Manuel de Faria e Sousa

This article contains wording that promotes the subject in a subjective manner without imparting real information. Please remove or replace such wording and instead of making proclamations about a subject's importance, use facts and attribution to demonstrate that importance. (August 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Manuel de Faria e Sousa (European Portuguese pronunciation: [mɐnuˈɛl dɨ fɐˈɾi.ɐ i ˈsozɐ]; Spanish: Manuel de Faría y Sosa; 18 March 1590 – 3 June 1649) was a Portuguese historian and poet who frequently wrote in Spanish.^[1]

He was born into a Portuguese noble family and studied in Braga before serving the Bishop of Porto. Apart from his time with the Portuguese embassy in Rome from 1631 to 1634, he spent most of his later life in Madrid, where he died in June 1649. He was married to Catarina Machado, the "Albania" of his poems.

His early work, Epitome de las historias Portuguezas (Madrid, 1628), was well received. However, some of his commentary on Os Lusíadas and the poetry of Luís de Camões^[2] drew the suspicion of the Inquisition, leading to his temporary imprisonment and the loss of his salary. Despite this, he continued writing, producing up to 12 folio pages a day. He died on 3 June 1649, leaving his history of the Portuguese across the world unfinished.

After his death, parts of his unfinished history were published in Lisbon: Europa Portugueza (1667), Ásia Portugueza (1666–1675), and África Portugueza (1681), all edited by Captain Faria e Sousa. As a poet, Faria e Sousa was prolific, influenced by theGongorismo style. His poems were mostly collected in Noches claras (Madrid, 1624–1626) and Fuente de Aganipe (Madrid, 1644–1646). He also wrote Imperio de China i cultura evangelica (Madrid, 1642) and completed the Nobiliário of the Count of Barcelos. English translations of his works include History of Portugal (1698) and Portuguese Asia (1695).^[3][4]