ANDRADA (ANDRADE), FRANCISCO de. — Portuguese man of letters and historian, b. in Lisbon in 1535, d. in 1614, brother of Tommaso A., known under the name of “Tommaso di Gesù.” Philip II appointed him, in 1559, chronicler of the kingdom.
His principal works include: a poem of 20 cantos in ottava rima (*O primiero circo de Diu*) on the first siege of the Turkish fortress on the islet of Diu, which the Portuguese, upon arriving in India, had made an important naval and strategic base; a chronicle of Prince Giorgio Castrioto and one of King John III. Among his most notable religious writings are cited a short lyric poem entitled *Philomena de S. Bonaventura*, a translation from the Latin; a terza rima version of the psalm *Benedic anima mea Domino*, an *Elegy of the devout soul to her Spouse*, and others. He often indulged in translations from the Latin: the chronicle of Castrioto is likewise a translation; but even in his original works, though he strives to be precise, he fails to be exhaustive, and when writing in verse he generally lacks, if not technical skill, at least inspired and moving inspiration. Hence he is generally credited with the merit of employing a refined and polished language, which partly compensates for the fault of having attempted poetry by choosing as the subject of his major poetic work the siege of Diu, a topic essentially historical in character, and developing it with criteria more suited to simple chronicle narration.