André de Resende

André de Resende
Bornc. 1498/1500
Évora, Portugal
Died(1573-12-09)9 December 1573
Évora, Portugal
NationalityPortuguese
Occupation(s)Dominican friar,[a] humanist

André de Resende (c. 1498/1500 –1573) was a Portuguese humanist Dominican friar, classical scholar, poet, and antiquarian.[2] Resende is regarded as the father of archeology in Portugal.[3]

Early life and travels

Resende was born c. 1498 in Évora, the son of Pêro Vaz de Resende and Ângela Leonor de Góis.[4] After his father died, he entered the local Dominican Order at the age of ten or twelve.[4][5]

Education

Resende spent much of his youth traveling through Spain, France, and the Low Countries.[6] In Spain, he attended the universities of Salamanca and Alcalá de Henares,[4][6] studying Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.[7] In France, he received theological training in Paris, Marseille, and Aix, becoming archdeacon of St. Maxime-les-Baumes.[5]

In the late 1520s and early 1530s, Resende resided in Belgium, specifically the cities of Leuven and Brussels.[8] He continued his education in Leuven, developing close ties with his Latin professor, Conrad Goclenius, a close friend of Erasmus.[9][10][b] Goclenius helped Resende publish his first Latin poem, Encomium urbis et academiae, in 1530 and subsequently a poem in praise of Erasmus, Desiderii Erasmi Roterodami Encomium.[12] Impressed, Erasmus wrote to Resende expressing admiration of the poem and requesting more of his work. Resende responded by sending him a copy of Genethliacon Principis Lusitani, or Birthday Poem to the Portuguese Prince, which had been written for the newly born Prince Manuel.[13] Despite this correspondence and Resende's deep admiration for Erasmus, the two never met in person.[10][13] Still, in his letters to Damião de Góis, a close friend of Resende, Erasmus repeatedly inquired about the Portuguese poet.[14]

While studying under Goclenius, Resende encountered other notable humanists, namely Johannes Secundus and Marius Nizolius.[15] He also befriended Nicolaus Clenardus and offered him a position to serve as a tutor at the Portuguese court.[16]

Service to Charles V

After several years of study, Resende departed from Leuven in 1531 and went to the court of Emperor Charles V in Brussels to work alongside the Portuguese ambassador, Pedro de Mascarenhas.[8][11]

In 1532 and 1533, in the entourage of Charles V, Resende travelled across the Holy Roman Empire, residing briefly in Regensburg, Bologna, and Barcelona.[17] During his stay in Bologna, he had access to a press and published a series of lengthy works (Genethliacon, Epicedion, and his satirical Epistola de Vita Aulica ad Speratum Ferrarium) as well as a few short poems.[18] In July 1533, while the entourage was in Barcelona, Resende and Mascarenhas left the Emperor's Court and headed to the Portuguese Court in Évora.[19]

Career in Portugal

Resende returned to Portugal in 1533 and remained there for the rest of his life, becoming one of the most eminent humanists in the country.[20] He was a familiar figure at the court of King John III, where he led a group of Erasmian scholars and acted as tutor to the Infante D. Duarte.[21][22][c] Resende expressed disdain for life at court, complaining about the lack of leisure and stating he'd prefer to live abroad.[23] He also expressed frustration with the academic conservatism that existed in Portugal.[24]

Beginning in 1551, Resende was a professor of Sacred Theology at the University of Coimbra.[2] After administration of the university was taken over by Jesuits in 1555, the contracts of Resende and other humanists were not renewed, and subsequently Resende went back to Évora.[25]

In addition to teaching, Resende devoted himself to the study of antiquities,[26] especially with respect to Évora.[6] An admirer of ancient Rome and devout Catholic, Resende sought to construct a past and, by extension, a cultural identity for Portugal that was simultaneously Roman and Christian.[27] In 1553, he published his História da antiguidade da cidade de Évora (History of the Antiquity of the City of Évora).[6] In this work he claims that the Roman general Sertorius resided in Évora and frames him as a symbol of Lusitanian independence.[28] He also argues that Évora is one of the oldest Christian cities in the Peninsula.[29] In his comprehensive study of Iberian antiquarianism, De Antiquitatibus Lusitaniae,[2] Resende largely neglects the period between the Romans and the Reconquista, making no reference to the era that Portugal was under Islamic rule.[30] Besides the aforementioned works, Resende also wrote two books on aqueducts and one on ancient epitaphs.[31]

