[84] The Azorean scholar, Dr. J. T. Soares de Sousa, calls Azurara "a clever courtier rather than a severe and impartial historian" (quoted by Dr. Theophilo Braga, in his Historia da Universidade de Coimbra, vol. i, p. 138); but this is certainly unjust and even untrue. K. Manoel de Mello gives a fairer estimate in the witty phrase, "Chronista antigo, tão candido de penna, como de barba."—Apologos Dialogaes, p. 455, ed. Lisbon, 1721.
[85] Quarterly Review, May 1809, p. 288.
Bibliography.
The following is a list of Azurara's works in the order in which they were written:—
(a) "Milagres do Santo Condestabre D. Nuno Alvres Pereira."
This volume, of doubtful authenticity, which was never printed, has now been lost. Senhor Oliveira Martins was unable to find a trace of it when engaged on his recently-published life of the Holy Constable,[[86]] and suggests that it may have perished, along with so many other literary treasures, in 1755, during the Great Earthquake. Jorge Cardoso, in his Agiologico Lusitano,[[87]] quotes a passage from Azurara's work, and Santa Anna gives the substance of it in his Chronica dos Carmaelitas, expressly declaring that he had seen the original MS., which was then preserved among the Archives of the Carmo Convent.[[88]]
(b) "Chronica del rei D. Joam I de boa memória e dos reys de Portugal o decimo. Terceira parte em que se contém a tomada de Ceuta." Composta por Gomez Eannes D'Azurara Chronista Mór destes Reynos & impressa na linguagem antiga. Em Lisboa. Com todas as licenças necessarias. Á custa de Antonio Alvarez, Impressor del-rei N.S. 1644, pp. X-283 fol. Such is the full title of the Chronica de Ceuta as given in the one and only published edition.
Following the Chronicle come accounts of the death of King João and the translation of his body to Batalha, extracted from the Chronica de D. Duarte, as well as a copy, with translation, of the epitaph on his tomb, and then his will and a general Index. MSS. of this Chronicle exist in the Bibliotheca National in Lisbon, and in the Torre do Tombo. The former place contains a defective one, dating from the middle of the 16th century, as well as one of the second part of the same period apparently complete. The latter boasts a MS. (No. 366) of the 15th century, in large folio, written on paper in red and black, which derives importance from its early date, and exhibits a text practically identical with that of the book described above; while of the others, one may be attributed to the 16th century and two to the 17th. The Oporto Municipal Library has an 18th-century MS. of this Chronicle.[[89]]
(c) "Chronica do Descobrimento e Conquista de Guiné, escrita por mandado de El-Rei D. Affonso V sob a direcção scientifica, e segundo as instrucçoës do illustre Infante D. Henrique pelo Chronista Gomez Eannes de Azurara; fielmente trasladada do Manuscripto original contemporaneo, que se conserva na Bibliotheca Real de Pariz, e dada pela primeira vez á luz per diligencia do Visconde de Carreira, Enviado Extraordinario e Ministro Plenipotentiario de S. Majestade Fidelíssima na corte da França; precedida de uma Introducção e illustrada com algumas notas pelo Visconde de Santarem ..... e seguida d'um Glossario das palavras e phrases antiquadas e obsoletas." Paris, 1841. Fol. pp. XXV-474, with frontispiece portrait of D. Henrique from this same MS.
The letter which Azurara addressed to King Affonso V, when he forwarded the Chronicle, is printed in facsimile and precedes the Introduction.