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O Espião de D. João II: A Demanda do Preste João e das Especiarias
O Espião de D. João II – Pêro da Covilhã
Pêro da Covilhã era o mais arguto espião de D. João II - um dos reis mais importantes e visionários de Portugal e impulsionador da Expansão Ultramarina -, que o escolhia para as missões secretas onde qualquer outro falharia. Sendo o protagonista de uma das mais extraordinárias proezas da saga dos Descobrimentos, sem retrato ou efígie que o recordem, ficou conhecido apenas como o «escudeiro Pêro», seguido do nome gentílico, «da Covilhã», a terra beirã da sua proveniência. Em 1486, é enviado por D. João II, com Afonso de Paiva, para uma missão em busca de um roteiro por terra para a Índia das especiarias, e buscar novas do reino do Preste João.
No romance é narrada a sua peregrinação solitária (separou-se de Afonso de Paiva, nos primeiros meses de jornada), durante seis anos por 3 continentes, visitando mundos hostis, povoados de gente dominada pelo medo, o fanatismo religioso e a superstição. Pêro da Covilhã desvendou mitos e lendas de muitos séculos, descobriu impérios perdidos e reinos nunca visitados por um europeu, desenhando nos mapas imprecisos da sua época os contornos e trilhos do futuro. Uma Demanda mística, concretizada num tempo e espaço reais, semeada de triunfos, perigos e sofrimentos verdadeiros, que só pode ter paralelo na busca do Graal.
O Espião de D. João II é um romance histórico, mas também de viagens e acção, com uma narrativa linear, adequada a esta personagem solar, um aventureiro dos quatro costados que, embora nado e criado no Portugal do século xv, não deixa de ser um misto de Cavaleiro Andante, de James Bond e de Indiana Jones, sem tecnologia, porém, com talentos extraordinários que o distinguiram dos homens do seu tempo.
É dada especial atenção à contextualização e ao pormenor. São históricos os indivíduos, os factos e as datas, como são históricos os costumes dos povos e os lugares que servem para criar a intriga e pôr o herói em acção. Para os curiosos dos pormenores da História foi preparada, em apêndice, uma cronologia do mito do Preste João que, de algum modo, completa os episódios narrados no romance.
Pêro da Covilhã era o mais arguto espião de D. João II - um dos reis mais importantes e visionários de Portugal e impulsionador da Expansão Ultramarina -, que o escolhia para as missões secretas onde qualquer outro falharia. Sendo o protagonista de uma das mais extraordinárias proezas da saga dos Descobrimentos, sem retrato ou efígie que o recordem, ficou conhecido apenas como o «escudeiro Pêro», seguido do nome gentílico, «da Covilhã», a terra beirã da sua proveniência. Em 1486, é enviado por D. João II, com Afonso de Paiva, para uma missão em busca de um roteiro por terra para a Índia das especiarias, e buscar novas do reino do Preste João.
No romance é narrada a sua peregrinação solitária (separou-se de Afonso de Paiva, nos primeiros meses de jornada), durante seis anos por 3 continentes, visitando mundos hostis, povoados de gente dominada pelo medo, o fanatismo religioso e a superstição. Pêro da Covilhã desvendou mitos e lendas de muitos séculos, descobriu impérios perdidos e reinos nunca visitados por um europeu, desenhando nos mapas imprecisos da sua época os contornos e trilhos do futuro. Uma Demanda mística, concretizada num tempo e espaço reais, semeada de triunfos, perigos e sofrimentos verdadeiros, que só pode ter paralelo na busca do Graal.
O Espião de D. João II é um romance histórico, mas também de viagens e acção, com uma narrativa linear, adequada a esta personagem solar, um aventureiro dos quatro costados que, embora nado e criado no Portugal do século xv, não deixa de ser um misto de Cavaleiro Andante, de James Bond e de Indiana Jones, sem tecnologia, porém, com talentos extraordinários que o distinguiram dos homens do seu tempo.
É dada especial atenção à contextualização e ao pormenor. São históricos os indivíduos, os factos e as datas, como são históricos os costumes dos povos e os lugares que servem para criar a intriga e pôr o herói em acção. Para os curiosos dos pormenores da História foi preparada, em apêndice, uma cronologia do mito do Preste João que, de algum modo, completa os episódios narrados no romance.
726 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 7, 2025
About the author
Deana Barroqueiro
35 books50 followersEnglish:
Deana Barroqueiro contacts:
E-mail: barroqueiro.deana@gmail.com
Homepage: http://deanabarroqueiro.blogspot.pt
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deana.barroq...
Grupo Facebook: O Corsário dos Sete Mares - Fernão Mendes Pinto". https://www.facebook.com/deana.barroq...
Deana Barroqueiro most recent works:
1640 (Casa das Letras/Leya), 2017, This new book is about the conflicts and wars in Europe, during the 17th century, the rebellion of Catalunha and Portugal and the Portuguese Monarchy Restauration.
- The Pirate of the Seven Seas (O Corsário dos Sete Mares - Fernão Mendes Pinto), 2012. Adapted as a movie script font, by director João Botelho for his «Peregrinação», in 2017.
The book is about the travels and discoveries of the portuguese adventurer Fernão Mendes Pinto, in the Eastern World of the Sixteenth Century, published by Casa das Letras/LEYA.
