Coutinho (Francisco de Vasconcelos)

We know of this Madeiran poet through the references to him in Inocêncio Francisco da Silva’s Diccionario Bibliographico and in one of Dr Rodrigues de Azevedo’s notes to the Saudades. There we read that he was a bachelor (bacharel, university graduate) in canon law and that he was born towards the end of the 17th century, since he wrote sonnets on the death of Peter II, which occurred in 1706, and a dramatic eulogy in honour of the governor and captain-general of the island of Madeira, João de Saldanha da Gama, when the latter’s term ended in 1718. He died after 1729, for in that year he published the following two works: Feudo do Parnaso, dedicated to John V, and Hecatombe metrico, consecrated to the Virgin, a short religious poem in a hundred sonnets, both printed in Lisbon, 1729. He also composed eight more sonnets on the death of Peter II, one to John V and four to various personages; Effeitos de hum arrependimento, in tercets; and the eulogy already mentioned, entitled Residencia do Governador e Capitão General da Ilha da Madeira João de Saldanha da Gama, performed by the nuns of Santa Clara on his departure. These works were published with the second edition of Feudo do Parnaso and Hecatombe metrico in a single volume (Lisbon, 1773). Before all of these, other poems of his had been collected in the Fenix renascida, vol. 1, pp. 1–32, and vol. II, pp. 220–251 (Lisbon 1716 and 1717)’.

We can add that he was the son of Lourenço de Matos Coutinho, a licentiate in law known as the Knight, and of Dona Mariana de Ornelas e Vasconcelos.

On pp. 52 ff. of vol. II of the Arquivo Historico da Madeira there is an interesting article containing new and valuable biographical data on Francisco de Vasconcelos Coutinho.