O Phaenix da Lusitania ou Aclamaçam do Serenissimo Rey de Portugal Dom Joam IV. do Nome. Poema Heroico. [“O Phoenix of Lusitania: Heroic Poem Celebrating King João IV.”]

THOMAS, MANUEL.

Lourenço Maurry

Rouen

1649

FIRST EDITION. Engraved portrait of Author by Matheus (Rubens 2335). Additional engraved title with image of mythic bird Phoenix self-immolating on funeral pyre and above, coat of arms of Portugal

Kayserling, p. 105

Marrano poet Manuel Thomas (1585-1665) was born in Guimaraes, son of the physician Joseph Abravanel (alias Luis Gomez de Medeiros), and brother of Jona Abravanel. Most of Manuel's life was spent on the Isle of Madeira. In this work he displays the excessive forms of patriotism that New Christians exemplified. Lusitania is synonymous with Portugal. The way this identification came about is as follows. Lusitania was a Roman province in the Iberian Peninsula, constituted by Augustus in the year 5CE. It included all of modern central Portugal as well as much of western Spain. The province was named after indigenous warlike tribes, the Lusitani