View source for Fernão de Loronha

{{Short description|Portuguese merchant (1470 - 1570)}}
{{Infobox person
| image       =
| alt         =
| occupation  = Merchant
| caption     =
| birth_date  = {{c.|1470}}
| birth_place = [[Lisbon]], [[Kingdom of Portugal|Portugal]]
| death_date  = {{c.}} {{death year and age|1540|1470}}
| death_place = Lisbon, Portugal
| other_names =
{{plainlist |
* Fernando de Noronha
* Fernando della Rogna
}}
| spouse      =
| children    =
}}
'''Fernão de Loronha''' ({{c.|1470}} or earlier &ndash; {{c.|1540}}), whose name is often [[Corruption (linguistics)|corrupted]] to '''Fernando de Noronha''' or '''Fernando della Rogna''', was a prominent 16th-century Portuguese merchant of Lisbon, of [[Sephardi Jews|Jewish]] descent.  He was the first charter-holder (1502–1512), the first [[Donatary Captain|donatary captain]] in Brazil and sponsor of numerous early Portuguese overseas expeditions.  The islands of [[Fernando de Noronha]] off the coast of Brazil, discovered by one of his expeditions and granted to Loronha and his heirs as a fief in 1504, are named after him.
== Biography ==
Fernão de Loronha was a [[Sephardi Jews|Sephardi Jew]] converted to Catholicism (''[[Marrano|cristão-novo]]''). He was the son of Martim Afonso de Loronha and the brother of another Martim Afonso de Loronha, a [[Clerk (position)|clerk]] of the [[Order of Christ (Portugal)|Order of Christ]], both ennobled and granted a coat of arms newly created. He married Violante Rodrigues.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fernão de Loronha |url=http://www.geneall.net/P/per_page.php?id=205679 |url-access=registration |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110520012541/http://www.geneall.net/P/per_page.php?id=205679 |archive-date=2011-05-20 |website=[[Geneall]] |language=pt-PT}}</ref>
By 1500, Fernão de Loronha was a well-established merchant in Lisbon, where he served as the [[factor (agent)|factor]] of [[Jakob Fugger]], head of the wealthy German banking family of [[Augsburg]]. In his 1504 royal letter, King [[Manuel I of Portugal]] referred to Loronha as a knight of the royal household (''cavaleiro da nossa casa'').  His acquisition of status at a time when even wealthy and notable Jews came under persecution in Portugal suggests Loronha had unusually high connections.  Even the corruption of his name from Loronha to Noronha might not be accidental, but reflect a popular assumption (which he might not have been eager to correct) that he was connected to the [[Noronha]] clan, one of the most illustrious noble families in Portugal, of royal Castilian descent (although there is no evidence Loronha had any ties, by blood or marriage, to the Noronhas).<ref>Greenlee (1945: p.8-9)</ref>
After the [[2nd Portuguese India Armada (Cabral, 1500)|discovery of Brazil]] by [[Pedro Álvares Cabral]] in 1500, the Portuguese crown sent out a follow-up mapping expedition in 1501 to explore the Brazilian coast.  The commander of this expedition is unknown, but it was accompanied by [[Amerigo Vespucci]], who wrote an account of it.<ref>Amerigo Vespucci relates the account of this expedition twice - first in a letter to Lorenzo Pietro Francesco di Medici, written in early 1503 (see ([https://books.google.com/books?id=8wAuAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA42 account]) in ''Letter do Medici''), and then again in his letters to Piero Soderini, written 1504-05 ([account] in ''Letter to Soderini'').</ref>  Some scholars believe that Fernão de Loronha may have been the overall captain of this expedition, due to his interest in the country's dye wood resources. After the expedition, Loronha in fact obtained a royal lease with fellow businessmen to commercialize Brazilian dye wood and other products. Proponents of the hypothesis that Loronha commanded the 1501 mapping expedition include Duarte Leite (1923) and Greenlee (1945). Opponents include Roukema (1963).
