Galvão, Antonio (c. 1490–1557)

Portuguese historian. Galvão was the first major historian to marshal a comprehensive knowledge of the voyages of all the leading Renaissance explorers, regardless of nationality. His works remain among the most accurate and thorough of the period, especially Livro dos descobrimentos das Antilhase India, which was published in Lisbon in 1563 and translated into English by Hakluyt in 1601.

Galvão went to India in 1527 and rose to become governor of the Moluccas (1536–40), before his abilities led him to be offered the throne of Ternate, which he declined. On his return to Portugal in 1540 he found he was out of favour and lived the rest of his life in anonymity and poverty, dying in Lisbon.