BIBLIOTECA UNIVERSITARIA DI GENOVA – PERCORSI TEMATICI
Universalitas & Pervasivitas
IL COSTITUIRSI E DIFFONDERSI DELLA
S.J. E SUOI ECHI (1540 - 1773)
di A. Pisani
Schede autori Attività missionarie ed esplorazioni non gesuite
Damiao de Góis
Damiao de Góis (February 2, 1502 –
January 30, 1574), born in Alenquer,
Portugal, was an important Portuguese
humanist philosopher. He was a friend
and student of Erasmus. He was appointed
secretary to the Portuguese factory in
Antwerp in 1523 by King John III of
Portugal. He compiled one of the first
accounts on Ethiopian Christianity.
Biography
Góis (also Goes) was born in Alenquer,
Portugal, into a noble family who served
the Portuguese kings – the grandfather,
Gomes Dias de Góis, had been in the
entourage of Prince Henry the Navigator.
Around 1518 Góis joined the court of
King Manuel I of Portugal. Under Manuel
I‟s successor, King John III of Portugal, in
1523, he was sent to Antwerp, as secretary
and treasurer of the Portuguese feitoria
(factory, trading post and commercial
office). Henceforth, Góis travelled
intensely (Poland, Lithuania, Denmark,
Germany, Sweden, France, Italy), entering into contact with a number of important figures, like
Sebastian Münster, Erasmus (who hosted him in Freiburg), Ramusio, Philipp Melanchthon and
Martin Luther. Among the many Portuguese acquaintances, Góis was friend of the writers João de
Barros and André de Resende.
A humanist and an open mind, Góis followed courses at the Universities of Padua and Leuven,
wrote on various topics, like the condition of the Sami people (Lapps), and translated some classic
works – among them, Cicero‟s Cato maior de senectute – into Portuguese. He was also a composer
of some musical pieces and kept a private collection of paintings. Góis translated into Latin a
Portuguese opuscle on the Ethiopian embassy of the Armenian Mateus (the representative of the
Negus Dawit II) to Portugal (1532), which also included the famous Letter of Prester John written
by the Ethiopian Queen Eleni (1509) and a Confessio illorum fidei.
In 1538 he published a translation of the Biblical book Ecclesiastes in Portuguese, though it was not
widely circulated. In the same year, he took a Dutch wife, Joana de Hargen. In 1540 he published
the famous Fides, religio, moresque Aethiopum. The book received a widespread diffusion in
Europe, in both Catholic and Protestant circles, and enjoyed of successive editions (Paris-1541,
BIBLIOTECA UNIVERSITARIA DI GENOVA – PERCORSI TEMATICI
Universalitas & Pervasivitas
IL COSTITUIRSI E DIFFONDERSI DELLA
S.J. E SUOI ECHI (1540 - 1773)
di A. Pisani
Schede autori Attività missionarie ed esplorazioni non gesuite
Leuven-1544, Leiden-1561, Cologne-1574). It also earned the author, however, the criticisms of the
powerful Portuguese Cardinal Henry of Portugal, who, as Grand Inquisitor of the Portuguese
Inquisition, banned its circulation in the kingdom.
The Jesuit order proved equally critical, as he was accused by the Provincial superior Simão
Rodrigues of Lutheranism before the Inquisition. In 1548, Góis was named Guarda Mor (High
Guardian) of the Torre do Tombo (Royal Archives) and ten years later was entrusted by the same
Cardinal Henry to write the chronicle of Manuel I‟s reign. The work was completed in some seven
years and became his major achievement.
He also published a description of the city of Lisbon – Urbis Olisiponis Descriptio (1554). In 1570
the inquisitorial process opened again, sending Góis to reclusion in the monastery of Batalha. He
died shortly after in Alenquer under mysterious circumstances (apparently, murder), free but sick.
Góis had eight sons.
Books by Góis
Legatio Magni Indorum Imperatoris Presbyteri Ioannis ... (Antwerp 1532; new ed. in: Elizabeth
B. Blackburn, “The Legacy of „Prester John‟”, Moreana 4, 1967, 37–98);
Ecclesiastes de Salamam, com algunas annotações neçessarias (Venezia, 1538; new ed. by T.
F. Earle, O Livro de Ecclesiastes, Lisboa, 2002);
Livro de Marco Tullio Ciçeram chamado Catam maior, ou da velhiçe, dedicado a Tito
Pomponio Attico (Venezia, 1538);
Fides, religio, moresque Aethiopum ... (Lovanii 1540; Parisiis 1541; German tr. Wiesbaden
1999);
Deploratio Lappianae gentis (Lovanii 1540); Urbis Olisiponis descriptio (Évora, 1554;
Frankfurt, 1603; Coimbra, 1791; Eng. tr. New York, 1996);
Crónica do Felicíssimo Rei D. Manuel (Lisboa 1566–67; ²1619; Coimbra 1926);
Crónica do Principe D. João (Lisboa, 1567; new ed. by Graça Almeida Rodrigues, Lisboa,
1977);
As cartas Latinas de Damião de Góis, ed. by Amadeu Torres, in Noese e crise na epistolografia
Latina goisiana (Paris, 1982)
References
Damião de Góis, Lisbon in the Renaissance. A New Translation of the Urbis Olisiponis Descriptio
by Jeffey S. Ruth (New York: 1996); Jean Aubin, “Damião de Góis dans une Europe Évangelique”,
in: Id., Le Latin et l’astrolabe, Lisboa – Paris 1996, 211–35; Jeremy Lawrance, The Middle Indies:
Damião de Góis on Preseter John and the Ethiopians, “Renaissance Studies”, 6 (1992), 306-24;
Elisabeth Feist Hirsch, Damião de Gois (Lisboa, 1987); Damião de Góis: humaniste européen, ed.
by J. V. de Pina Martins (Braga, 1982); Marcel Bataillon, “Le cosmopolitisme de Damião de Góis”,
in: Id., Etudes sur le Portugal au temps de l’humanisme, Coimbra 1952, 149–96 ; “Góis, Damião
de”, in: Grande enciclopédia Portuguesa e Brasileira, Lisboa – Rio de Janeiro 1935–60, 494–97.
Chamber Opera
"Melodias estranhas", chamber opera by António Chagas Rosa on a libretto by Gerrit Komrij. 2001.
BIBLIOTECA UNIVERSITARIA DI GENOVA – PERCORSI TEMATICI
Universalitas & Pervasivitas
IL COSTITUIRSI E DIFFONDERSI DELLA
S.J. E SUOI ECHI (1540 - 1773)
di A. Pisani
Schede autori Attività missionarie ed esplorazioni non gesuite
Cfr.: Wikipedia.en - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dami%C3%A3o_de_G%C3%B3is - This
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Vedi anche: profilo biografico di Damiao de Góis nel sito dell'Enciclopedia Treccani