Bernarda Ferreira de Lacerda

Widely celebrated by the poets of her time, this seventeenth-century Portuguese poet wrote in Portuguese, Latin, Spanish, and Italian. Among her few published works is España Libertada, a narrative work in verse, though lacking the characteristics of the epic poetry then practiced in Portugal. One of the episodes of this work (in Canto IV) narrates the legend of King Ramiro, which would later become the subject of one of Almeida Garrett's earliest poems (Miragaia). The talent of Bernarda Ferreira de Lacerda would be celebrated by the Spaniard Lope de Vega, who, dedicating his eclogue Filis to the «illustrious Bernarda», called the poet the «tenth Lusitanian muse», «princess of Parnassus», and «shining beacon». She also published Soledades de Buçaco (in Spanish, Latin, and Italian).