André de Resende

André de Resende (c. 1498/1500 –1573) was a Portuguese humanist Dominican friar, classical scholar, poet, and antiquarian.^[1] Resende is regarded as the father of archeology in Portugal.^[2]

Early life and travels

Resende was born c. 1498 in Évora, the son of Pêro Vaz de Resende and Ângela Leonor de Góis.^[3] After his father died, he entered the local Dominican Order at the age of ten or twelve.^[3][4]

Education

Resende spent much of his youth traveling through Spain, France, and the Low Countries.^[5] In Spain, he attended the universities of Salamanca and Alcalá de Henares,^[3][5] studying Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.^[6] In France, he received theological training in Paris, Marseille, and Aix, becoming archdeacon of St. Maxime-les-Baumes.^[4]

In the late 1520s and early 1530s, Resende resided in Belgium, specifically the cities of Leuven and Brussels.^[7] He continued his education in Leuven, developing close ties with his Latin professor, Conrad Goclenius, a close friend of Erasmus.^[8][9][10] Goclenius helped Resende publish his first Latin poem, Encomium urbis et academiae, in 1530 and subsequently a poem in praise of Erasmus, Desiderii Erasmi Roterodami Encomium.^[11] Impressed, Erasmus wrote to Resende expressing admiration of the poem and requesting more of his work. Resende responded by sending him a copy of Genethliacon Principis Lusitani, or Birthday Poem to the Portuguese Prince, which had been written for the newly born Prince Manuel.^[12] Despite this correspondence and Resende's deep admiration for Erasmus, the two never met in person.^[9][12] Still, in his letters to Damião de Góis, a close friend of Resende, Erasmus repeatedly inquired about the Portuguese poet.^[13]

While studying under Goclenius, Resende encountered other notable humanists, namely Johannes Secundus and Marius Nizolius.^[14] He also befriended Nicolaus Clenardus and offered him a position to serve as a tutor at the Portuguese court.^[15]

Service to Charles V

After several years of study, Resende departed from Leuven in 1531 and went to the court of Emperor Charles V in Brussels to work alongside the Portuguese ambassador, Pedro de Mascarenhas.^[7][16]

In 1532 and 1533, in the entourage of Charles V, Resende travelled across the Holy Roman Empire, residing briefly in Regensburg, Bologna, and Barcelona.^[17] During his stay in Bologna, he had access to a press and published a series of lengthy works (Genethliacon, Epicedion, and his satirical Epistola de Vita Aulica ad Speratum Ferrarium) as well as a few short poems.^[18] In July 1533, while the entourage was in Barcelona, Resende and Mascarenhas left the Emperor's Court and headed to the Portuguese Court in Évora.^[19]

Career in Portugal

Resende returned to Portugal in 1533 and remained there for the rest of his life, becoming one of the most eminent humanists in the country.^[20] He was a familiar figure at the court of King John III, where he led a group of Erasmian scholars and acted as tutor to the Infante D. Duarte.^[21][22][23] Resende expressed disdain for life at court, complaining about the lack of leisure and stating he'd prefer to live abroad.^[24] He also expressed frustration with the academic conservatism that existed in Portugal.^[25]

Beginning in 1551, Resende was a professor of Sacred Theology at the University of Coimbra.^[1] After administration of the university was taken over by Jesuits in 1555, the contracts of Resende and other humanists were not renewed, and subsequently Resende went back to Évora.^[26]

In addition to teaching, Resende devoted himself to the study of antiquities,^[27] especially with respect to Évora.^[5] An admirer of ancient Rome and devout Catholic, Resende sought to construct a past and, by extension, a cultural identity for Portugal that was simultaneously Roman and Christian.^[28] In 1553, he published his História da antiguidade da cidade de Évora (History of the Antiquity of the City of Évora).^[5] In this work he claims that the Roman general Sertorius resided in Évora and frames him as a symbol of Lusitanian independence.^[29] He also argues that Évora is one of the oldest Christian cities in the Peninsula.^[30] In his comprehensive study of Iberian antiquarianism, De Antiquitatibus Lusitaniae,^[1] Resende largely neglects the period between the Romans and the Reconquista, making no reference to the era that Portugal was under Islamic rule.^[31] Besides the aforementioned works, Resende also wrote two books on aqueducts and one on ancient epitaphs.^[32]

After years of semi-retirement, Resende died in his home in Évora on 9 December 1573.^[19] At the time of his death, he was still working on De Antiquitatibus Lusitaniae. The work was completed posthumously and published in 1593.^[33]

Resende is buried in the chapel of the right transept of the Cathedral of Évora.

Legacy

Together with Clenardus, Resende is considered a pioneer in advancing Christian humanism in Renaissance Portugal.^[34]

Although Resende's work was largely endorsed in his time, modern historians deem his construction of Portuguese history with regards to Rome as largely fabricated with little basis.^[30] Moreover, in the 19th century epigraphy specialist Emil Hübner concluded that an inscription brought forth by Resende, supposedly from ancient Rome, was inauthentic.^[35][36][37] Accordingly, Philip Spann (1981) describes Resende as "one of the great 16th-century forgers of inscriptions."^[38]