A CONTEMPORARY BY CERVANTES PAYS TRIBUTE TO VASCO DE GAMA - Lot 77

A CONTEMPORARY BY CERVANTES PAYS TRIBUTE TO VASCO DE GAMA CAMOENS (Luis Vas de). OS LUSIADAS DO GRANDE Luis de Camoens Principe Da Poesia Heroica. Commentados pelo Licenciado Manoel Correa, Examinador Synodal do Arcebispado de Lisboa & Cura da Igreja de S. Sebastiao da Mouraria, natural da cidade de Elvas. Dedicados ao Doctor D. Rodrigo d'Acunha, Inquisidor Apostolico de Sancto Officio de Lisboa. Per Domingos Fernandez seu Livreyro. Em Lisboa, Pedro Crasbeeck, 1613. One volume, large in-8 (6 ff, 308 folios), full contemporary soft vellum, traces of laces, spine partly soiled, vellum restoration on second board. Minor worm damage in the lower margins of the first few leaves. The text is printed in italics and the commentaries in roman. Extremely rare seventh edition (the first dates from 1572) of this masterpiece of Portuguese literature. It is the first to include comments by Camoens' close friend Manoel Correa. This posthumous edition was edited by Pedro de Mariz, who wrote the introduction "Ao Estudioso da lição Poetica". He wrote the first biography of Camoens, which can be considered one of the most reliable. It is an epic about Vasco da Gama's expedition, which, after several failures, finally reached the Orient by sea. Camoens took advantage of the opportunity to "graft" the high points of Portugal's history onto this travelogue. The account of the voyage and the historical narratives follow very closely the sources of the chroniclers, but, wishing to create a poetic work, the author transposed the facts by resorting to mythology! With his lyrical, bucolic and elegiac temperament, Camoens thus creates a model of Baroque art, to which Cervantes refers several times (cf. Part II, & LVIII). D. Manuel III, 19; Brunet, I516.