[1] A few Portuguese sixteenth-century writers in touch with Italy may have known of their existence. But they were neglected as _rusticas musas_. The references to King Dinis as a poet by Antonio Ferreira and once in the _Cancioneiro Geral_ do not of course imply that his poems were known and read. André de Resende seems to have been more interested in tracing an ancestor, Vasco Martinez de Resende, than in the poets among whom this ancestor figured (see C. Michaëlis de Vasconcellos, _Randglosse_ XV in _Ztft. für rom. Phil._, xxv. 683). [2] _Illud vero poemation quod vulgo circumfertur de Lessa ... nunc vera cum plurimum illud appetant_ ... (Soares, _Theatrum_). Cf. F. Rodriguez Lobo, _Primavera_, ed. 1722, pp. 240, 356, 469; Eloy de Sá de Sottomayor, _Ribeiras do Mondego_, f. 27 v., 28 v., 120-1, 186; _Canc. Geral_ of A. F. Barata (1836-1910), p. 235; Jeronimo Bahia, _Ao Mondego_ (_Fenix Ren._, ii. 377-9). Cf. Brito, _Mon. Lus._ 1. ii. 2: _O rio Leça celebre pelas rimas de nosso famoso poeta_. [3] The documents of the Torre do Tombo are now in the able keeping of Dr. Pedro de Azevedo and Snr. Antonio Baião. [4] Even its title was inaccurately given, as _O Fiel Conselheiro_ (Bernardo de Brito), _De Fideli Consiliario_ (N. Antonio, _Bib. Vetus_, ii. 241), _Del Buen Consejero_ (Faria e Sousa); correctly by Duarte Nunez de Leam. A _Conselheiro Fiel_ by Frei Manuel Guilherme (1658-1734) appeared in 1727. [5] _De que não ha noticia_ (Goes, _Cronica de D. João_, cap. 6). [6] _D. Francisco Manuel de Mello. Esboço biographico._ Coimbra, 1914, an admirably clear and very important work, in which much light from new documents is thrown on Mello’s life. [7] It would be interesting to know how many English-speaking persons have ever heard of the great men and writers that were King Dinis, Fernam Lopez, Bernardim Ribeiro, Diogo Bernardez, Heitor Pinto, Frei Thomé de Jesus, Ferreira de Vasconcellos, Frei Luis de Sousa, Antonio Vieira, Manuel Bernardes. Their neglect has been largely due to the absence of good or easily available texts; there is still nothing to correspond to the Spanish _Biblioteca de Autores Españoles_ or the many more modern Spanish collections. But is not even Camões still ‘an abused stranger’, as Mickle called him in 1776? [8] See F. de Figueiredo, _O que é a Academia das Sciencias de Lisboa_ (1779-1915) in _Revista da Historia_, vol. iv, 1915. [9] His valuable study on Zurara, which has not been superseded by any later work on the subject, is dated 1896. [10] She has, indeed, laid the Portuguese people under an obligation which it will not easily redeem. That no formal recognition has been bestowed in England on her work (as in another field on that of Dr. José Leite de Vasconcellos, of Snr. Braamcamp Freire, and of the late Dr. Francisco Adolpho Coelho) is a striking example of our insularity. [11] It does not include living writers. Its dates must be received with caution.