Monastery of Serra do Pilar: a window on Europe - Personalities
Monastery of Serra do Pilar: a window on Europe - Personalities
Damião de Góis
Alenquer 1502 - Alenquer 1574
Damião de Góis was one of the most prominent figures of the Portuguese Humanism. He was like a Don Quixote who sought for humanism and cosmopolitanism, passing over geographical boundaries and fighting the very real fulling mills and the aridity of his society. This ingenious gentleman, built bridges - from his adventures and encounters - linking Portugal with the greater figures and major cities in Europe.
Currently, Damião de Góis is remembered by the wit and relevance of his writings.
Infante Dom Henrique
Porto 1394 - Sagres 1460
Known as "the Navigator", Infante Dom Henrique, former king of Portugal, is an example that is not the sea that makes a navigator but his land. Regarding this king, the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa wrote that he "has at his feet the new seas and the dead eras" and in his hands, "the globe". Therefore, the new discovered lands made the history of this king and his reign.
Symbol of the Portuguese greatest legacy for the World History, a legacy that wrote in the chapter of Renaissance, the Age of Discoveries.
Pedro de Escobar
Porto 1465 - Évora 1535
Nothing was known of him until he entered the service of Isabella I of Castile, where he came as Mestre de Capela. Since that moment, the Portuguese composer has been considered as one of the first and most important Iberian musicians and polyphonic composer of the Renaissance. His setting of Magnificat and Requiem are among his most famous masterpieces.
Anyway, his music was popular: indeed, copies of his manuscripts appeared in some far-off places, as happened in Guatemala by native scribes.
Pedro Nunes
Alcácer do Sal 1502 - Coimbra 1578
Appointed by many at that time as being a "génio máximo em matemática", he was one of the most world famous scientists of the Renaissance. His contribution to the field of navigation - the so-called "curva loxodrómica" - was essential in the Age of the Great Discoveries. His work spanned from pure mathematics to mechanics to cosmography to geography and to cartography. Nunes was also one of the last great commentators to Ptolemy, Aristotle or Sacrobosco.
He was also aware of the science produced across Europe: knowing Copernicus' work, he made a short reference to it (Opera, 1566) with the aim of correcting some mathematical errors.
Luís de Camões
Lisbon 1524 - Lisbon 1580
The Portuguese Virgil, author of Os Lusíadas, an epic work that celebrates the Portuguese feats on the sea and their warriors, and which holds together the principal elements of the Portuguese Renaissance: the humanism and the overseas expeditions.
The erudite poet of the Renaissance was inspired by folk songs or ballads and writes poems that recall the medieval songs. He reveals in his poems sensitivity to human, loving and existential dramas.
His influence was so deep, that Portuguese is sometimes called the "language of Camões".
