A legendary after Trento (Frei Diogo do Rosário, 1567)

Abstract

After the Flos Sanctorum of 1513, the first legendary per circulum anni published in Portuguese was the Historia das vidas e feitos heroicos e obras insignes dos sanctos (Braga, Antonio de Mariz, 1567). A mere four years after the Council of Trent’s closing and even before the reformed breviary (1568), the new legendary was ordered by Friar Bartolomeu dos Mártires, Archbishop of Braga, Primate of Hispania and a participant of Trent, to the Dominican Friar Diogo do Rosário, with the explicit goal of replacing the histories of the lives of saints that were printed in Portuguese and which contained some very uncertain and apocryphal matters (Friar Diogo do Rosário, in “Proemio”). This paper attempts to demonstrate some of the criteria that presided over the making of this legendary and to evaluate the connections it establishes with the medieval and Hispanic tradition represented by the Flos Sanctorum of 1513. It also aims to ascertain the manner in which the Trent recommendations were received and whether or not they reflect a progressive narrowing of the hagiographic discourse.