Nomina sunt res. Os termos orientais em Fernão Mendes Pinto e Wenceslau de Moraes

Guia M. Boni

Lecturer of Portuguese Language, University of Naples L’Orientale

Maria da Graça Gomes de Pina

Lecturer of Portuguese Language, University of Naples L’Orientale

Considering the “word” as one of the most important forms of the immaterial culture, we take into account the lexicon of Fernão Mendes Pinto, an inexhaustible source of linguistic material on the Orient, in the sixteenth century, and that of Wenceslau de Moraes who, acknowledging the work of Fernão Mendes Pinto, dedicated himself to the study of Japanese culture, at the end of the nineteenth century, leaving us a fantastic but little known collection. This presentation aims to consider the linguistic contribution of these Portuguese authors to the knowledge of the East, especially the Japanese culture, when Japan came in touch with the West, and then once again later.

Guia M. Boni. Teaches Portuguese language and translation at the University of Naples “l’Orientale”. Translator of Portuguese poetry and prose into Italian, she has focused part of her studies on poets who translate other poets (Giuseppe Ungaretti, Jorge de Sena, Arthur Rimbaud…). She has made the first full translation of Peregrinação, by Fernão Mendes Pinto, which will be published soon.

Maria da Graça Gomes de Pina. Lecturer of Portuguese at the University of Naples “l’Orientale”. She has a teaching contract with the University of Padua. She deals with Portuguese language and literature, and with African literatures written in Portuguese. She translates manly into Portuguese.