DIAS, BALTASAR. - Portuguese playwright of the 16th century, the best known and still today the most beloved among the people. A native of the island of Madeira and blind, endowed with undeniable talent, he enjoyed wide popularity both for his autos (in which he mostly dramatized a pious legend) and for the minstrel-like songs interspersed in his plays.

Particular mention should be made of: the auto of Santo Aleixo, those on Santa Catarina, the Nacimiento de Cristo, Salomão, the Paixao, etc., faithful transpositions of hagiographic narratives, in which the miraculous element and the pomp of the liturgical ceremonies were employed. Also his are the Historia de la emperatriz Porcina mulher do emperador Lodonio de Roma and the Tragedia do Marquez de Mantua e do emperador Carlo Magno, which Garrett kept in his Romanceiro, considering it a version of a French or Provençal text of the late 14th or early 15th century.

Bibliography

BIBL.: T. Braga, Escola de Gil Vicente e desenvolvimento do teatro nacional, Porto 1898.

Jole Scudieri Ruggieri

@incollection{ec4_dias_baltasar, author = {Scudieri, Ruggieri Jole}, title = {Dias, baltasar}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IV}, pages = {1554--1555}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/dias-baltasar} }

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

Dias, Baltasar

About this entry