicle 111 22. Mountains and Ocean, Windhead, and Waves and Ocean (details from the Waldseemüller World Map, 1507) 112 23. Two Views of São Vicente 113 24. Cannibalism Associated with America on Two German Maps 116 25. Tupinambá Warriors 118 26. A Ship of Knowledge 119 x Illustrations 27. Ships at Sea 120 28. Map and Battle Scene in Pernambuco 122 29. Staden’s Map of Brazil and Repre sen ta tion of the South Atlantic 123 30. Tupinambá Smoking and Making Fire 125 31. Staden among Women and Making a Prophecy among Men 127 32. Tupinambá Men Fishing 128 33. Staden Observing Cannibalism 130 34. De Bry’s Recreation of Cannibalism 133 35. Seventeenth- Century Portrait of Staden 137 AC KNOW LEDG MENTS It is an enormous plea sure to express our appreciation to all those who assisted us as we sought to make sense of the story of Staden’s return in the context of the opening of the Atlantic world. Because this work was a true collaboration, we would like to begin by thanking each other and acknowledging longstanding mu- tual support, from our initial conversations to our sustained writing, always across great distances. Trinity University provided the initial institutional context for our work, and our gratitude goes to Anene Ejikeme for fi rst suggesting that, as histori- ans of Germany and Brazil, we should write this book together. We especially recognize John Martin, who not only encouraged the project at every stage but has given us many insights into the early modern world. We are grateful to our respective institutions for providing settings in which to write and work. Our wonderful librarians, especially Anna Shparberg at Rice University and Claudia Funke, curator of rare books at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, have provided tremendously rich resources and helped us locate essential texts. Nicholas Shumway, Dean of Humanities at Rice University, and Bill Andrews, Se nior Associate Dean of Fine Arts and the Humanities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, shared a subvention that allows us to include the images that complement our text. Like Staden, we know the value of images to convey meaning, and we are fortunate to have the support of our institu- tions to enable this enrichment of the text for our readers. A conference on Hans Staden held in Wolfhagen in 2007 provided Alida the opportunity to visit Staden’s native land and to meet many of those who have worked on Staden over the past de cades. Our thanks go to Franz Obermeier and Wolfgang Schiff ner for or ga niz ing the conference and to all of the participants who shared their ideas, especially Neil Whitehead, Vanete Dutra Santana, and Marília dos Santos Lopes. Wolfgang and Barbara Schiff ner are remembered fondly for their hospitality in Wolfhagen. A trip to Munich in 2010 enabled Eve to visit xii Ac know ledg ments the Bavarian State Library (whose digital collections provided invaluable and easy access to rare texts). A special thanks goes to Chuck Weinraub for facilitating her travel. A wide network of colleagues and friends shared their ideas and served as sound- ing boards as we wrote the book in 2009 and 2010. The Helm Fellowship program at the Lilly Library at Indiana University supported two weeks of research in resi- dence in Bloomington during the summer of 2008. Christine Johnson gave us early insights into the historiography on Hans Staden, while Susan Boettcher served as a resource for sixteenth- century Hesse. Carlos Fausto helped us to understand the complex anthropological debates over cannibalism, and Felipe Vieira de Castro and Francisco Contente Domingues lent their expertise on Portuguese ships. Ruth von Bernuth and the students of the UNC graduate seminar on travel writing provided valuable insights into the narrative structure of the True History that are incorporated into chapter 3. Likewise, Rice students in Diane Wolfthal’s art his- tory seminar Multi- Cultural Eu rope critically read the fi rst draft of chapter 4; Diane fi rst suggested that we explore the images not as the work of Staden or a single artist but as the result of a collaboration. Our long- distance collaboration could not have been possible without the online workspace at Rice University created by Angela DeHart Rabuck, which allowed us to easily manage and share scores of drafts and an extensive array of sources. We would also like to thank Kim Ricker and Jean Niswonger at the GIS/Data Center at the Fondren Library at Rice University for extensive training on how to concep- tualize maps; Jean Niswonger deserves special recognition for her outstanding work in creating the maps in their fi nal form. At the Rice Digital Media Center, Lisa Spiro and Jane Zhao provided expert advice in assembling the images. Rice graduate students in history Angela Moehnke and Angela Prattas assisted us in proofreading, compiling the bibliography, and researching the images. Paul Igmundson provided helpful insights as we thought about the signifi cance of Staden’s text and the limita- tions of historical knowledge. David K. Frasier at the Lilly Library at Indiana Uni- versity was enormously helpful with our requests for images, as was Leslie Tobias Olsen at the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, and the other institu- tions who are credited in the text. The late Henry Tom at the Johns Hopkins University Press was an enthusiastic supporter of the book from the start, and we are honored to be among his last authors. Suzanne Flinchbaugh skillfully shep- herded the book to its completion with patience and good humor. We are especially grateful to Elizabeth Yoder for her deft copyediting. We thank our anonymous outside reviewer for suggesting revisions that strengthened the manuscript. We thank Daniel Rigney for a careful reading of the fi nal manuscript. Ac know ledg ments xiii Finally, we acknowledge our families— our husbands, Dan and Kevin, and our sons, August, Benjamin, Cole, Matthew, and Max— who are there whenever we return (often after long stays at libraries, archives, and our desks) and who have listened to our stories of Hans Staden with patience, shock, good humor, and love. This page intentionally left blank A NOTE ON SPELLING AND CITATION Staden’s True History is written in early modern High German, a language not easily accessible to most modern readers. The translations that appear here are our own, and we cite an online digitized version of Staden’s text for the original quotations provided in the text and footnotes. This text, a reproduction of the original published by Karl Fouquet, is available at the German- language Gutenberg Project, hosted by the magazine Der Spiegel (at http:// gutenberg .