Dias Leite (Canon Jerónimo)

He was a half-prebendary canon (cónego de meia prebenda) of Funchal Cathedral (the Sé) (Sé do Funchal), a position he took up in 1572, and in 1590 he was appointed a canon with a full prebend. We do not know where he was born, nor any other personal details concerning him. His name is well known to those engaged in research into Madeiran history, because he was perhaps the first person here in Madeira to devote himself to studies of this kind. Taking as the basis of his work a short account of the discovery of Madeira left by Gonçalo Aires (see that entry), a companion of Zarco, and ‘drawing, says Frutuoso, on the registers of the councils of the whole island (all of which were handed over to him)’, he wrote the História e Informação dos ilustres capitães da ilha da Madeira.

The author of ‘Longing for the Homeland’ (Saudades da Terra) acknowledges in more than one place that it was Dias Leite who supplied him with the main material for the work he wrote in 1590 on the island of São Miguel. Referring to the manuscript of Gonçalo Aires, he says that Dias Leite ‘compiled it, added to it and polished it in his grave and refined style, written on eleven sheets of paper, and sent it to me’.

Was the work of Canon Jerónimo Dias Leite lost? Referring to the authors who deal with the Robert Machin affair, Dr Álvaro de Azevedo states that he owns an anonymous manuscript entitled Historia do descobrimento da ilha da Madeira e da descendência nobilissima dos seus valerosos Capitães. He presumes it to be the original written by Dias Leite shortly before 1590, and adds elsewhere that it is ‘written on 22 small quarto leaves and a few lines more, that is, eleven sheets of paper’. This seems to indicate that it is the very original manuscript of which Gaspar Frutuoso speaks.

In the library of the Funchal Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal) there is a manuscript that some have regarded as the historical work of Jerónimo Dias Leite, although it is perhaps a copy and not the true original. A few pages of this curious text were published around the middle of the 19th century, and a copy of that edition is held in the same library, the only one whose existence we know of. Among the old manuscripts dealing with Madeiran matters, this should be one of the first to be honoured with publication, even though it may not be possible to establish whether or not Canon Dias Leite was its author. Quite apart from that question, it contains interesting and curious information and is undoubtedly a valuable contribution to the history of this archipelago.

On this subject, it is worth reading the chapter ‘O manuscrito de Gonçalaires’ in João Cabral do Nascimento’s book Apontamentos de Historia Insular.