Dialog of a Veteran Soldier: Discussing the Frauds and Realities of Portuguese India (Classic Histories from the Portuguese-Speaking World in Translation) - Softcover

Couto, Diogo Do; Coates, Timothy J.; Pearson, M. N.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1933227729 ISBN 13: 9781933227726

Publisher: Tagus Press at UMass Dartmouth, 2016

Synopsis

Fraud, scandal, theft of royal funds, official graft, and cover-ups: these are the subjects of the 1612 exposé written by Diogo do Couto in his Dialog of a Veteran Soldier. Couto revealed too much and as a result, this work had to wait more than 175 years until its first publication in 1790. This classic of overseas Portuguese history is a well-known source cited by historians of Portuguese Asia, yet it has remained beyond the reach of a larger audience until this translation―its first into any other language. Couto was never rewarded with any of the prized positions that viceroys and governors (according to him) showered on their underlings. This Dialog is his bitter response. In it, we can see the workings of official and informal administration of Portuguese Asia as well as the numerous remedies Couto suggests to correct these abuses.

About this title

About the Authors

DIOGO DO COUTO (Lisbon, c. 1542 Goa, 10 December 1616) was a Portuguese historian.

TIMOTHY J. COATES is professor of history at the College of Charleston. His is the author of Convicts and Orphans: Forced and State-Sponsored Colonizers in the Portuguese Empire, 1550 1755, and the translator of Andre Joao Antonil s Brazil at the Dawn of the Eighteenth Century (Tagus Press, 2012).

M.N. PEARSON is Emeritus Professor at the University of New South Wales, Australia

Edition details

• Publisher: Tagus Press at UMass Dartmouth
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1933227729
• ISBN 13: 9781933227726
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256