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Diogo do Couto (Lisbon, c. 1542 –
Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...
, 10 December 1616) 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 ...
historian.


Biography

He was born in
Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
in 1542 to Gaspar do Couto and Isabel Serrão Calvos. He studied
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and
Rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...
at the College of Saint Anthony the Great (''Colégio de Santo Antão''), an important Jesuit-run educational institution in Lisbon. He also studied philosophy at the Convent of Saint Dominic (''Convento de São Domingos de Benfica'') in Benfica. In March 1559 (Armada of Pêro Vaz de Sequeira) he traveled to
Portuguese India The State of India ( pt, Estado da Índia), also referred as the Portuguese State of India (''Estado Português da Índia'', EPI) or simply Portuguese India (), was a state of the Portuguese Empire founded six years after the discovery of a se ...
. As a soldier he took part in the
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campaign in March 1560, living in
Bharuch Bharuch (), formerly known as Broach, is a city at the mouth of the river Narmada in Gujarat in western India. Bharuch is the administrative headquarters of Bharuch District. The city of Bharuch and surroundings have been settled since tim ...
in 1563. He returned to Lisbon with D.
António de Noronha :''not to be confused with António José Severim de Noronha, 1st Duke of Terceira'' D. Antão de Noronha was appointed in 1564 under Sebastian of Portugal as vice-roy of India. Previously, he had been captain at Hormuz in the 1550s and served at ...
in 1569. He was a close friend of the poet
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 ...
, and described him in
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in 1569, as indebted and unable to fund his return to Portugal. Couto and other friends took it upon themselves to help Camões, who was thus enabled to take his most significant work, the '' Lusiads'', to the capital. Couto arrived in Lisbon on board the ''Santa Clara'' in April 1570, only to discover that the port was closed due to
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. Upon receiving permission from the King of Portugal (who he met in
Almeirim Almeirim () is a city and a municipality in Santarém District, Portugal. The population in 2011 was 23,376, in an area of 222.12 km². The city proper had a population of 10,520 in 2001. History There are vestiges of mid-Paleolithic to Meso ...
), the ship docked in
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. Shortly after Couto returned to Goa in the Armada of D.
António de Noronha :''not to be confused with António José Severim de Noronha, 1st Duke of Terceira'' D. Antão de Noronha was appointed in 1564 under Sebastian of Portugal as vice-roy of India. Previously, he had been captain at Hormuz in the 1550s and served at ...
, he married Luisa de Melo and worked in a supply warehouse. In 1595, Couto was invited to organize the Goa archive (being appointed "Guarda-Mor do Tombo da India") and to continue writing the ''Décadas'' (a history of the Portuguese in India, Asia, and southeast Africa) of
João de Barros João de Barros () (1496 – 20 October 1570), called the ''Portuguese Livy'', is one of the first great Portuguese historians, most famous for his ''Décadas da Ásia'' ("Decades of Asia"), a history of the Portuguese in India, Asia, and southea ...
. The 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th ''Décadas'' were published during his lifetime. After Couto died, his other works were in the hands of his brother-in-law, the priest Deodato da Trindade.


Works

*''Decada Quarta'' (Dos feitos que os portugueses fizeram na conquista e descobrimento das terras e mares do Oriente, em quanto governaram na India Lopo Vaz de Sampaio e parte de Nuno da Cunha), Lisboa 1602; *''Decada Quinta'' (Dos feitos...em quanto governaram na India Nuno da Cunha, Garcia de Noronha, Estevão da Gama e Martim Afonso de Sousa), Lisboa 1612 *''Decada Sexta'' (Dos feitos...em quanto governaram na India João de Castro, Garcia de Sá, Jorge Cabral e Afonso de Noronha), Lisboa 1614 *''Decada Setima'' (Dos feitos... em quanto governaram na India Pedro de Mascarenhas, Francisco Barreto, Constantino Conde de Redondo, Francisco Coutinho e João de Mendonça), Lisboa 1616; *''Decada Oitava'' (Dos feitos...em quanto governaram na India Antão de Noronha e Luis de Ataíde), Lisboa 1673 (edited by Joao da Costa e Diogo Soares); *''Decada Nona'' (written in 1614, and stolen, with the OITAVA); *''Decada Décima'' (Dos feitos...em quanto governaram na India Fernão Telles, Francisco de Mascarenhas e Duarte de Menezes), Lisboa 1778 *''Decada Undecima'' (lost or stolen, during the lifetime of the author); *''Decada Duodecima'' ("Tratado os Cinco Livros da Década XII"), Paris 1645; *"Fala que fez em nome da Câmara de Goa ... a André Furtado Mendonça, em dia do Espírito Santo de 1609" (Lisboa 1810); *''Vida de Paulo de Lima Ferreira, Capitão Mor das Armadas do Estado da India'' *''O Soldado Prático'' (the original was stolen, and the author re-made it in 1610, and sent it to Manuel Severim de Faria), Lisboa 1790 (2nd ed. 1954, 3rd ed. 1980); *''Tratado de todas as cousas socedidas ao valeroso Capitão Dom Vasco da Gama primeiro conde da Vidigueira: almirante do mar da India: no descobrimento,e conquista dos mares, e terras do Oriente: e de todas as vezes que ha India passou, e das cousas que socederão nella a todos seus filhos'', Lisboa 1998.


References


Bibliography

Loureiro, Rui Manuel, A biblioteca de Diogo do Couto, Macau, Instituto Cultural de Macau, 1998. Diogo do Couto orador. Discursos oficiais proferidos na Câmara de Goa, edited by Maria Augusta Lima Cruz, Nuno Vila-Santa and Rui Manuel Loureiro, Portimão, Arandis/ISMAT, 2016. Vila-Santa, Nuno, "O Primeiro Soldado Prático de Diogo do Couto e os seus contemporâneos" in Memórias 2017, Lisboa, Academia de Marinha, vol. XLVII, 2018, pp. 171–190

Vila-Santa, Nuno, "Diogo do Couto e Belchior Nunes Barreto: similitudes e diferenciações de dois interventores políticos contemporâneos" in Diogo do Couto. História e intervenção política de um escritor polémico, Edições Humus, Vila Nova de Famalicão, 2019, pp. 191–220

{{DEFAULTSORT:Couto, Diogo Do Portuguese chroniclers Portuguese Renaissance writers Maritime history of Portugal 1540s births 1616 deaths Writers from Lisbon 16th-century Portuguese historians 17th-century Portuguese historians