| Signature of Fernam Lopes de Castanheda | Water Mark |
That is:—
“Em Nome de Ds Amem// Na era de mill iiij lr vij
mamdou Ellrey Dom manuell o primo desde nome em portugall/
xxxxxxxxxxa descobrir/ quat
navios/ os quaes hiam em busca da especiaria/ dos quaees na
vios hia por capitam moor Vco da Gama e dos outros duũ
delles Paullo da Gama seu jrmaoo e doutro njcollao Coelho”.
The manuscript originally belonged to the famous Convent of Santa Cruz at Coimbra, whence it was transferred, together with other precious MSS., to the public library of Oporto.
It is not an autograph, for on fol. 64 (p. 77 of this translation), where the author has left a blank, the copyist, to guard against his being supposed to have been careless in his task, has added these words: “The author has omitted to tell us how these weapons were made”. This copy, however, was taken in the beginning of the sixteenth century, as may be seen from the style of the writing as exhibited in the facsimile of the first paragraph of the work, shown on preceding page.
The MS. is in folio, and is rudely bound up in a sheet of parchment, torn out of some book of ecclesiastical offices. The ink is a little faded, but the writing is still perfectly legible. The paper is of ordinary strength, and of rather a dark tint; the manufacturer’s water mark is shown in the above facsimile. Blank leaves of more modern make, and having a different water-mark, have been inserted at the front and back, and the first of these leaves contains the following inscription in a modern hand, which is still legible, although pains have been taken to erase it:—
“Pertinet ad usum fratris Theotonii de Sancto
G ... Canonici Regularis in Cenobio
Scte Crucis”.
Immediately below this we read:—
“Dô Theotonio”,
and near the bottom of the page, in a modern hand, probably that of one of the librarians of the convent:—