- The Temptation of the Serpent (Tentação da Serpente)(2012) is a re-edition of The Novel of the Bible (O Romance da Bíblia), published by Ésquilo - Edições e Multimedia. A feminine look into The Old Testament: an original and polemic work about the women and men of the sacred book.See more: http://tentacaodaserpente.blogspot.pt/
- The Spy of King John II (O Espião de D. João II), published by Ésquilo - Edições e Multimedia, in October 2009, is a fabulous adventure of the Portuguese spy Pêro da Covilhã, in search of The Prester John and the route by land to India's rich spices.
Deana Barroqueiro was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in the United States of America, on July 23, 1945. Daughter of Portuguese parents, when she was two years old she went to live in Lisbon, Portugal, with her mother, brother and sister. She always had the passion for reading and writing and she graduated in Portuguese and French Language and Literature, in the Lisbon University, Department of Languages and Literatures.
"I began to write poetry when I woke up from a three days' coma, after an attempted suicide at the age of twenty years. Now I write historical novels and short stories, doing almost all my research and writing at home, in seclusion and through the night, when everybody is sleeping and I enter in another dimension where nobody else has room. I stopped writing when I got married - as these two passions were not compatible - and, in order to mitigate the hunger for writing, which was my true essence, I did with my students countless projects of creative writing of stories and plays, publishing several works with many educational and cultural institutions".
The success of those school publications was an incentive for Deana Barroqueiro to write for a broader public her historical works, having published, from 2000 to 2008, nine novels and two books of tales - the first of them, Erotic Tales of the Ancient Testament, is translated and edited in Spain, Italy and Brazil.
Deana Barroqueiro loves the Portuguese Language and Culture and the World's History of the XV to XVIII Centuries, the period she has been studying for more than twenty years, and being by nature or addiction a storyteller, she couldn't resist to the urge of sharing with everybody interested in the same subjects, her surprising discoveries about the adventurous or tragic (nevertheless so human and close to us) lives of the historical characters that she found in her researches.
On November 21, 2003, in the United States of America, during the gala soirée for the attribution of the Literary Contest Proverbo Awards, of whose jury she was part, the writer received a praise by the Newark Municipal Council, "in recognition of her contribution for the world's culture" and " through the excellence of her written word that has brought pride to the Portuguese-American community of Newark", she was "commended for her commitment and support of the Arts" and by the promotion of the Portuguese language and culture among other communities of America, Canada and Europe.
Other works
T
Deana Barroqueiro contacts:
E-mail: barroqueiro.deana@gmail.com
Homepage: http://deanabarroqueiro.blogspot.pt
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deana.barroq...
Grupo Facebook: O Corsário dos Sete Mares - Fernão Mendes Pinto". https://www.facebook.com/deana.barroq...
Deana Barroqueiro most recent works:
1640 (Casa das Letras/Leya), 2017, This new book is about the conflicts and wars in Europe, during the 17th century, the rebellion of Catalunha and Portugal and the Portuguese Monarchy Restauration.
- The Pirate of the Seven Seas (O Corsário dos Sete Mares - Fernão Mendes Pinto), 2012. Adapted as a movie script font, by director João Botelho for his «Peregrinação», in 2017.
The book is about the travels and discoveries of the portuguese adventurer Fernão Mendes Pinto, in the Eastern World of the Sixteenth Century, published by Casa das Letras/LEYA.
- The Temptation of the Serpent (Tentação da Serpente)(2012) is a re-edition of The Novel of the Bible (O Romance da Bíblia), published by Ésquilo - Edições e Multimedia. A feminine look into The Old Testament: an original and polemic work about the women and men of the sacred book.See more: http://tentacaodaserpente.blogspot.pt/
- The Spy of King John II (O Espião de D. João II), published by Ésquilo - Edições e Multimedia, in October 2009, is a fabulous adventure of the Portuguese spy Pêro da Covilhã, in search of The Prester John and the route by land to India's rich spices.
Deana Barroqueiro was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in the United States of America, on July 23, 1945. Daughter of Portuguese parents, when she was two years old she went to live in Lisbon, Portugal, with her mother, brother and sister. She always had the passion for reading and writing and she graduated in Portuguese and French Language and Literature, in the Lisbon University, Department of Languages and Literatures.
"I began to write poetry when I woke up from a three days' coma, after an attempted suicide at the age of twenty years. Now I write historical novels and short stories, doing almost all my research and writing at home, in seclusion and through the night, when everybody is sleeping and I enter in another dimension where nobody else has room. I stopped writing when I got married - as these two passions were not compatible - and, in order to mitigate the hunger for writing, which was my true essence, I did with my students countless projects of creative writing of stories and plays, publishing several works with many educational and cultural institutions".
The success of those school publications was an incentive for Deana Barroqueiro to write for a broader public her historical works, having published, from 2000 to 2008, nine novels and two books of tales - the first of them, Erotic Tales of the Ancient Testament, is translated and edited in Spain, Italy and Brazil.
Deana Barroqueiro loves the Portuguese Language and Culture and the World's History of the XV to XVIII Centuries, the period she has been studying for more than twenty years, and being by nature or addiction a storyteller, she couldn't resist to the urge of sharing with everybody interested in the same subjects, her surprising discoveries about the adventurous or tragic (nevertheless so human and close to us) lives of the historical characters that she found in her researches.
On November 21, 2003, in the United States of America, during the gala soirée for the attribution of the Literary Contest Proverbo Awards, of whose jury she was part, the writer received a praise by the Newark Municipal Council, "in recognition of her contribution for the world's culture" and " through the excellence of her written word that has brought pride to the Portuguese-American community of Newark", she was "commended for her commitment and support of the Arts" and by the promotion of the Portuguese language and culture among other communities of America, Canada and Europe.
Other works
T
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