Andre thevet biography

THEVET,ANDRÉ, Franciscan friar, first French historian to describe America; b. 1516 in Angoulême, son of Étienne Thevet, barber-surgeon; d. 23 Nov.

1592 in Paris.

Thevet embarked for the Orient c. 1537, where he travelled for five or six years. He claimed to have come to America in 1550 with the pilot Guillaume Testu but this statement is now generally considered to be false.

From 10 Nov.

Andre thevet biography book

1555 to 31 Jan. 1556 he was in Brazil as almoner to Villegaignon, vice-admiral of Brittany, who had gone there to establish a French colony. Elevated to the position of almoner to Catherine de Médicis, he later became historiographer and cosmographer to the king.

A bogus scholar and a naive compiler of facts, he recorded indiscriminately everything he read or heard, while at the same time creating the impression that he himself had actually visited the countries (including North America) that he described.

Two works of Thevet are of direct concern to Can