Emanuele Ne Vunda

Painting of Emanuele Ne Vunda, Sala dei Corazzieri, Quirinal Palace, Rome, 1615–1616.

Antonio Emanuele Ne Vunda, also known as Antonio Manuel Nsaku Nvunda (or Vunta or Funda; died 1608), was an ambassador from the Kingdom of Kongo to the Vatican.

Career

Ne Vund was sent as ambassador by King Álvaro II in 1604. ^{[1] [2]} Ne Vunda traveled through Brazil and Spain and only reached Rome on 3 January 1608, but he died two days later of illness. ^{[3] [1]} He was the first African ambassador to the Holy See.

Legacy

A bust of Ne-Vunda made in colored marble can be seen at Santa Maria Maggiore by Francesco Caporale in Rome. ^[4]

A painting of Ne Vunda is visible in the Sala dei Corazzieri in the Quirinal Palace, Rome, next to a painting depicting the 1615 Keichō embassy of Hasekura Tsunenaga from Edo Japan.

References

1. Lowe, Kate (2007). "'Representing' Africa: Ambassadors and Princes from Christian Africa to Renaissance Italy and Portugal, 1402-1608". Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. 17: 101–128. doi: 10.1017/S0080440107000552 . JSTOR   25593873.
2. Gray, Richard (1999). "A Kongo Princess, the Kongo Ambassadors and the Papacy" . Journal of Religion in Africa. 29 (2): 140–154. doi:10.2307/1581869. ISSN   0022-4200. JSTOR   1581869.
3. Heywood, Linda M.; Thornton, John K. (2007-09-10). Central Africans, Atlantic Creoles, and the Foundation of the Americas, 1585-1660. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   9780521770651.
4. "Antonio Emanuele Ne Vunda". dcl.elevator.umn.edu.

Bibliography

• Teobaldo Filesi, Le relazioni tra il Regno del Congo e la Sede Apostolica nel XVI secolo, Pietro Cairoli, Como 1968.
• Luis Martínez Ferrer, Marco Nocca (ed.), “Coisas do outro mundo” A Missão em Roma de António Manuel, Príncipe de N’Funta, conhecido per “o Negrita” (1604-1608), na Roma de Paulo V, Urbaniana University Press, Città del Vaticano, 2003.