Pedro Tafur
Encyclopedia
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
traveler and writer. Born in Córdoba
Córdoba, Spain
-History:The first trace of human presence in the area are remains of a Neanderthal Man, dating to c. 32,000 BC. In the 8th century BC, during the ancient Tartessos period, a pre-urban settlement existed. The population gradually learned copper and silver metallurgy...
, to a branch of the noble house of Guzmán
Guzman
Guzman is a Spanish surname of toponymic origin, deriving from the village of Guzmán, in the region of Burgos. Originally de Guzmán, or "of Guzmán", the preposition has frequently been dropped. The Portuguese form of the name is Gusmão....
, Tafur traveled across three continents during the years 1436 to 1439. During the voyage, he participated in various battles, visited shrines, and rendered diplomatic services for Juan II of Castile. He visited the Moroccan
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
coast, southern France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, the Holy Land
Holy Land
The Holy Land is a term which in Judaism refers to the Kingdom of Israel as defined in the Tanakh. For Jews, the Land's identifiction of being Holy is defined in Judaism by its differentiation from other lands by virtue of the practice of Judaism often possible only in the Land of Israel...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, Rhodes
Rhodes
Rhodes is an island in Greece, located in the eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007, and also the island group's historical capital. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within...
, Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
, Tenedos
Tenedos
Tenedos or Bozcaada or Bozdja-Ada is a small island in the Aegean Sea, part of the Bozcaada district of Çanakkale province in Turkey. , Tenedos has a population of about 2,354. The main industries are tourism, wine production and fishing...
, Trebizond
Trabzon
Trabzon is a city on the Black Sea coast of north-eastern Turkey and the capital of Trabzon Province. Trabzon, located on the historical Silk Road, became a melting pot of religions, languages and culture for centuries and a trade gateway to Iran in the southeast and the Caucasus to the northeast...
, and Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
. He also visited the Sinai Peninsula
Sinai Peninsula
The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai is a triangular peninsula in Egypt about in area. It is situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Red Sea to the south, and is the only part of Egyptian territory located in Asia as opposed to Africa, effectively serving as a land bridge between two...
, where he met Niccolò Da Conti
Niccolò Da Conti
Niccolò de' Conti was an Italian merchant and explorer of the Republic of Venice, born in Chioggia, who traveled to India and Southeast Asia, and possibly to Southern China, during the early 15th century...
, who shared with Tafur information about southeastern Asia. Before returning to Spain, Tafur crossed central Europe
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
.
Between 1453 and 1454, to judge from interior evidence in the single surviving manuscript, he wrote a book called Andanças e viajes de Pero Tafur por diversas partes del mundo avidos (unpublished until 1874, when it was published by Marcos Jiménez de la Espada
Marcos Jiménez de la Espada
Marcos Jiménez de la Espada was a Spanish zoologist, explorer and writer, born in Cartagena, Spain, although he spent most of his life in Madrid, where he died. He is known for participating in the Pacific Scientific Commission, with whom he traveled America from 1862 to 1865...
). It is one of the few books written by a Spanish traveler during the medieval period (that of Ruy González de Clavijo is another example). Tafur dedicated his book to a member of the Guzmán
Guzman
Guzman is a Spanish surname of toponymic origin, deriving from the village of Guzmán, in the region of Burgos. Originally de Guzmán, or "of Guzmán", the preposition has frequently been dropped. The Portuguese form of the name is Gusmão....
family, the same family to which Saint Dominic
Saint Dominic
Saint Dominic , also known as Dominic of Osma, often called Dominic de Guzmán and Domingo Félix de Guzmán was the founder of the Friars Preachers, popularly called the Dominicans or Order of Preachers , a Catholic religious order...
belonged. He thus provides biographical information regarding this saint.
He provides valuable details concerning the Baths of Zeuxippus
Baths of Zeuxippus
The Baths of Zeuxippus were popular public baths in the city of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. They were built between 100 to 200, destroyed by the Nika revolt of 532 and then rebuilt several years later. They were so called because they were built upon the site where a Temple...
, the Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey...
, the Holy doors in Rome
Holy door
Each of the four papal basilicas in Rome has a Holy door . The doors are normally sealed shut from the inside so that they cannot be opened...
, and the obelisks in Rome
Obelisks in Rome
The city of Rome harbours the most obelisks in the world. There are eight ancient Egyptian and five ancient Roman obelisks in Rome, together with a number of more modern obelisks; there was also formerly an ancient Ethiopian obelisk in Rome....
.
Having returned to Spain in 1439, some time before 1452 Tafur married Doña Juana de Horozco. A son appears to have predeceased his father, but three daughters are mentioned in Doña Juana's will. He played a prominent role in local affairs: he and his son both held office as aldermen in 1479.
External links
Online text of Tafur’s travels The Travels of Pero Tafur (1435-1439) Viaje de Pedro Tafur por el imperio germánico en los años 1438 y 1439. Las hermandades de Castilla en tiempo de Enrique IV Bienvenido Oliver y Esteller. Edición digital a partir de Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, tomo 14 (mayo 1889), pp. 379-389. Centro Virtual Cervantes Las memorias de Pedro Tafur, Franco Meregalli Espacios sagrados y espacios míticos La retórica del viaje en las Andanças de Pero Tafur, María José RodillaSources
- Pero Tafur, Travels and Adventures 1435-1439, Routledge, 2004.
- LÓPEZ ESTRADA, Francisco: Libros de viajeros hispánicos medievales Madrid, Ediciones Laberinto, 2002. ISBN 8484830667.
- RAMÍREZ DE ARELLANO, Rafael: Estudios biográficos: Pero Tafur. Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia.41: 278-98.
- VIVES GATELL, José: Andanças e viajes de un higaldo español (Pero Tafur, 1436-1439),con una descripción de Roma. Analecta Sacra Tarraconensia 19 (1949): 127-207.
- CARTELLIERI, Otto: Pero Tafur, ein spanischer Weltreisender des 15. Jahrhunderts, in: Festschrift Alexander Cartellieri zu seinem sechzigsten Geburtstag dargebracht von Freunden und Schülern, Weimar 1927.
- STEHLIN, Karl & THOMMEN, Rudolf: Aus der Reisebeschreibung des Pero Tafur, 1438 und 1439.