New World Explorer Andre Teve

In 1516, Andre Thevet, an educator and Franciscan monk, was born in the French city of Angouleme, who went to America and described the realities of Indian life. At the age of 10, Teva was sent to a monastery against his will: he did not want to devote his life to monastic service and spent the free hours that he had reading books in the library.

In the 1540s, Andre Tevet made his first trip, going to Italy. Here he met Jean de Lorraine, a churchman and cardinal, a friend of Frasois Rabelais, Erasmus of Rotterdam, and other prominent humanists of the time. After receiving financial assistance from de Lorrain, Teve visited the Mediterranean countries, visited Constantinople, Athens, and Jerusalem. In 1554, a work dedicated to this three-year journey was published under the title "Cosmographie de Levant".

In 1555, a new chapter in the life of the traveler began: Andre Tevet went as a field chaplain to the New World. The expedition to South America was led by the naval commander Nicolas Durand de Villegagnon, who was to establish a French settlement in what is now Brazil. Some historians believe that the name of the area Antarctic France, where the members of the expedition arrived, was coined by Andre Tevet. Due to illness, the traveler returned to his homeland, and later the colony was captured by the Portuguese, who founded the city of Rio de Janeiro on the site of the destroyed French fort.

On his return to Europe, Tevet systematized the information obtained in America, studied his notes in detail, and presented the information in the book "Les Singularitez de la France antarctique...", which was published in 1557. The illustrated work consisted of ethnographic materials, descriptions of the animal and plant world, and weather conditions. The author presented both true information about the open lands, and added mythological fragments about the Amazons and various creatures. The book became very successful, and was translated into English and Italian. In the following years, Teve wrote several other important works, in which he touched on the geography of known continents and historiography. He served at the court of Catherine de' Medici, then during the reign of Henry III, and died in Paris in 1590.