ANDRADA (ANDRADE), FRANCESCO de. — Portuguese man of letters and historian, born in Lisbon in 1535 and died in 1614, brother of Tommaso A., known by the name of «Tommaso di Gesù». In 1559 Philip II appointed him chronicler of the kingdom.
His principal works are: a poem of 20 cantos in ottava rima (O primeiro círco de Dia) on the first siege by the Turks of the fortress on the island of Dio, which the Portuguese, upon reaching India, had made an important naval and strategic base; a chronicle of Prince Giorgio Castrioto and one of King Giovanni III. Among his most noteworthy religious writings are a short lyrical poem entitled Philomena de S. Boaventura, translated from Latin; a version in terza rima of the psalm Benedic anima mea Domino, an Elegy of the soul devoted to its Spouse, and others. He often took pleasure in translating from Latin: the chronicle of Castrioto is itself a translation; but even in his original works, however much he strives to be precise, he fails to be complete, and when he writes in verse he generally lacks, if not technical ability, then inspired and moving poetic vein. He is therefore generally credited with using a chaste and polished language, which partly compensates for the fault of having wished to make poetry by choosing as the subject of his major poetic work the siege of Dio, a subject essentially historical in character, and treating it according to criteria more suited to simple chronicle narrative.