André de Resende

André de Resende (1500-1573)

Intelectual humanista, teólogo, pioneiro da Arqueologia em Portugal.

Resende estudou em Alcalá, Paris, Salamanca e Lorvaina, onde frequentou um circúlo de amigos de Erasmo de Roterdão. O interesse pela Pré-História levou a que escrevesse sobre dólmenes e castros.

Mas o bom Resende não tinha espírito científico, chegando a falsificar inscrições epigráficas. Foi professor na Universidade de Lisboa e fundou em Évora uma escola pública.

Historia da antiguidade da cidade de Euora

fecta per meestre Andree de Reesende

3ª ed. fielmente copiada da segunda que se fez em Euora em 1576.

Lisboa Off. de Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, 1783

As suas obras mais salientes:

História da Cidade de Évora (1573),

De antiquitatibus Lusitaniae (Antiguidades Lusitanas) (1593). The first Portuguese book on Archeology. Innocêncio II, 214; IX, 155 and Fonseca, "um texto quinhentista de grande importância para o estudo do Humanismo português." Palha 372.

André de Resende, Deliciae Lusitano-Hispanicae..., Cologne, 1613.

Using a wide range of sources such as ancient Roman inscriptions and medieval Arabic chronicles, and employing an innovative variety of historical methods, such as archaeology and etymology, the antiquary, humanist and neo-Latin poet André de Resende (1498-1573) set out to persuade his fellow countrymen and other Europeans of the falsehood of the idea that in Iberia “Hispani omnes sumus” (xxxxxx) and to prove wrongly, as it turned out, that ancient Roman Lusitania was identical with modern Portugal. Resende patriotically distorted his evidence to reveal the supposed Lusitanian origins of Portugal and the Portuguese people. He claimed the ancient figures of Viriato and Sertorius as national heroes and maintained that contemporary Portuguese had inherited the noble, valorous character and heroic traditions of the Lusitanians. He stressed their courage, their undying adherence to the cause of independence, and their resistance against the foreign Roman invader. Resende was determined to demonstrate that Portugal possessed a distinct identity as an independent nation of people distinguished by heroic valor.

Garcia de Resende, Chronica dos valerosos e insignes feitos del rey Dom João II, Lisbon, 1622. In his Chronicle of João II, the” Perfect Prince,” the courtier, poet, and chronicler, Garcia de Resende presents the first literary and psychological portrait of a Portuguese king. Instead of writing a traditional history of the reign, Resende, a writer of enormous literary skill, offers an admiring, intimate description of the man and the monarch. The Chronicle is especially valuable as a microhistory of court society observed and criticized from the inside. As a close, personal, life-long friend of João II, Resende endeavored to celebrate and honor the memory of the king while also investigating the themes of the changing values, mentalities, and material culture in Portugal initiated by exploration and expansion. This edition was heavily edited by censors sensitive to the author's numerous derogatory statements about Spain. Those passages were typically rewritten to provide a positive reading completely at odds with the Resende’s original purpose and meaning.