Poets, Patronage, and Print in Sixteenth-Century Portugal

Portugal was not always the best place for poets in the sixteenth century. Against the backdrop of an expanding empire, the country''s annexation by Spain in 1580, and ongoing religious controversy, poets struggled to articulate their worth to rulers and patrons. This did not prevent them, however, from persisting in their craft. Indeed, many of their works reflected precisely on the question of w...