Copy of a Letter of the King of Portugal Sent to the King of Castile Concerning the Voyage and Success of India

Translated by Sergio J. Pacifici

This is the first English translation of a rare historical document, the complete title of which is Copy of a Letter of the King of Portugal Sent to the King of Castile Concerning the Voyage and Success of India. Published in 1505 in Rome, the document purported to be a copy of a letter of Manual the Fortunate, king of Portugal, though some doubt exists among scholars as to whether the text was that of a letter of the king of simply a news publication. In any case, the document is historically significant, since it gives a contemporary account of the first commercial sea voyages to India by the Portuguese. The original publication from which this translation was made is in the James Ford Bell Collection in the University of Minnesota library.

Sergio J. Pacifici was a professor of Italian at Yale University.

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