(Handbook) to guide her teenage son through his
perilous stay at the palace. Tragically, she may have
witnessed her husband’s execution for treason in 844,
and perhaps also that of William in 849 after his failed
attempts to avenge his father’s death. The younger Ber-
nard (d. 886) lived long enough to carry on the family
line, for it was his son, William the Pious of Aquitaine,
who founded the monastery Cluny in 910. Dhuoda’s own
death date is unknown, but the Liber’s references to her
recurring sickness, as well as its detailed instructions
for her funeral, indicate that she may have died shortly
after fi nishing her book in 843.
Although much of what is known of Dhuoda centers
around the men in her life, her own work has com-
manded far greater scholarly interest. Written in the
genre of the “mirror for princes,” the Liber manualis
endeavored to help William fulfi ll his complementary
and sometimes contradictory roles of son, vassal, and
Christian. Despite the author’s protestations of igno-
rance, her advice exhibits an intimate and wide-ranging
familiarity with scripture and patristics well situated
within the broader literary and theological currents of
the Carolingian era. Recent studies of Dhuoda’s book
have uncovered veiled critiques of Bernard’s political
inconstancy, as well as several inherent assertions of
matriarchal authority. Once dismissed as artless and
incoherent, the Liber manualis is a monument of me-
dieval women’s literature.
Further Reading
Dhuoda. Manuel pour mon fi ls, ed. Pierre Riché, trans. Bernard
de Vregille and Claude Mondésert. Sources chrétiennes 225.
Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 1975.
——. Handbook for William: A Carolingian Woman’s Counsel
for Her Son, ed. and trans. Carol Neel. Lincoln: University
of Nebraska Press, 1991.
Dronke, Peter. Women Writers of the Middle Ages: A Critical
Study of Texts from Perpetua (d. 203 ) to Marguerite Porete (†
1310 ). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
Claussen, Martin A. “Fathers of Power and Mothers of Authority:
Dhuoda and the Liber manualis.” French Historical Studies.
19 (1996): 785–809.
Nelson, Janet. Charles the Bald. London: Longman, 1992.
Riché, Pierre. The Carolinians: A Family Who Forged Europe,
trans. Michael Idomir Allen. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 1993.
Steven A. Stofferahn
DIAS, BARTOLOMEU (fl. 1440s)
It is not known when or where this Portuguese navigator
was born. Certainly he came from a family with some
maritime tradition, for an ancestor was Dinis Dias e
Fernandes who explored the North African shore in the
1440s and discovered Cape Verde in 1444.
Ptolemaic and medieval Italian conceptions of the
disposition and shape of the Euro-African landmass had
led cartographers to grossly underestimate the extent of
the African continent. It was probably in the wake of the
frustration felt by the Portuguese king João II, when the
second expedition of Diogo Cão (1485–1486) revealed
a seemingly unending coastline southward, that another
expedition was immediately ordered, with Dias as its
commander. His fl eet consisted of two caravels and a
supply ship captained by his brother Diogo.
The fl eet left Lisbon in August 1487 and reached
the farthest point attained by Diogo Cão (Cape Cross
in modern Namibia) in early December. According to
some accounts prolonged stormy weather then drove the
fl eet out of sight of land. In the event, Dias ran, heavily
reefed, before the southeast trade winds and, then, at
approximately forty degrees south latitude, encountered
the Antarctic westerlies, which enabled him to turn to the
northeast and make his fi rst landfall, probably in Mos-
sel Bay. He continued eastward as far as the Great Fish
River, although his main stop was in Algoa Bay. Here,
mindful of serious discontent among the half-starved
crew, his fellow offi cers may have forced a reluctant
Dias to turn for home.
On the return journey he discovered the southernmost
tip of Africa, Cabo das Agulhas, where he experienced
very bad weather. Thus, that when he reached False
Bay, he named its promontory Cabo Tormentoso (Cape
of Storms); he, or possibly King João, subsequently re-
named it Cabo da Boa Esperança (Cape of Good Hope).
He reached Lisbon in December 1488 but was received
with none of the pomp and munifi cence enjoyed by his
predecessor Diogo Cão or his successor Vasco da Gama.
He later took part in Gama’s voyage in 1497 and that
of Pedro Alvares Cabral in 1500. He died on Cabral’s
expedition when his ship sank in heavy seas off the
Cape of Good Hope.
Dias was the fi rst European navigator to sail entirely
out of sight of land in the southern hemisphere, discov-
ering in the process the southeast trades winds and the
westerlies; he confi rmed that all existing maps of Africa
were erroneous, and effectively opened up the sea route
from Europe to Asia.Further Reading
Barros, João de. Décadas. 4 vols. 6th ed. Lisbon, 1945.
Peres, Damião. História dos descobrimentos portugueses.
Oporto, 1943.
Robert OakleyDÍAZ DE GAMES, GUTIERRE
(EL VICTORIAL)
Only one other fi fteenth-century Castilian biography,
that of Alvaro de Luna, is comparable in extension and
importance to El Victorial, the only known work of
Gutierre Díaz de Games. Written in an elegant, livelyDHUODA