D. António, Prior do Crato, Príncipe Penitente : os Psalmi Confessionales: do exemplum à devoção

Abstract

The Psalmi Confessionalis is a significant exemplar both of a genre with a scarce presence in the Portuguese culture of the second half of the 17th century and of the Portuguese literature in exile in the early period of the Iberian Union. In spite of this significance, this work has never been the object of a study centered on the issue of its authorship, on the reasons for its sources (the Holy Scripture, St Augustine, Petrarch), and on the display of the work of textual construction performed by its true author - Fr. Diogo Carlos, OFM. This study is an attempt at approaching this set of issues and trying to locate the work within the spiritual biography of D. António, who is known to have read it during the latter part of his life.