Exhibition

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German Version

Portuguese Version

 

 

In cooperation with:

 

 

 

Prologue | Portugal in the Middle Ages | Conditions at the Start | Voyages of Discovery

Cartography and Nautics | New Worlds – Old Empires | Portugal Overseas | Art and Curiosity Cabinets

Portugal in the 16th Century | International Conflicts | Foreign Images

 

 

NOVOS MUNDOS - NEW WORLDS
Portugal and the Age of Discovery

An exhibition of the German Historical Museum
in cooperation with the Instituto Camões, Lisbon
and the Embassy of Portugal, Berlin
Curators: Prof. Dr. Hans Ottomeyer, Dr. Michael Kraus

 

 

The exhibition “Novos Mundos – New Worlds” highlights the European expansion with a focus on Portugal. The time from the early 15th to the 17th century forms the center of the exhibition. Through their outstanding seafaring accomplishments, the most well-known of which include Bartolomeu Dias’ circumnavigation of the Cape of Good Hope (1488), Vasco de Gama’s discovery of the sea-route to India (1498), Pedro Álvares Cabral’s “discovery” of Brazil (1500) as well as the first voyage around the world by Fernão de Magalhães (Magellan) (1519-21), the Portuguese kingdom of the 15th and 16th centuries made a decisive contribution to the globalization of sea and trade routes and in many cases to the first encounters of different cultures and nations. Alongside the history of Portugal as well as the scientific and technical prerequisites and by-products of the sea journeys such as the development of cartography (Behaim, Waldseemüller) and nautical science, the planned exhibition is to provide visitors with insight into the realms and cultures encountered by the Portuguese, the form taken by the various contact scenarios and the manner and significance of the relations that ensued and rapidly intensified. Political conflicts, trade relations and cultural exchange are also to be modeled for the visitor with examples.

The German Historical Museum is taking the transfer of the Council of the EU Presidency, which shift from Germany to Portugal in the second half of 2007, as the occasion for developing this exhibition. The close collaboration with Portuguese institutions guarantees that the public can be presented with a great variety of unique objects and documents on the history of European early modernity that are otherwise hardly to be seen outside of Portugal.