f “A propósito da erudição greco-latina e da imagística na Crónica da Tomada de Ceuta, de Gomes Eanes de Zurara”

The works of Gomes Eanes de Zurara, headed chronologically by Crónica da Tomada de Ceuta, have often been considered the point of origin of ultramarine historiography in Portugal. The Portuguese expansion overseas began with the conquest of this first Moroccan fortress, resuming, at the same time, the Christian reconquest started by the monarchs of the first dynasty, and which resulted in the territorial extension southwards. The search for written sources is an important characteristic of this historian, but as a matter of fact they were scarce, due to the closeness in time of the chosen subject. Faithful to his classical education, Zurara endorses the educational objectives of History, expressing himself in a style rich in quotations from literary, historical, philosophical, and scientific treatises, not only from Greek and Latin, but also from patristic, Arabic and Hebrew sources. In fact, for any inventory of the sources and documents of fifteenth-century Portuguese culture, one cannot forget the bibliographical references found throughout his works, through which he exercises the concepts of imitatio and auctoritas, in order to convey a certain hierarchy of moral and political values.