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"Hans Staden, Warhaftige Historia / Two journeys to Brazil (1548-1555). A new introduction to the work with comments on the iconography and an appendix of sources."By Franz Obermeier
141 Pages
Published 2025
German Literature, Iconography, Indigenous Studies, Brazilian History, Colonialism
Hans Staden's travel book Warhaftige Historia und Beschreibung einer Landschaft der wilden, nackten, grimmigen Menschfresser Leuten in der neuen Welt Amerika is the very first book on Brazil in print after the country's discovery in 1500. In it, Hans Staden reports on his two journeys to the country in the years 1548-1555. The book by the Homberg an der Efze born author from northern Hesse region was published in 1557 after his return to Marburg in Hesse and became a defining work of early modern travel literature and a classic of ethnography. It consists of two parts, called books in the first edition. In the first part, Staden describes his two journeys. This part became famous above all for the detailed description of his imprisonment by the anthropophagous Tupinambá Indians, which he was only able to escape by behaving as one of their shamans until he was finally being bought free by a French captain. In the second part, probably written as separate part with a title page at the suggestion of the Marburg professor and doctor Johannes Dryander (actually Eichmann, 1500-1560), who wrote the preface to the work and was also the censor of the Marburg University, Staden gives a separate ethnographic report on the way of life of the Tupinambá and some natural history observations. The level of the very simple illustrations, created by unknown artists according to Staden's specifications or sketches, also serves this admirably ingenious structure. These simple but exceptionally influential woodcuts not only show indigenous life, real verifiable coastlines and elements of indigenous culture, but also the witness Staden with morally condemnatory gestures as a prisoner in a Tupinamba village, where he sees cannibalistic scenes. These illustrations of cannibalism in particular made the book a landmark in travel literature and illustration history, thanks to numerous adaptations in the last two centuries, even in a Brazilian children's version and other adaptions in youth literature as well as two films made Staden’s work one of the most influential travel books in Brazilian cultural imaginary. A German, not even trained as author or with any literary pretention, was to write the first book exclusively dedicated to Brazil and one of the founding texts for Brazilian civilization. We provide an extensive commentary on the details of the individual illustrations and publish for the first time in English translation all contemporary sources on Staden's book that have survived outside the work. Two letters by Staden, a document about his economic situation, the letters of the Spanish leader of his second expedition, a document about the captain in this voyage and the judement of a French travellor to Brazil, Jean de Léry, having read Staden's book after having published his own travel account in French in 1578. Furthermore, a bibliography of all later editions and translations is given, and a comparison about the Bry edition, which copied in 1592/1592 Staden's woodcut in engravings.
