The Adventures of Hanno the Navigator, or The Phoenician Expedition a Thousand Years Before Christ

Cahun, David-Léon, 1841-1900Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.5
Word count
654K words
Chapters
66

Tags

Foreign Language Books Historical Fiction Historical ReappraisalAdventure JourneyHeroismAncient NavigationExotic CulturePhoenician CivilizationLatin ReaderYouth Reading

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Pericla Navarchi Magonis; sive, Expeditio Phoenicia Annis Ante Christum MilleAuthor: Cahun, David-Léon, 1841-1900,Language: Latin, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: Apr 11, 2015

Editor's review

This is a Latin-language historical narrative for young readers, telling of the adventurous expedition of the Phoenician navigator Mago, set around the first millennium BCE. The author, Cahun, was a nineteenth-century French scholar; the book weaves ancient Mediterranean seafaring, trade, and foreign lands into a continuous story, functioning both as historical imagination and as Latin reading material. Its strength is that it conveys ancient geography and navigational knowledge through narrative, letting readers encounter Phoenician colonization and the Mediterranean world as the plot unfolds; the Latin text also offers learners a relatively readable continuous passage. Project Gutenberg provides a free electronic edition for parallel reading and searching. Note that it is a hybrid of juvenile literature and historical story, not strict historical scholarship; its plot and details involve literary invention and should be used as supplementary reading rather than as a source of historical fact.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Latin learners can read through once for the plot, then study each passage closely with a dictionary.
  2. Non-Latin readers can read alongside an English translation or a related historical overview.
  3. Note place names and nautical terms as you read to build a mental map of the ancient Mediterranean.
  4. Treat it as a historical story rather than factual history, and check specific details elsewhere.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

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FAQ

Can I read this book without any Latin? The original is in Latin, and direct reading is difficult without prior study. Use a translation or bilingual edition to follow the story, then decide whether to study the original; you may also read an overview of Phoenician and Mediterranean history first as preparation.
Is the historical content reliable? It is a historical narrative in the nature of juvenile literature, with literary invention in the plot, and should not be cited as strict history. It can serve as an introductory story on Phoenician seafaring; for specific facts, consult professional historical and archaeological research.
What age group is this book suitable for? The original is classed as juvenile literature and suits young people with some interest in history as well as adult readers. Younger readers should read with a teacher or parent and with a translation and background explanation, so as not to mistake story details for historical fact.

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About the author

Cahun, David-Léon, 1841-1900 Author · French · 1841–1900

David-Léon Cahun (1841–1900) was a French Orientalist and writer of adventure fiction, and this dual identity as scholar and storyteller is clearly reflected in his work. Two of his works are held in this catalogue, both dealing with the maritime expeditions of the ancient Phoenicians: one is the English edition The Adventures of Captain Mago; or, A Phoenician Expedition, B.C. 1000, and the other is the Latin version Pericla Navarchi Magonis sive Expeditio Phoenicia Annis Ante Christum Mille. He thus drew on Orientalist scholarship to construct tales of ancient seafaring and exotic adventure. Set in the ancient Mediterranean world, his historical adventure writing combines instruction with narrative appeal and belongs to the nineteenth-century European tradition of popular historical fiction inspired by archaeology and Oriental subjects. Beyond these two works, public information on his life and complete output is limited and awaits further research.