Visions and Metaphors: Constructing a Tale of Sixteenth-Century Travel with Hans Staden's True History

After returning to Hesse in 1555, Hans Staden wrote an account of his experiences in Brazil known as the Warhaftige Historia [True History] (Marburg: 1557) that became one of the most popular travel books of the sixteenth century. The book’s first part tells of his travels and return from the new world while the second, the Beschreibung [Description], presents short ethnographic excurses on the land, animals, and plants of Brazil, as well as the customs of the Tupinambá. Both parts are illustrated with woodcuts. The popularity of True History in Protestant northern Europe rested largely on the fact that the gripping story served as a morality tale about God’s grace and the value of faith. Yet the book did more: through the Description and the woodcuts, the peoples of Brazil were described and depicted in the tradition of sixteenth-century humanist inquiry. In this paper we explore the textual metaphors and visual imagery that framed Staden’s tale: how the book told of the strange and unfamiliar through familiar ways. Since one powerful framing device was the Protestant faith of Staden’s prince and his native Hesse, Biblical metaphors appear frequently in text and images. Ships, storms, and shipwrecks serve as powerful metaphors through which the reader learns of God’s grace. Another key framing device was the tradition of humanist inquiry, particularly “navagatio,” which emphasized measuring, revealing, and exploring the natural world. Cartographic signs imbedded in map-like images or detailed ethnographic description underscored that the places described were real and the events recounted could be believed. In addition to the essential roles that these metaphors and visual images play in the text, we will also comment on the nature of our collaboration—as historians of Germany and Brazil—in the writing of our recent book, The Return of Hans Staden.