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Book/Printed Material The Lusiads. Os Lusíadas

About this Item

Title

  • The Lusiads.

Other Title

  • Os Lusíadas

Summary

  • Presented here is the first printed edition of Os Lusiadas (The Lusiads), the national epic of Portugal, published in Lisbon in 1572. Composed by the poet, soldier, and sailor Luís de Camões (circa 1524-80), the poem celebrates the great Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama (1469-1524) and the achievements of Portugal and its people in venturing out into the Atlantic, rounding the tip of Africa, and forging a path to India. The poem is comprised of ten cantos, each with a variable number of stanzas. Each stanza is written in ten-syllable lines, and uses the rhyme scheme known as ottava rima (ABABABCC). The first edition was produced by Antonio Gonçalves, who was active in Lisbon from about 1566 to 1576, mainly as a printer of religious books. The present copy is one of four exemplars of the 1572 edition held in the National Library of Portugal. This copy is known as the "E edition," and the other three are known as the "Ee edition." Scholars have puzzled over certain mysteries surrounding the first edition of Os Lusiadas at least since the 17th century, after the great commentator of Camões's work, Manuel de Faria e Sousa (1590--1649), noticed that in some copies of the 1572 edition, including the present one, the image of the pelican on the title page is turned to the reader's left, while in others the pelican is turned to the right. This discrepancy, plus some typographical differences and minor variations in orthography and punctuation, is present in the copies of the first edition. The differences between the texts led to speculation about two first edition printings, one presumably with corrections; about possible pirated editions; and to other theories about how these differences may have arisen. Whether Camões was personally involved in making corrections to an early printing also has long been debated.

Names

  • Camões, Luís de, 1524?-1580 Author.

Created / Published

  • Lisboa, Portugal : Antonio Gonçalves, 1572.

Headings

  • -  Portugal
  • -  1572
  • -  Epic poetry
  • -  Gama, Vasco da, 1469-1524
  • -  Poetry
  • -  Portuguese poetry

Notes

  • -  Title devised, in English, by Library staff.
  • -  Original resource extent: 186 folios ; 20 centimeters.
  • -  Reference extracted from World Digital Library: Luís de Camões and K David Jackson, Camões and the first edition of The Lusiads (Os Lusíadas), 1572 = Luís de Camões e a primeira edição d'Os Lusíadas, 1572 (Dartmouth, Massachusetts: Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, 2003).
  • -  Original resource at: National Library of Portugal.
  • -  Content in Portuguese.
  • -  Description based on data extracted from World Digital Library, which may be extracted from partner institutions.

Medium

  • 1 online resource.

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2021666936

Online Format

  • compressed data
  • pdf
  • image

Additional Metadata Formats

IIIF Presentation Manifest

Rights & Access

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Credit Line: [Original Source citation], World Digital Library

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Camões, Luís De, 1524?-1580 Author. The Lusiads. Lisboa, Portugal: Antonio Gonçalves, 1572. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/2021666936/.

APA citation style:

Camões, L. D. (1572) The Lusiads. Lisboa, Portugal: Antonio Gonçalves. [Pdf] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2021666936/.

MLA citation style:

Camões, Luís De, 1524?-1580 Author. The Lusiads. Lisboa, Portugal: Antonio Gonçalves, 1572. Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2021666936/>.