Dettaglio Scheda - "Primera parte de la descripcion general de Affrica, con todos los successos de guerras qua a ..."

[7], 294, [16] c. ; 2º

Marca (E306) in fine
Cors. ; rom
Segn.: π¹ (ast)⁶ A-2N⁸ 2O⁶ (croce)-2(croce)⁸
Iniziali xil

Stemma xil. di Filippo 2. sul front.

L'esemplare reca ms. sul v. della c. di g. ant.: Epitafio del Catolico Re filippo Re di Spagna; sul front.: ex dono D.o M. B.ae M.ae S.i; segue di altra mano: Di Giovanni anfosso q. Gra.i di nono. Altre notazioni ms. in fine.

“Along with the Della descrittione dell’Africa by Leo Africanus, another popular sixteenth-century source for the geography of Africa was the Descripcion general de Affrica, written in Spanish by Luis del Mármol Carvajal. The first two volumes were printed in Granada in 1573; they were followed much later by a third volume printed in Málaga in 1599. While Spanish authors had published extensive accounts of the New World earlier in the century, it is somewhat surprising that the first comprehensive European description of Africa was written by a Spaniard—especially since Spain’s connection with the continent was limited to the Barbary Coast. A French translation appeared in 1667. An Arabic translation, based on the French version, was published in Morocco in 1989. English, Dutch, and German extracts were included in most of the popular seventeenth- and eighteenth-century encyclopedic works dealing with African geography and the history of European discoveries.
Little is known of the life of Carvajal except what he tells of himself in his preface, and what can be gleaned from the few surviving documents on his military career. Carvajal was born in Granada to a Castilian family around 1520. It has been suggested that Carvajal’s family had Moorish ancestry, which could explain his knowledge of Arabic and interest in northern Africa.
After the Spanish conquest of Tunis in 1535 (in which he took part), Carvajal pursued his military career in Northern Africa for ten years until he was taken prisoner in a battle near Oran, probably in 1545. According to his own words, he spent the following seven years and eight months in captivity. During this period, he was transported as a slave into various parts of Morocco, Algeria, and Libya. The Christian captives, most of whom were Spaniards, played a vital role in the economies and societies of the North African states. They were important both as slave labor and for the substantial sums paid to rescue them. Carvajal was ransomed by an unidentified redemptionist order around 1554, but he carried on exploring the African continent as a free man, probably visiting Egypt and Ethiopia. He even went as far as the borders of the Sudanic zone. Having spent 22 years in Africa, he finally returned to Spain in 1557.
Thereafter Carvajal fought in the Spanish army in Italy, returning to Granada in time to witness the Morisco revolt in 1568–1572. At the end of the revolt, he settled near Málaga where he began to write his Descripcion general de Affrica. It was certainly during his long stay on the Barbary Coast that he learned to read and speak Arabic fluently. On the grounds of this knowledge, he was in 1579 on the point of being named Spanish ambassador to Morocco. At the last moment King Philip II rejected him, only because he was not a nobleman by birth. Nothing is known of the rest of his life. Carvajal died in Granada, probably in 1600.
Carvajal has been regarded for a long time as a mere copyist of Leo Africanus, and hence his work has largely been neglected by modern historians of Africa. He was criticized particularly by contemporary scholarly readers because he did not acknowledge Leo Africanus at all, despite incorporating large sections of his Descrittione in his own work. This accusation is not exactly accurate, as Carvajal does refer to his famous predecessor (whom he called Iuan de Leon) twice. Moreover, quoting earlier texts without any acknowledgment was not considered to be a mark of egregious scholarship, or a violation of copyright, as it is presently.
Carvajal nowhere reveals when and in what circumstances he became aware of the work of Leo Africanus, or his impetus for writing the Descripcion general de Affrica. He certainly relied on Ramusio’s Italian edition of Africanus, rather than the French or Latin translations of 1556. It is tempting to speculate that Carvajal obtained a copy of Ramusio’s Delle navigatione et viaggi while fighting in Italy. Perhaps he was commissioned, based on his experiences in northern Africa, to produce an updated, Spanish edition of Leo’s text by Spanish military authorities. This would at least explain the contents and structure of Carvajal’s work, and the fact that the second part was published at the author’s expense more than 20 years after the first part. (The second part focuses on the Sahara, Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudanic Africa, and the Guinea Coast—all areas of little interest to the Spaniards, who were fighting against the Moorish corsairs in the western Mediterranean.)
Carvajal’s work is not a mere regurgitation of that of Leo Africanus. He was able to supplement the latter’s text with many new details and corrections on the grounds of what he had learned during his stay in northern Africa. It contains a lengthy exposition of the history of Islam up to the year 1571. The focus is understandably on the events in Islamic Spain and Northern Africa. This history, however, proves that Carvajal must have known some of the chronicles written by the Muslim historians in Granada and Morocco. During the long reign of King Philip II (1556–1598), a large quantity of Arabic manuscripts were acquired by the Escorial library from all of the Spanish cities where Muslim culture had flourished. Furthermore, Carvajal described areas which had been unfamiliar to Leo, such as the Guinea Coast, the kingdoms of Congo and Monomotapa, Zanzibar, and Madagascar. Carvajal, who was at Lisbon in 1579, seems to have had access to some unpublished Portuguese and Spanish sources; he also probably interviewed persons who had been to western Africa.
Besides his Descripcion general de Affrica, Carvajal wrote a history of the Moorish revolt in Granada, entitled Historia del rebelión y castigo de los moriscos del reino de Granada, which was published in Málaga in 1600. Moreover, there exists in the Escorial library a manuscript written by Carvajal, describing a Turkish standard that had been captured in the naval battle of Lepanto in 1571. (Carvajal himself did not participate in this battle.)”
Cfr.: P. Masonen, Carvajal, Luis del Mármol (c.l520 – c.1600) - Spanish Soldier, Geographer, and Historian in Encyclopedia of African History, v. I, p. 379-380.
 

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