António de Noli and Diogo Dias

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Anatol
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Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 2:13 pm

António de Noli and Diogo Dias

Post by Anatol » Thu Feb 05, 2015 9:32 am

ANTONIO DE NOLI(the Cape Verde islands)1456
Antonio de Noli (on the stamp to the right), (born 1415 or possibly 1419; ) was a 15th-century Genoese nobleman and navigator, and the first governor of the earliest European overseas colony in Subsaharan Africa. He discovered some of the Cape Verde islands on behalf of Henry the Navigator and he was made first Governor of Cape Verde by King Afonso V . In most history or geographic books, including ancient chronics, or encyclopedia, he is referred as Antonio de Noli , In Italy , he is known also as Antonio da Noli (see Note 21, below) or sometimes referred as Antoniotto Usodimare .
Antonio de Noli was born to a patrician family in Genoa, Italy , as referred in ancient sources of the epoch; Portuguese king's historian João de Barros stated already in 1552 that Antonio Noli was born in Genoa, and "of noble blood". After he was exiled from Genoa amid political disputes compromising main families Fregoso and Adorno, Antonio de Noli (Navy captain, and cartography expert) sailed to Portugal ca 1447 in command of a small expedition of three vessels and with his brother Bartholomew (a Genoa lawyer) and nephew Raphael. In Portugal, de Noli became engaged in Ultramar explorations by Henry the Navigator . From 1462 to 1496, he founded and then was Captain of Ribeira Grande (modern-day Cidade Velha ) at the southern end of Santiago Island .
Old history records attribute Antonio de Noli the discovery of Cape Verde Islands, supposedly "the ancient Hesperides of Pliny and Ptolemy".This according to a carta regia (royal letter) of September 19, 1462. It is uncertain which of the Cape Verde Islands were discovered by Antonio de Noli. Some of the islands are mentioned in a letter of donation dated December 3, 1460; the rest in the above mentioned from September 19, 1462. Noli has claim to discovering the first set of islands, while the second were possibly found by Diogo Gomes . However, the events in question are poorly recorded in documents from the time, a reasonable alternative would be that some or all of these second set of islands were discovered by Diogo Dias , Diogo Afonso and Alvise Cadamosto .
This letter of 19 September 1462 grants all the islands of Cape Verde to Dom Fernando and the other seven islands are designated but the discoverer is not named. In this letter, Antonio de Noli's name is given as the discoverer of the first five islands, being also the first time he is mentioned by name as the discoverer. The letter of 3 December 1460 was a royal grant to Infante Ferdinand the Saint Prince after the demise of his brother Henry the Navigator in 1460.

DIOGO DIAS(Gomes)(Madagascar)1500
Diogo Dias(on the stamp to the left) , also known as Diogo Gomes , was a 15th-century Portuguese explorer. He was the brother of Bartolomeu Dias and discovered some of the Cape Verde islands together with António Noli .
In 1497 on the first Portuguese India Armadas expedition to India , Diogo Dias served as escrivão (clerk ) aboard Vasco da Gama 's flagship São Gabriel . Dias was one of the main conduits between Gama and the Zamorin of Calicut , and was briefly taken prisoner by the Zamorin when negotiations got hairy.
In 1500, Diogo Dias accompanied the 2nd armada of Pedro Álvares Cabral as one of the captains of the fleet, with a commission to open trade at Sofala . Diogo Dias was one of the first to go ashore in the discovery of Brazil in April 1500. Famously, Dias is credited for breaking the ice with the wary Tupiniquim on the beach by jumping into an impromptu joyful dance to the accompaniment of Tupi pipes.
During an expedition along the Cape of Good Hope (Diogo may have originally called it the Cape of Storms) withPedro Álvares Cabral and his brother, Dias's ship got separated from the main fleet during the crossing of Cape of Good Hope (his brother's ship was lost during that crossing). Having struck a route too far east, Dias was the first European to sight the island of Madagascar and is often credited with naming the island of São Lourenço , on account of it being found on St. Lawrence 's day (August 10, 1500). Although the island was not unknown; its existence and Arabic name, "Island of the Moon", was already reported by Pêro da Covilhã back in 1490.
Dias's subsequent attempts to find the main fleet ended with him mistakenly sailing past Cape Guardafui and into the Gulf of Aden , waters as yet unsailed by Portuguese ships. Trapped by contrary winds, Dias spent several harrowing months in the area. Battered by tempests, attacked by pirates and finally forced aground on the Eritrean coast, in a desperate search for water and food for his rapidly dying crew. By the time he left that trap, Dias had only six crewmen left.
Unable to find Cabral, Diogo Dias ship hobbled back home alone. Nicolau Coelho , leading the vanguard of Cabral's returning armada, finally stumbled upon the weary Dias at the watering stop of Bezeguiche (Bay of Dakar , Senegal) in June, 1501. They returned to Lisbon together.
Cabo Verde 1952;1,0е;SG350.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/António_de_Noli. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogo_Dias
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