Editing Openai/69541e93-963c-8006-8646-ec89267bdcc0 (section)

== gpt-5-2-thinking ==
=== User: Why would he refer to the Amerindians as similar to Ethiopians and I believe that in 1524 the word Ethiopia were used f… ===
Why would he refer to the Amerindians as similar to Ethiopians and I believe that in 1524 the word Ethiopia were used for all of Africa. Why not use similarlities to Indians from the Subcontinent or other Asian peoples.

=== Assistant: You’re reading it exactly the right way: in Verrazzano’s mouth, “Ethiopians” is a Renaissance-era color/region category… ===
You’re reading it exactly the right way: in Verrazzano’s mouth, “Ethiopians” is a Renaissance-era ''color/region'' category more than a precise modern ethnicity. In the NHC translation of the 1524 letter, he writes of the first coastal people he meets that they are “dark in color, not unlike the Ethiopians”.

Here’s why that comparison shows up, and why it isn’t “Indians” (South Asia) or “Asians,” even though he does make an Asian comparison elsewhere.

==== In a lot of classical + medieval + early Renaissance European writing, “Aethiopia/Ethiopia” functioned as a broad label for peoples imagined as living in the far south and characterized (in European eyes) by dark skin—not a precise national label. So when Verrazzano wants to communicate quickly to a French royal reader what he saw, “Ethiopians” is a conventional, instantly legible reference point. ====

It’s basically: “dark like the ‘Ethiopians’ we’ve heard about / seen represented.”

==== Right after the “Ethiopians” line, Verrazzano shifts from complexion to movement and temperament and says that in “sharp cunning” and agility they resemble “the Orientals, particularly those from the farthest Sinarian regions” (Sinarian = Chinese). ====

So he’s using two different analogies for two different traits:
* Color → “Ethiopians”
* Agility / perceived ‘cunning’ / style of movement → “Orientals… Sinarian (Chinese)”

That’s a very “Renaissance observer” move: stacking comparisons to familiar categories for his audience.

==== A few reasons that fit 1524 logic and Verrazzano’s rhetorical goals: ====

===== In 1524, Europeans are still calling many Native peoples “Indians” (West Indies / Indies confusion). If he says “they look like Indians,” that could create ambiguity: “Do you mean the Indies? These are the Indies?” He’s writing a report about new land and wants to avoid accidentally reinforcing the idea he reached Asia. =====

===== For a French court audience, “Ethiopians” was a cleaner shorthand for dark complexion than “Indians,” which could imply South Asian identity, geography, or religion rather than just appearance. =====

===== He’s pitching this voyage partly as a route-finding mission toward Cathay (China). If he leans too hard into “they resemble Indians,” it muddles his own narrative of where he is and what he found. Notice how he’s careful in other places: he speculates about reaching Cathay but treats it as hope and theory, not as confirmed landfall. =====

==== He’s slotting people into familiar Renaissance mental-map categories: ====
* Ethiopian = dark-skinned “southern” peoples (in European imagination)
* Oriental / Sinarian = far eastern peoples (China) used for perceived behavioral resemblance

It’s not that he believed these Native peoples were literally African or Chinese. It’s that he’s communicating with the comparative vocabulary his readers already had.

==== Don’t read “Ethiopians” as an ethnographic claim (like “these people are Africans”). Read it as: ====
* a visual analogy (skin tone), and
* a window into how a 1524 European navigator categorized human difference.

If you want, paste the exact passage you’re focused on (or tell me which page/paragraph in your PDF), and I’ll break down the wording phrase-by-phrase against the Italian context and the translation choices.