Lira (António Veloso de)

He was one of the most distinguished Madeirans of the 17th century. He belonged to an old and noble family of the parish (freguesia) of Calheta (‘small cove’), and he was born there on 14 June 1616, the son of Manuel Dias de Lira and Dona Mécia Rosa de Couto. After completing his studies in the humanities on this island, he enrolled at the celebrated University of Salamanca, which at that time was attended by many Portuguese. He was about to complete, or had perhaps already completed, his doctorate in theology when the revolution broke out that threw off the Castilian yoke and placed the Duke of Braganza on the throne. A considerable number of Veloso de Lira’s compatriots, almost all of them students, were then in that Spanish city. He did more than anyone to ensure that they all returned home immediately to join the movement for liberation and independence that at once spread throughout the country. Camilo Castelo Branco refers to this event in the article ‘Estudantes Portugueses em Salamanca’, included in his book Coisas leves e pesadas. In his work Espelho de lusitanos, António Veloso de Lira makes a brief reference to this episode, stating that more than four hundred Portuguese were then in Salamanca.

He devoted himself to letters and in his day enjoyed a reputation as a man of wide learning. In 1643 he published a book entitled Espelho de Lusitanos em o cristal do psalmo 43, which went into a second edition in 1753. Like Father António Vieira and other superior minds, he could not escape the prevailing taste of the age, and his writings are riddled with that detestable Gongorism which then infested Portuguese and Spanish literature. Despite its faults, the work reveals a superior intelligence and uncommon learning, and as late as the middle of the 19th century Alexandre Herculano published lengthy extracts from it in the review O Panorama (‘The Panorama’). We do not know whether he published any other works; Diogo Barbosa Machado says that he left the following unpublished: Política Christiana, Zodiacus Ecclesiae, Stella Matutina in medio nebulae, Domus Sapientiae, Philosophia muta, Glosa sobre os Evangelhos and Antiguidades da ilha da Madeira.

After a long stay in the Kingdom (reino, i.e. mainland Portugal), he settled in Madeira. In 1670 he was appointed canon of our Funchal Cathedral (Sé), and in 1689 he was raised to the dignity of magistral canon (cónego magistral, the canon charged with preaching). Among the offices he held here, the most notable was that of governor of this bishopric. He died in this city on 4 January 1691 and was buried in the chancel of the Cathedral.