Lopo de Sousa Coutinho

Memorialist, translator, and poet. A noble warrior, he fought in India and governed the fort of Mina. Having taken part in the siege of Diu, he bore witness to it in two books on the subject, thereby revealing a peculiar aspect of sixteenth-century Portuguese historiography: that which is intimately associated with the glorification of our presence in the East, often through the epic narrative of battles experienced firsthand by the authors. He is also the author of an account of the shipwreck of Sepúlveda, translations of Lucano and Séneca, poetic compositions, and mathematical texts. He was the father of Frei Luís de Sousa (Manuel de Sousa Coutinho) and the grandson of D. Gonçalo Coutinho.