Du Brésil à la bibliothèque. Enquête sur la métamorphose de l’Histoire d’un voyage faict en la terre du Brésil

Abstract

This article looks at the textual evolution of the Histoire d’un voyage faict en la terre du Brésil over the course of its five editions (1578, 1580, 1585, 1599, 1611). While Léry initially committed himself exclusively to the principle of autopsy and thus to recounting only what he himself had witnessed, from the third edition onwards (1585) he set out to summon an ever wider range of encyclopaedic knowledge within his work. After examining the part played by the polemic with André Thevet in this turnaround, we will analyze the singular intertextual relationship between Léry’s work and that of the publisher-engraver Theodor de Bry, in particular the first volume of the Grands Voyages, which reproduces Thomas Hariot’s report on Virginia.