After years of semi-retirement, Resende died in his home in Évora on 9 December 1573.[19] At the time of his death, he was still working on De Antiquitatibus Lusitaniae. The work was completed posthumously and published in 1593.[32]

Resende is buried in the chapel of the right transept of the Cathedral of Évora.

Legacy

Together with Clenardus, Resende is considered a pioneer in advancing Christian humanism in Renaissance Portugal.[33]

Although Resende's work was largely endorsed in his time, modern historians deem his construction of Portuguese history with regards to Rome as largely fabricated with little basis.[29] Moreover, in the 19th century epigraphy specialist Emil Hübner concluded that an inscription brought forth by Resende, supposedly from ancient Rome, was inauthentic.[34][35][d] Accordingly, Philip Spann (1981) describes Resende as "one of the great 16th-century forgers of inscriptions."[37]

Notes

  1. ^ Historian John Martyn writes that Resende no longer wore Dominican habit after the death of Cardinal Afonso in 1540.[1]
  2. ^ Resende had travelled to Leuven in hopes of meeting Erasmus, whose work he greatly respected. However, the Dutch humanist had already left for Basel in 1521.[11]
  3. ^ Resende later wrote Duarte's biography.[22]
  4. ^ The inscription corroborated Resende's assertion that Sertorius lived in the city and was responsible for the construction of its aqueduct.[7] Although the artifact is universally recognized as a fake, modern archeologists concur that a Roman aqueduct did once bring water from Divor to Évora, somewhat validating Resende's claim.[36]

Citations

  1. ^ Martyn 1987, p. 74.
  2. ^ a b c Martyn 1988b, p. 197.
  3. ^ Russo 2024, pp. 31–32.
  4. ^ a b c Clarke & de Sousa 2017, p. 100.
  5. ^ a b Martyn 1988a, p. 250.
  6. ^ a b c d Senos 2019, p. 128.
  7. ^ a b Spann 1981, p. 230.
  8. ^ a b Martyn 1988a, p. 247.
  9. ^ Hirsch 1951, p. 559.
  10. ^ a b Klucas 1992, p. 87.
  11. ^ a b Stinson 1972, p. 536.
  12. ^ Klucas 1992, p. 88.
  13. ^ a b Stinson 1972, p. 537.
  14. ^ Hirsch 1951, p. 556.
  15. ^ Martyn 1988a, p. 246.
  16. ^ Klucas 1992, p. 86.
  17. ^ Martyn 1988a, pp. 252–254.
  18. ^ Martyn 1988a, p. 253.
  19. ^ a b Martyn 1988a, p. 254.
  20. ^ Senos 2019, pp. 128, 140
  21. ^ Hirsch 1967, pp. 166, 170
  22. ^ a b Pereira & Rodrigues 1904, p. 94.
  23. ^ Hirsch 1967, p. 166.
  24. ^ Hirsch 1967, p. 167.
  25. ^ Lawrance 1989, p. 218.
  26. ^ Hirsch 1955, p. 29.
  27. ^ Senos 2019, pp. 128, 133–134, 147.
  28. ^ Senos 2019, p. 120.
  29. ^ a b Senos 2019, p. 131.
  30. ^ Senos 2019, p. 130.
  31. ^ Martyn 1989, p. 410.
  32. ^ Senos 2019, p. 129.
  33. ^ Klucas 1992, p. 96.
  34. ^ Senos 2019, p. 145.
  35. ^ Curchin 1990, p. 238.
  36. ^ Senos 2019, p. 147.
  37. ^ Spann 1981, p. 232.

Sources

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