ZURARA (AZURARA), GOMES EANES de. — Portuguese chronicler, born at Azurara in 1410, died in 1474 (?). Custodian of the Historical Archive of the “Torre do Tombo” in Lisbon, he is the most important early Portuguese chronicler after Fernão Lopes.
His work deals with the Portuguese exploits in Africa, presented with meticulous information (often drawn from foreign, including Italian, sources) and at the same time with realistic vigor; in his evident desire to adhere to the truth of events, Z. is inspired by a lofty sense of a national historical mission, the “expansion of the faith and the empire” (to translate the celebrated expression that would later belong to the national poet Camões). The principal work, the Chrónica da descoberta e da conquista da Guiné, to which we owe, among other things, the most effective portrayal of the great instigator of the Portuguese maritime enterprise, Henry the Navigator, is accompanied by other works, written, on the whole, at the urging of King Alfonso V, including the Chrónica da tomada de Ceuta and the Chrónica de dom João.
Giuseppe Carlo Rossi