Ever since penning, some six months ago, our ten-part series about the literature of the sea, we have had numerous requests to expand upon our very brief mention of piratical literature (not to be confused with pirated editions). Of course, what most folks are interested in is not nonfiction works about modern piracy, but rather the many fictionalized, usually historically inaccurate (i.e., romanticized), titles that abound.
Because the field of piratical literature is far larger than most folks realize, a simple division between nonfiction and fictional titles does not even begin to do this literature justice. Accordingly, it will be necessary to examine piratical literature over the course of several consecutive posts.
We begin with a definition: piracy usually refers to criminal acts (robbery, violence, etc.) that are directed by private parties on vessels at sea against private parties aboard other vessels at sea (in the modern era this definition has been extended to include similar acts committed aboard aircraft). The emphasis here is on private parties, since such acts also may be committed at the behest of a sovereign government, a type of sanctioned commercial raiding known as privateering. Our focus in these posts is on piracy, not privateering. (Although, as we shall discover, many pirates also were privateers and vice-versa.)
Piracy is believed to have existed for as long as humanity has engaged in maritime commerce. Many citizens of the ancient world engaged in piracy, and some early civilizations were especially well known for the pirates they harbored (e.g., Illyria). In 67 BCE, the Roman Senate passed the Lex Gabinia, one of the earliest known efforts of a sovereign state to legislate against piracy (and, unknowingly at the time, an excellent early illustration of the Law of Unintended Consequences).
The Middle Ages saw the rise of Viking piracy along the coast of Europe (a redundancy, since the old Norse word vīkingr means "pirate"), Muslim piracy in the Mediterranean and Chinese piracy in East Asia. Piracy arose in many other areas as well. Historical accounts mention prominently the Narentines, the Maniots, the Haida and Tlingit tribes off the western coast of North America, the Wokou in Japan, and many more besides. Fine historical accounts have been written about many of these.
The books depicted below (along with those depicted above) will give you some basic historical information that you may find useful as you go about constructing a private library around this theme. There are many more such titles, as we shall see over the next few days....
Recent Comments