The mapping expedition explored much of the Brazilian eastern coast from [[Cape São Roque]] in the northeast down to the environs of [[Cabo Frio]] and named many of the locations along the way.  Returning to Lisbon by September 1502, the expedition reported the discovery of an abundance of [[brazilwood]] (''pau-brasil'') on the coast.<ref name = vogt>Vogt (1967)</ref> Brazilwood was highly valued by the European cloth industry as a superb dye, producing a deep red color, but it had to be imported from India at great expense.<ref name = vogt/>  Sensing the commercial opportunity of the new discovery, Fernando de Loronha assembled a consortium of Lisbon merchants, with himself at its head, and petitioned the crown for permission to exploit the find.  In late September 1502, King [[Manuel I of Portugal|Manuel of Portugal]] issued a [[charter]] (now lost)  granting Fernão de Loronha the exclusive right to the commercial exploitation of the "Lands of Vera Cruz" (as Brazil was then known) for a period of three years.  In return, Loronha was obliged to outfit and send six ships per year at his own expense, commit himself to discover 300 leagues of new coast per year and build a fort (''forteza'') in the new country.  Loronha would also obliged pay the crown a share of his revenues: zero in the first year, one-sixth in the second year, and one quarter in the third year.<ref>The original charter is now lost.  The terms, however, were reported in a letter dated October 3, 1502, by Piero Rondonelli.  See Greenlee (1945: p.9) and Vogt (1967:p.154-5)</ref>  However, a different account reports Loronha was given a ten-year charter, for which he paid the crown a fixed sum of 4,000 [[ducats]] per year.<ref>This is reported in a letter of Leonardo de Ca' Masser in 1506/07.  See Vogt (1967)</ref>  One possible reconciliation is that the latter reflect not the original terms, but new terms that were negotiated upon the renewal of Loronha's charter in 1505.<ref>Vogt (1967), however, believes Ca' Masser's letter is entirely in error, and that the terms reported by Rondinelli were probably the correct ones and there might not have been a renewal at all.</ref>
In April–May 1503, Loronha's consortium outfitted a new expedition of six ships under captain [[Gonçalo Coelho]], accompanied once again by Amerigo Vespucci, to scout the Brazilian coast and set up harvesting warehouses.  On August 10, 1503, the expedition stumbled on an uninhabited island off the northeast Brazilian coast that is now called the [[Fernando de Noronha]] island. However, it went through different names at that time: Vespucci called it ''São Lourenço'', official documents called it ''São João'', while a contemporary map, the [[Cantino planisphere]], apparently called it ''Quaresma''.<ref>One solution to the puzzle of multiple names, proposed by Roukema (1963) is the island's first name, ''São Lourenço'', was given by Vespucci on the outward voyage of the Coelho expedition, on account of August 10, 1503, the day of discovery, being the feast day of [[St. Lawrence]]. It was renamed ''São João'' because of the "rediscovery" of that island on the return leg by another ship of the Coelho fleet (captain unknown, but not Vespucci, who returned by a different route), on August 29, 1503, the feast day of the [[beheading of St. John the Baptist]].  This other ship reached Lisbon in late 1503, and reported it as ''São João'', the name by which it is referred to in a January 1504 document, well before Vespucci's own arrival back in Lisbon in September 1504 could correct it.  As for Cantino map's ''Quaresma'' (meaning [[Lent]]), may be simply a mistake, that Quaresma was the name given to the [[Rocas Atoll]], discovered during the 1501 mapping expedition, and not Fernando de Noronha island.</ref>
[[File:Brazil 16thc map.jpg|thumb|220px|1519 map of the coast of Brazil, showing the harvesting of brazilwood.]]The Coelho-Vespucci expedition was instructed by Loronha to establish [[Factory (trading post)|factories]] (''feitorias'', essentially warehouses) along the coast as collection points for brazilwood harvests.  It is believed three warehouses were established on this expedition - one by Vespucci at [[Cabo Frio]] (manned by 24 men, thus filling the ''forteza'' requirement), another by Coelho at [[Porto Seguro]] (''feitoria da Santa Cruz de Cabrália'') and probably a third, also by Coelho, in [[Guanabara Bay]] (''feitoria da Carioca''). Around 1509 or 1511 (details uncertain), an expedition outfitted by Fernão de Loronha under [[Cristóvão Pires]] established another brazilwood factory at [[Baía de Todos os Santos]] (modern Bahia). It is believed a factory may have also been established at [[São Vicente Island (São Paulo, Brazil)|São Vicente]] around 1508 or so, although this is more speculative.
