Literature

Madeiran literature followed the phases of mainland literature, although few writers from this archipelago left a name crowned with glory in the literary history of the country.

It is certain, however, that as early as the century of the discovery there appeared several poets of notable merit who feature in the Cancioneiro (songbook) of Garcia de Resende. In his book Poetas Palacianos, Teófilo Braga went so far as to regard them as a group apart, characteristic and distinct, which he called the Cyclo Poético da Ilha da Madeira (Poetic Cycle of the Island of Madeira), a classification with which the annotator of ‘Longing for the Homeland’ (Saudades da Terra) disagrees. Nevertheless, Dr Álvaro de Azevedo states that ‘that very notable group is none the less sufficient title for the island of Madeira to have an honourable share in the pre-classical history of national literature, a share which Senhor Teófilo Braga claimed for it.’ The chief of these poets who feature in the songbook are Tristão Teixeira, 2nd donatary of Machico, known as Tristão das Damas; João Gomes, the Troubadour; João Gonçalves da Câmara, 2nd donatary of Funchal; Rui de Sousa; João de Abreu; Manuel de Noronha, son of the 2nd captain-donatary João Gonçalves; and Rui Gomes. We know of no Madeiran prose writer who lived in the 15th century (see Cancioneiro de Resende, 1-233).

Of the Madeiran prose writers of the 16th century, Diogo Barbosa Machado, in the Bibliotheca Lusitana (‘Portuguese library’), mentions Afonso da Ilha, Luís Gonçalves da Câmara, Damião das Chagas, Tristão Gomes de Castro, Manuel Álvares, António da Gama and Sebastião de Morais (see those entries). From this period the blind poet Baltasar Dias (see that entry) should also be mentioned.

In the 17th century, the writers include Luís de Morais, António da Visitação, João Pinto da Vitória, Francisco de Santa Teresa, António Veloso de Lira, Belchior de Teive, Gregório Baptista, Remígio de Assunção, Manuel Constantino, Francisco de Castro and Daniel da Costa (see all those entries). To this period belongs the poet Manuel Tomás (see that entry), who, although not a Madeiran, wrote the well-known poem ‘The Island Epic’ (Insulana), which deals exclusively with matters of this island.

In the 18th century, we shall mention the writers Nicolau Francisco Xavier da Silva, Manuel Rodrigues, Henrique Henriques de Noronha and Julião Fernandes da Silva (see those entries). In this period, Troilo Vasconcelos da Cunha, Francisco de Vasconcelos Coutinho, Francisco Álvares de Nóbrega and Francisco Manuel de Oliveira (see those entries) distinguished themselves as poets.

For the first half of the 19th century we must mention the names of Dr Nicolau Caetano de Bettencourt Pita, Father João Crisóstomo Espínola de Macedo, João António Monteiro, Joaquim José Ferreira de Freitas, José Manuel da Veiga, Francisco Ferreira de Abreu, Justino António de Freitas, Servulo Drumond de Meneses, José Anselmo Correia Henriques, Marceliano Ribeiro de Mendonça, António Gil Gomes, Manuel de Santana e Vasconcelos. Paulo Perestrelo da Câmara and Francisco de Andrade as prose writers, and Manuel Caetano Pimenta de Aguiar and Francisco de Paula de Medina e Vasconcelos as poets (see those entries).

As Madeiran writers of the third quarter of the 19th century we name José António Monteiro Teixeira, the Viscountess of Nogueiras, Luís da Câmara Leme, António Correia Heredia, Patrício Moniz, José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage, Agostinho de Ornelas, Luís da Costa Pereira, Januário Justiniano de Nóbrega, João Augusto de Ornelas, João de Nóbrega Soares, Canon Alfredo César de Oliveira, the Viscount of Nogueiras and Maximiliano Eugénio de Azevedo.

From the last quarter of the 19th century we shall mention as Madeiran authors the names of Luís de Ornelas Pinto Coelho, João Baptista de Freitas Leal, Alexandre José Sarsfield, Dona Joana Castelo Branco, Father José Gonçalves de Aguiar, Father Manuel Fernandes de Santana, Ciríaco de Brito e Nóbrega, Carlos Azevedo de Meneses, António Feliciano Rodrigues and Francisco António Ferreira.