Diogo do Couto


Diogo do Couto was a Portuguese historian.

Biography

He was born in Lisbon in 1542 to Gaspar do Couto and Isabel Serrão Calvos. He studied Latin and Rhetoric at the College of Saint Anthony the Great, an important Jesuit-run educational institution in Lisbon. He also studied philosophy at the Convent of Saint Dominic in Benfica.
In March 1559 he traveled to Portuguese India. As a soldier he took part in the Surat campaign in March 1560, living in Bharuch in 1563.
He returned to Lisbon with D. António de Noronha in 1569.
He was a close friend of the poet Luís de Camões, and described him in the Island of Mozambique in 1569, as indebted and unable to fund his return to Portugal. Couto and other friends took it upon themselves to help Camões, who was thus enabled to take his most significant work, Os Lusíadas, to the capital.
Diogo's writings label the State of India of his age as sclerotic, decadent and moribund.
Couto arrived in Lisbon on board the Santa Clara in April 1570, only to discover that the port was closed due to the plague. Upon receiving permission from the King of Portugal, the ship docked in Tejo.
Shortly after Couto returned to Goa in the Armada of Antão de Noronha, he married Luísa de Melo and worked in a supply warehouse.
In 1595, Couto was invited to organize the Goa archive and to continue writing the Décadas of João de Barros. The 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Décadas were published during his lifetime. After Couto died, his other works were in the hands of his brother-in-law, the priest Deodato da Trindade.

Works

  • Decada Quarta, Lisboa 1602;
  • Decada Quinta, Lisboa 1612
  • Decada Sexta, Lisboa 1614
  • Decada Setima, Lisboa 1616;
  • Decada Oitava, Lisboa 1673 ;
  • Decada Nona ;
  • Decada Décima, Lisboa 1778
  • Decada Undecima ;
  • Decada Duodecima, Paris 1645;
  • "Fala que fez em nome da Câmara de Goa... a André Furtado Mendonça, em dia do Espírito Santo de 1609" ;
  • Vida de Paulo de Lima Ferreira, Capitão Mor das Armadas do Estado da India
  • O Soldado Prático, Lisboa 1790 ;
  • Tratado de todas as cousas socedidas ao valeroso Capitão Dom Vasco da Gama primeiro conde da Vidigueira: almirante do mar da India: no descobrimento, e conquista dos mares, e terras do Oriente: e de todas as vezes que ha India passou, e das cousas que socederão nella a todos seus filhos, Lisboa 1998.