PINTO, HETTOR. — Portuguese mystical writer, born at Covilhà around 1528, died in 1584, a knight of the Order of St John. He studied at Coimbra and Siguenza.
More than with his works in Latin, most of them commentaries on the sacred books, his name is associated with the Imagem da Vida Christã, in eleven dialogues, also called Dialogos (first part, Coimbra 1563; second part, Lisbon 1572), a profound work on the most important principles of Christian moral philosophy. The other Portuguese mystics of the time are said to have drawn upon many of these principles, such as those concerning the qualities of the good prince and consolatory meditations for the hour of death.
BIRL.: editions: L'Imagem da Vida Christã had numerous editions; the most recent is the one in four volumes, Lisbon 1940. Studies: F. de Figueiredo, Os Mysticos, in Alma Nova, 14 (1916), pp. 21–28; M. Alves Correia, Prefazione, in the aforementioned 1940 edition, I, pp. 1–35. Giuseppe Carlo Rossi