The History of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea. Gomes Eannes de Zurara

say before 1454; since it cannot be presumed that he would have time for such an essay after his appointment as Chief Chronicler of Portugal and Royal Archivist. Perhaps he would have lacked the inclination as well, at least judging from the disdainful tone of his reference to the Amadis de Gaula in the Chronica de D. Pedro de Menezes. Now, the first of the Palmerin series—to which our MS. certainly belongs—the Palmerin de Oliva, was only printed in 1511; and though both it and its sequel, Primaleon, may have existed in MS. in the 15th century, contemporary literature has no record of the fact as in the case of Amadis, and there is nothing to favour the supposition. But, apart from this, a perusal of the first few chapters of Part I of the present MS., and especially the opening lines of Chapter 1, will convince most readers, without further proof, that it is nothing else than a continuation of the Palmeirim de Inglaterra of Francisco de Moraes,¹⁰⁴ for it not only takes up the story where Moraes had left off, but expressly refers to the Palmeirim on more than one occasion.¹⁰⁵ Now, the book of Moraes was only written about the year 1543, so that, as far as the dates go, they are enough of themselves to decide the question of Azurara's authorship in the negative. To come to the question of style—that of the MS. has nothing to correspond with the rhetorical expressions and the quotations, and none of the idioms, peculiar to Azurara; nor does it belong to the 15th century, but rather to the middle or latter part of the 16th, despite the slight archaic atmosphere, shown more especially in the orthography, that hangs about Part I, and ever and anon calls to mind the Saudades of Bernardim Ribeiro. The phrase "achada de novo entre seus papeis", on the title-page of the Romance, evidences nothing, although it is alleged, as already mentioned, that Azurara left MSS. behind him which were explored in the last century by Padre José Pereira de Sant' Anna.¹⁰⁶

      Edgar Prestage.

      "Chiltern", Bowdon,

      Day of Camöens' Death, 1895.

       86 A Vida de Nun' Alvares. Lisbon, 1893.

       87 Tom. iii, p. 217, ed. Lisbon, 1666. Barbosa Machado mentions the MS. on the authority of Cardoso.—Vide Bibliotheca Lusitana, tom. ii, art. on Azurara.

88 Chronica dos Carmaelitas, vol. i, pp. 469 and 486. Lisbon, 1745.

89 There doubtless exist many other MSS. of Azurara's Chronicles, besides those mentioned in this notice, both in public libraries and private collections. Most of those described here are in Lisbon, and neither the Royal Library at the Ajuda nor the rich collection at Evora appear to contain a single specimen. Gallardo states that D. Pedro Portocarrero y Guzman, Patriarch of the Indies, the catalogue of whose library was printed at Madrid in 1703, possessed a signed MS. of the Chronica de Ceuta.

90 Cf. Chronica de Guiné, ch. 5.

91 Chronica de Guiné, p. xii, and compare the art. on Azurara in the Diccionario Universal Portuguez, and Innocencio da Silva, Diccionario Bibliographico Portuguez, vol. ix, p. 245.

92 Barros, Asia, Dec. 1, liv. ii, ch. 1, and Goes, Chronica do Principe D. Joào, ch. 6.

93 Historia de S. Domingos, p. 1, liv. vi, ch. 15. Santarem suggests that Affonso V sent it to his uncle, Affonso the Magnificent of Naples, by his ambassador, Martin Mendes de Berredo, between 1453 and 1457; but this cannot be reconciled with the fact that certain passages in the Chronicle appear to have been written after the death of D. Henrique.

94 Catalogue No. 148, Bibliotheca Hispana, February 1895.

95 Chronica de D. Manoel, quarta parte, ch. 38.

96 Asia, Dec. 1, liv. ii, ch. 2.

97 Chronica de Guiné, chs. 1, 5, and 68.

98 Chronica de Ceuta, ch. 21, and cf. Chronica de D. Duarte de Menezes, ch. 24.

99 Asia, Dec. 1, liv. ii, ch. 2, and Chronica de D. Manoel, quarta parte, ch. 38. Goes says, too, that Azurara related the taking of Arzilla, which happened in 1470.

100 Bibliotheca Lusitana, vol. ii, art. on Azurara.

101 Chronica de D. Pedro de Menezes, chs. 1, 2, and parte II, ch. 26; and compare his references to the Chronica Geral in the Chronica de D. Duarte de Menezes, chs. 108, 111, 135, 142, and 145, as well as in the Chronica de Guiné, ch. 5.

102 Prologue to the Chronica de D. Affonso V (Ineditos, vol. i, p. 202).

103 Dr. Theophilo Braga mentions another MS. of the whole Chronicle, in a single volume of 644 folios, as being in private hands. The name of the English (?) Chronicler is there spelt "Henrique Fauste".—Amadis de Gaula, p. 196 n. Porto, 1873.

104 But it is quite a distinct work from that of Diogo Fernandes, though the same period seems to have given them birth.

105 Vide Part I, chs. 1, 4, 6, 17, and 37.

106 Compare, on this question, the following studies:—Opusculo acerca do Palmeirim de Inglaterra e do seu auctor, by M. O. Mendes. Lisbon, 1860. Discurso sobre el Palmeirim de Inglaterra y su verdadero autor, by N. D. de Benjumea. Lisbon, 1875. Versuch über den Ritterroman Palmeirim de Inglaterra, by D. Carolina Michaëlis de Vasconcellos. Halle, 1883.

      pg lxviii Note.—The elegant signature of Azurara, with its flourishes and general ornateness, a woodcut of which appears below, was copied by my friend the Viscount de Castilho, son of the poet, from an original document in the Torre do Tombo. The writing, it will be observed, is clear and firm, a characteristic of all the Chronicler's signatures, which exist to the number of some half-dozen in the Torre.—E. P.

      AZURARA'S CHRONICLE OF THE DISCOVERY AND CONQUEST OF GUINEA.

THE AUTHOR'S