Da representação do “outro” no Códice Casanatense, ou como as representações visuais se aliam a uma cronística da expansão

Abstract

In this article we analyze the polychromatic drawings of the codex n.1889 kept in Rome’s Casanatense Library, and their supposed articulation with the narratives that describe Portuguese presence in the Indic in the early sixteenth century. In our view these drawings should not be considered an isolated practice of the visual representation of that space, namely of some of its human communities, but, instead, this visual practice should be understood as one of the main coeval practices of describing those novelties. On the other hand, the description of the Other is one of the main topics of the texts that aim to describe Portuguese presence in Asian regions. Hence we analyze the representation of the Other in the Codex Casanatense, and we confront it with the Portuguese expansion chronicles’ representation strategies. We also focus on different interdiscursive nexus in order to unveil the processes of transmission of the image of the Other(s) in Fernão Lopes de Castanheda’s, João de Barros’ and Gaspar Correia’s matrix texts.