On January 14, 1504, King [[Manuel I of Portugal]] issued a royal letter granting the island of ''São João'' ([[Fernando de Noronha]]) personally to Fernão de Loronha and his descendants, thereby making Loronha the first Portuguese hereditary [[captaincy|donatary captain]] of Brazil.<ref>An actual copy of this charter has never been found.  Its contents and date, however, are summarized in a royal letter of March 3, 1522, confirming it. A copy of Loronha's captaincy charter is found in António Zeferino Cândido, editor (1900) ''Brazil: 1500-1900'', Rio de Janeiro: Imprensa Nacional, [https://books.google.com/books?id=j2cCAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA391 p.392].  A later royal letter of May 20, 1559, issued to Loronha's descendants, identifies the location of ''São João'' unambiguously as Fernando de Noronha island.  See Duarte Leite (1923: p.276-8) and Roukema (1963: p.21).</ref>  A factory was immediately set up on the island, and quickly became the hub of Loronha's operation - brazilwood harvested directly across the water, or ferried in by small boats from the factories down the coast, were collected on the island, and dispatched on larger ships back to Portugal.  By 1506, Loronha's consortium is said to have reaped a brazilwood harvest of 20,000 [[quintal]]s by 1506, representing a 400-500% profit over the initial lump sum payment and ship expenses. Loronha also drummed up some business in 'novelty' pets like colorful Brazilian parrots and monkeys, cotton and occasionally, Indian slaves.
Loronha's enterprise, run with only a bare minimum of staff, was not known to employ coercion. Brazilwood and other products were acquired by trade with [[Indigenous peoples in Brazil|indigenous peoples]]. Brazilian Indians (mostly [[Tupian people|Tupi]]) did all of the woodcutting independently and delivered the harvest to the warehouses, where they traded with Loronha's agents for iron goods, tools, knives, axes, mirrors, and other miscellaneous products of that kind.  The slaves were not acquired in raids, but by ransoming war captives from local tribes (although this proved tricky, given the embedded tradition of cannibalism among the Tupi, local chieftains were reluctant to sell their 'sacred' prisoners.)
[[File:Derrubada do Pau Brasil.jpg|thumb|170px|Brazilwood harvesting, 16th century]]
Loronha's commercial charter was renewed in 1506, and then again until 1512, when the crown passed the charter to a different merchant consortium, led by [[Jorge Lopes Bixorda]].  In 1515, the Portuguese crown let Bixorda's charter expire, and finally took over the factories and the brazilwood trade itself.  By this time, Spanish and French interlopers (the latter mainly outfitted by merchants from the Atlantic ports of [[Brittany]] and [[Normandy]], connected to the cloth trade), had begun to visit the Brazilian coast with some regularity, landing brazilwood-harvesting parties and/or plundering the stores from the lightly manned Portuguese factories along the coast.  As private Portuguese merchants did not have the wherewithal (nor the authority) to challenge the foreign interlopers, the losses were heavy.  When the Portuguese crown took over the enterprise, it immediately set up a military coastal patrol to defend these locations. Despite losing its commercial charter, Loronha's family retained its hereditary capitaincy of Fernando de Noronha island (heirs are confirmed in documents down to 1580).<ref>See Cândido, ''Brazil'', p.393</ref>
Independently of his Brazilian activities, Fernão de Loronha also participated in the outfitting of the [[Portuguese India Armadas]] of the early 1500s. The [[Bassas da India]] in the [[Mozambique Channel]] is named after one of Loronha's ships, the ''Judia'' ("Jewess"), which discovered the atoll by running into it in 1506. The original name ''baixas da'' Judia ("''Judia'' Shoals") was corrupted into "bassas da India" by later error.
