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Pêro da Covilhã
Sign in to saveAlso known as Pedro or Pêro da Covilhã
Portuguese explorer and diplomat
Key facts
- Born
- c. 1460, Covilhã , Kingdom of Portugal
- Died
- After 1526, Ethiopia
- Occupations
- Explorer, spy, diplomat
- Known for
- Explorations in the Near East and the adjoining regions of Asia and Africa.
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Pedro
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- Kingdom of Portugal
- Place of birth
- Covilhã
- Place of death
- Ethiopian Empire
- Occupation
- diplomat
- Position held
- ambassador
- Languages spoken
- Portuguese
- Native language
- Portuguese
- Image
- Pero da Covilhã - Padrão dos Descobrimentos.png
Show 3 more facts
- date of birth
- 1450-00-00
- date of death
- 1530-01-01
- described by source
- Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~9 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Pêro da Covilhã ( Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈpeɾu ðɐ kuviˈʎɐ̃]; c. 1460 – after 1526), sometimes written Pero de Covilhã, was a Portuguese diplomat and explorer.
He was a native of Covilhã in Beira. In his early life he had gone to Castile and entered the service of Don Juan de Guzmán, brother of Enrique de Guzmán, 2nd Duke of Medina Sidonia. Later, when war broke out between Castile and Portugal, he returned to his own country, and attached himself, first as a groom, then as a squire, to Afonso V of Portugal and his successor John II of Portugal. In 1487, his overland expedition made its way to India, exploring trade opportunities with the Indians and Arabs, and winding up finally in Ethiopia. His detailed report was eagerly read in Lisbon, as Portugal became the world's best informed center for global geography and trade routes.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Pêro da Covilhã” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.