[Footnote 6: The first to mention Azurara's birthplace was Soares de Brito (born 1611, died 1669), who, in his _Theatrum Lusitaniæ Litterarium_, p. 547, says: "Gomes Anes de Azurara ex oppido, sicuti fertur, cognomine in Diocesi Portucalensi," voicing the tradition of his time (MS. U/4/22 of the Lisbon National Library, dated 1645). The first who suggested Beira in place of Minho seems to have been Corrêa da Serra, editor of the _Ineditos_, _ibid._, vol. ii, p. 209.] [Footnote 7: _Vide_ the articles on Azurara in the _Instituto de Coimbra_, vol. ix, p. 72, _et seq._, by Vieira de Meyrelles, and in the _Diccionario Universal Portuguez_, vol. i, p. 2151, by R. d'Azevedo.] [Footnote 8: Azurara is named in this document "Commander of Alcains and Granja de Ulmeiro".--_Chanc. de D. Affonso V_, liv. x, fol. 113, Torre do Tombo.] The early life of the Chronicler is almost a blank. Until the year 1450, in which he wrote his first serious Chronicle, though not, perhaps, his first book, we have little beyond the meagre information, supplied by Mattheus de Pisano,[9] that he began to study late--"dum maturæ jam ætatis esset"--and that he had passed his youth without acquiring the rudiments of knowledge--"nullam litteram didicisset"[10]--to which some later authorities have added--he spent his early years in the pursuit of arms, a statement likely enough to be true. It seems probable that he obtained a post in the Royal Library during the brief and luckless reign of D. Duarte (1433-1438), or shortly afterwards, as assistant to the Chronicler Fernão Lopes, whom he succeeded, for he was actually in charge of it early in the reign of Affonso V, in 1452, and finished the _Chronica de Guiné_ in that place in 1453. [Footnote 9: According to Azurara, Pisano was tutor (_mestre_) to Affonso V, and "a laurelled Bard, as well as one of the most sufficient Philosophers and Orators of his time in Christendom."--_Chronica de D. Pedro de Menezes_, ch. 1 (_Ineditos_, vol. ii).] [Footnote 10: _De Bello Septensi_, p. 27.]