== Naming Brazil  ==
{{Main|Name of Brazil}}
If anyone is responsible for the naming of Brazil and its inhabitants, it would be Fernão de Loronha. Although the lands were officially named ''Vera Cruz'' or ''Santa Cruz'' by the original discoverers, it was during Loronha's tenure that the name of the land gradually transitioned to ''Terra do Brasil'' and its inhabitants to ''Brasileiros''. It was rather common for 15th- and 16th-century Portuguese to refer to distant lands by their commercial product rather than their proper name (e.g. [[Madeira Islands]], [[Pepper Coast]], [[Ivory Coast]], [[Gold Coast (region)|Gold Coast]], [[Spice Islands]], etc.)  The lands of Vera Cruz were simply popularly known as the "Land of Brazil" (''Terra do Brasil'') for the same reason.  (Some letters from the early 1500s refer to it as ''Terra di Papaga'', "Land of Parrots"<ref>e.g. a letter of Giovanni Matteo Cretico (June 27, 1501) and a diary entry of [[Marino Sanuto the Younger|Marino Sanuto]] (Oct 12, 1502) call it "Terra di Papaga'"; on-board diarist [[Thomé Lopes]] (1502, [https://books.google.com/books?id=eCsOAAAAYAAJ&dq=editions%3ALCCN05004414&pg=PA160-IA4 p.160]) refers to it as the "Ilha dos Papagaios vermelhos" ("island of the red parrots").</ref>)
More curious is the [[demonym]].  In the Portuguese language, an inhabitant of Brazil is referred to as a ''Brasileiro'', although the suffix ''-eiro'' properly denotes occupations and not inhabitants (who are typically given the suffix ''-ano'' instead). A rough English equivalent might be the suffix ''-or'' (doctor, actor) or ''-er'' (carpenter, plumber) versus ''-an'' (Indian, American).  Thus an inhabitant of Brazil should have become known in Portuguese as a ''Brasiliano'' ("Brazilian"), but {{ndash}} uniquely among Portuguese demonyms {{ndash}} they are instead referenced as a ''Brasileiro'' ("Braziler").  This stems from Loronha's tenure when ''brasileiro'' was indeed a reference to an occupation: a brazilwood cutter or trader.  The name of the occupation was simply gradually extended to refer to all the inhabitants of the land.
==Notes==
{{Reflist|2}}
==References==
* Duarte Leite (1923) "O Mais antigo mapa do Brasil" in ''História da Colonização Portuguesa do Brasil'', vol.2, pp.&nbsp;221–81.
* Greenlee, W.B. (1945) "The Captaincy of the Second Portuguese Voyage to Brazil, 1501-1502", ''The Americas'', Vol. 2, p.&nbsp;3-13.
* Grazielle Rodrigues do Nascimento (2010) "On Tempo dos Loronhas se Erguia uma Ilha-Presídio no Atlântico, 1504-1800", ''Revista Crítica Histórica'', Vol. 1, No.1 [http://www.revista.ufal.br/criticahistorica/attachments/article/58/No%20Tempo%20dos%20Loronhas%20se%20Erguia%20uma%20Ilha.pdf online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706164623/http://www.revista.ufal.br/criticahistorica/attachments/article/58/No%20Tempo%20dos%20Loronhas%20se%20Erguia%20uma%20Ilha.pdf |date=2011-07-06 }}
* Johnson, Harold (1999), "The Leasing of Brazil, 1502-1515: A Problem Resolved". "The Americas" (January, 1999), p.&nbsp;481-487.
* Newitt, M.D. (2005) ''A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansion, 1400-1668''. Abingdon: Routledge.
* Oliveira Marques, A.H. (1972) ''History of Portugal: From Lusitania to empire'' New York: Columbia University Press.
* Roukema, E. (1963) "Brazil in the Cantino Map", ''Imago Mundi'', Vol. 17, p.&nbsp;7-26
* Vogt, J.L. (1967) "Fernão de Loronha and the Rental of Brazil in 1502: A New Chronology", ''The Americas'', Vol. 24 (2), p.&nbsp;153-59.
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[[Category:1470s births]]
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[[Category:Businesspeople from Lisbon]]
[[Category:15th-century Portuguese Jews]]
[[Category:16th-century Portuguese explorers]]
[[Category:Portuguese explorers of South America]]
[[Category:Economic history of Portugal]]
[[Category:Maritime history of Portugal]]
[[Category:16th-century Portuguese nobility]]
[[Category:16th-century Portuguese Jews]]
[[Category:Portuguese colonization of the Americas]]
[[Category:Portuguese colonial governors and administrators]]
[[Category:16th-century Portuguese businesspeople]]
[[Category:Fernando de Noronha]]