Constantino (Padre Manuel)

He was born in Madeira and died in the city of Rome on November 28, 1614. He graduated in philosophy from the University of Coimbra and received a doctorate in theology from the University of Salamanca. In Rome, he was a professor at the famous University of Sapienza, where he gained the applause and admiration of the main figures of the curia, due to his extraordinary talent and vast erudition. He wrote and published several works mentioned in the Bibliotheca Lusitana, including: Oratio in funere Philippi II, Romae 1599, De profectione Pontificis in Ferraricus. Civitatem... Romae, 1598, Historia de origine et principio atque vita omnium regum Lusitaniae... Romae, 1601, In funere Seraphinae a Portugalia Joannis Brigantiae Ducis filiae... Romae, 1604, Gratulatio de S. Pontif. Paulo V... Romae, 1607, Votum primum ad S. S. Virginem pro salute Scipionis Cardinalis... Romae, 1610. Among the works he published, one is of interest to this archipelago, titled Insulae Materiae... published in Rome in the year 1599. It is the history, written in Latin, of the discovery of this archipelago, to which Dr. Alvaro de Azevedo refers in the notes to the Saudades da Terra. The Insulae Materiae, which appeared in Rome in the year 1599, became a great bibliographic rarity, and a copy was acquired by the meritorious industrialist Henrique Hinton, who promoted its translation into Portuguese and had it published in an elegant edition in the year 1930. It was translated by Father João Baptista de Afonseca and prefaced and extensively annotated by Father Fernando Augusto da Silva, co-author of this Elucidario.