Importing knowledge: Portugal and the scientific culture in fifteenth and sixteenth century's Germany

The paper works out the intensive relations between travelers, merchants and scholars from Portugal and the German Roman Empire from the end of the fifteenth century until the first half of the sixteenth century. Exploring some outstanding examples, it gives evidence how the German knowledge community was longing for the many new insights which Portuguese travelers had brought from all over the world, concerning its borders and outlines as well as the people they met and described. This transfer of knowledge was made possible not only through direct contact and participation, but also through the translation of travelogues and other texts concerning these New Worlds. They stood as a starting point for the remapping and reconceptualization of geography, the leading discipline and the most prominent field of knowledge at that time.