How to use this website
This website has a simple structure with three main sections. The site map below reflects the content of each of them.
The only section needing further explanation is the first, ‘Search the Chronicles’, as this contains the database offering different functions and search strategies. A brief explanation of each of these subsections and how to consult them is given below after the site map and under the subtitle ‘How to use this Website’.
SITE MAP:
Section I - SEARCH THE CHRONICLES
- Search
- People
- Chapter Coverage
- Events
- Lexical items
- Places
Section II - ABOUT FERNÃO LOPES AND THE ROYAL CHRONICLES
- About Fernão Lopes and his Chronicles
- Significance and Impact of Fernão Lopes’s Chronicles
- Links to other editions of Fernão Lopes
- References to Fernão Lopes in other works
- Genealogies
- Bibliography
Section III - ABOUT THE PROJECT
- Objectives
- Project History
- About the Translation
- The English edition
- The Team
- The Sponsors
- Acknowledgements
- How to use this website
HOW TO USE THIS WEBSITE
- Search the Chronicles:
- Quick search: In the window under ‘Search this site’, type the desired element being searched and then click ‘search’ at the bottom of the page. If you are searching a specific word, you can write it in English or Portuguese. The system also caters for different Portuguese spellings. This search function will generate a list of entries from the website containing the term, person or place name, as well as chronicle chapter titles. Click on the desired item to see its content.
- Menu on the left: clicking any item in the menu on the left will bring up a list of all the entries in that category organized in alphabetical order. Click on the entry you wish to consult to see its content. Use the numbers at the bottom of the page to advance to entries in other pages.
- People: this lists the names of people mentioned in the chronicles. So far, only the names referred to in the Chronicle of King Pedro of Portugal have been listed at this time. The project’s ultimate objective is to create an entry for all personalities from all four volumes. At the bottom of the page for each person there is an interactive list of occurrences that can take the user to the respective chapter title. There, the user can find a list of other people and places referred to in the same chapter. With few exceptions, names are registered using the modern orthography of the language spoken in that person’s place of origin. For example, Blanche of Bourbon, wife of Pedro King of Castile, has her name written in French as that was her nationality, though alternative spellings such as ‘Blanca’, or ‘Branca’ are also offered as variants in her entry.
Whenever possible, the project attempts to identify the person in question through the dates of birth and death, parentage, marriage(s) and offspring, followed by any relevant event.
A bibliographical note is introduced whenever the information offered cannot be readily found in a range of general, widely available historical works.
- Chapter Coverage: this lists all the chapter titles from all chronicles in English translation and in the original Portuguese. Chapter titles are linked to the entries for ‘People’ and ‘Places’ in the database. At the moment, only the information pertaining to the Chronicle of King Pedro of Portugal has been cross-linked.
- Events: these are entries centered on a special event, such as the Battle of Aljubarrota, or a closely related series of events. An example of the latter is the 'event' under the title of ‘Deaths attributed to Pedro King of Castile’. This entry offers a note on Pedro of Castile’s persecution of the Guzmán family, or of those who happened to raise any kind of suspicion in his mind, and who met their deaths either at the king’s own hands or by his command.
- Lexical items: this section functions like a glossary. It lists in Portuguese, terms of difficult translation or comprehension and their respective translation, or possible translations, into English. The entry for each term indicates the part of speech as well as the lexical type, such as Maritime, Military, Titles & Offices, etc. Terms classified as ‘Titles & Offices’ are often cross-linked with the names of people who held that title or office.
- Places: this lists the names of places mentioned in the chronicles. So far only the places referred to in the Chronicle of King Pedro of Portugal have been listed, though it is the project’s objective to list most places named in all four volumes. At the bottom of the page for each place name there is an interactive list of occurrences that can take the user to the respective chapter title. There, the user can find a list of other people and places referred to in the same chapter.
- Pictures: many entries have one or more images, including photos, illuminations, paintings, etc., from various sources. Clicking on the image icon will open it and its respective legend. Users with visual disabilities, but with the appropriate equipment installed in their computers, will be able to hear a description of each picture.
- Maps: Most place names in Portugal are indicated on a map. Click on the legend ‘Find it on the map’ to see the location marked by an icon on a digitized sixteenth-century Abraham Ortelius map of Portugal, published 120 years after the death of Fernão Lopes and about 150 to 200 after the events featured in his chronicles. We are grateful to the Library of Congress for facilitating the use of this digitized resource for study and research purposes: Ortelius, Abraham. Portugalliae, que olim Lusitania, nouissima & exactissima descriptio / auctore, Vernando Alvaro Secco. Map. In Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. Amsterdam?: A. Ortelius, 1579?. From Library of Congress , Map Collections. http://www.loc.gov/resource/g6690.ct000011/ (accessed May 11, 2012).
- Occurrences: these are registered at the bottom of each entry page and are located by the name of the chronicle, chapter and in many instances the line. Although the user may be consulting a different edition of the chronicle, the number of the line may indicate roughly its location in the chapter, especially if there are several references to the same person or place name, or if a given term occurs with slightly different meanings, or in different contexts within the same chapter.
The Portuguese editions on which the translation is based and from which references, including line number, are given are the following:
- Crónica de D. Pedro, critical ed. by Giuliano Macchi (Roma: Edizioni dell’Ateneo, 1966), revised 2nd edition 2007.
- Crónica de D. Fernando, critical ed. by Giuliano Macchi (Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 1975), revised 2nd edition 2004.
- Crónica del Rei Dom Joham I de Boa Memoria e dos Reis de Portugal o Decimo, Parte Primeira, facsimile of ed. by Braamcamp Freire (Lisboa, 1915), with preface by L.F. Lindley Cintra (Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 1973), reprinted 1977.
- Crónica del Rei Dom Joham I de Boa Memoria e dos Reis de Portugal o Decimo, Parte Segunda, ed. by William J. Entwistle, with a preface by L.F. Lindley Cintra (Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 1968), reprinted 1977.
Whenever approriate, there may be a reference to a given occurrence in the text of the entry. These are in square brackets at the end of the information they relate to. In such instances, the name of the chronicle is presented in its abbreviated form and in Italics, followed by the chapter number, colon (:), and the respective line numbers separated by commas. The abbreviated chronicle titles are the following:
- Pedro - for Crónica de D. Pedro, or Chronicle of King Pedro of Portugal;
- Fernando - for Crónica de D. Fernando or Chronicle of King Fernando of Portugal;
- João1 - for Crónica del Rei Dom Joham I, Parte Primeira, or Chronicle of King João I of Portugal, Part 1;
- João2 - for Crónica del Rei Dom Joham I, Parte Segunda, or Chronicle of King João I of Portugal, Part 2.