Gil Vicente

Gil Vicente was born around 1465 or around 1480, without anyone knowing where. He is often identified with the goldsmith of the same name who made the Belém monstrance in 1506, though the question has not been settled. In the service of Queen Leonor, then of Kings Manuel and John III, he wrote, staged and acted for more than thirty years forty-four plays, in Portuguese, in Castilian or in both languages, and arranged the festivities of the court. In 1531, after the Santarém earthquake, he wrote to the king to defend the New Christians whom friars accused of having drawn down divine wrath. He died around 1536.

In the catalogue 1

• TheatreThe Ship of HellAuto da Barca do InfernoGil Vicente · 1517Literature