Bento Teixeira (1561? – 1618?) was a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

poet. He is considered to be the introducer of Baroque in the Portuguese

colony of Brazil Colonial Brazil ( pt, Brasil Colonial) comprises the period from 1500, with the arrival of the Portuguese, until 1815, when Brazil was elevated to a kingdom in union with Portugal as the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Dur ...

and the first Brazilian poet — however, this last affirmation is contested by many historians.

Life

Details about Teixeira's life are very sparse. His birthplace is most commonly accepted to be

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, to Manuel Álvares de Barros and Lianor Rodrigues. Teixeira moved to the colony of Brazil in 1567(?), first living in

Bahia Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro) and the 5th-largest b ...

, but he had to flee to

Pernambuco Pernambuco () is a States of Brazil, state of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.6 million people as of 2020, making it List of Brazilian states by population, sev ...

when he was accused of being a

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

. In Pernambuco, Bento Teixeira became a teacher of

Arithmetics Arithmetic () is an elementary part of mathematics that consists of the study of the properties of the traditional operations on numbers—addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponentiation, and extraction of roots. In the 19th ce ...

Grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraints, a field that includes domain ...

and

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

. Returning to Bahia, he married Filipa Raposa in the city of

Ilhéus Ilhéus () is a major city located in the southern coastal region of Bahia, Brazil, 211 km south of Salvador, the state's capital. The city was founded in 1534 as Vila de São Jorge dos Ilhéus and is known as one of the most important touris ...

, in 1584(?). Allegedly, Teixeira murdered his wife under suspects of

adultery Adultery (from Latin ''adulterium'') is extramarital sex that is considered objectionable on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds. Although the sexual activities that constitute adultery vary, as well as the social, religious, and legal ...

, what made him flee to Pernambuco once more. Refugiated at the Monastery of São Bento, he wrote his masterpiece ''

Prosopopeia A prosopopoeia ( grc-gre, προσωποποιία, ) is a rhetorical device in which a speaker or writer communicates to the audience by speaking as another person or object. The term literally derives from the Greek roots "face, person", and ...

''. Another version tells that Teixeira's wife accused him of being Jewish. After being interrogated and absolved in 1589, he was intimated by the caller of the

Portuguese Inquisition The Portuguese Inquisition ( Portuguese: ''Inquisição Portuguesa''), officially known as the General Council of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Portugal, was formally established in Portugal in 1536 at the request of its king, John III. ...

, and Teixeira then confessed that he was a follower of the

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in t ...

. Enraged by his wife's delation, he murdered her and fled to the aforementioned monastery. However, he was found, arrested and sent to Lisbon in 1595(?), staying there until his death.

Works

Many works were attributed to Teixeira, such as: * ''Relações do Naufrágio'': According to studies made by

Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen, Viscount of Porto Seguro (February 17, 1816 – June 26, 1878), was a Brazilian diplomat and historian. He is the patron of the 39th chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. He is considered "the father of modern ...

, it was written by Afonso Luís, pilot of a carrack named ''Santo António'', mentioned in the poem ''Prosopopeia''. * ''Diálogos das Grandezas do Brasil'': According to

Capistrano de Abreu João Capistrano Honório de Abreu (1853 in Maranguape – 1927 in Rio de Janeiro) was a Brazilian historian. His works are characterized by a rigorous investigation of the sources and a critical view of the historical process. João Capistr ...

, it was written by Ambrósio Fernandes Brandão. The only one whose authorship is confirmed was the epic poem ''Prosopopeia'', written in

1601 This Epoch (reference date)#Computing, epoch is the beginning of the 400-year Gregorian leap-year cycle within which digital files first existed; the last year of any such cycle is the only leap year whose year number is divisible by 100. Jan ...

. The poem, inspired by

Luís de Camões Luís Vaz de Camões (; sometimes rendered in English as Camoens or Camoëns, ; c. 1524 or 1525 – 10 June 1580) is considered Portugal's and the Portuguese language's greatest poet. His mastery of verse has been compared to that of Shakespear ...

' ''

Os Lusíadas ''Os Lusíadas'' (), usually translated as ''The Lusiads'', is a Portuguese epic poem written by Luís Vaz de Camões ( – 1580) and first published in 1572. It is widely regarded as the most important work of Portuguese-language literature ...

'', tells about the life and works of the then-governor of

Jorge de Albuquerque Coelho and his brother Duarte.

External links

A sparse poem by Teixeira
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Teixeira, Bento 1560s births 1610s deaths 17th-century Portuguese poets Portuguese male poets Jewish Portuguese writers Portuguese-language writers People from Porto 16th-century Portuguese people 17th-century Portuguese people 16th-century Portuguese writers 16th-century male writers 17th-century Portuguese writers 16th-century Portuguese poets 17th-century male writers Baroque writers