, a native of Aveiro in Portugal, one of the restorers of learning
, a native of Aveiro in Portugal, one of the restorers of learning in Spain, in the
end of the fifteenth century, was the son of Ferdinand
Barbosa, and of Catherine Figuera, who took great pains
with his education-. After studying for some time in the
Spanish universities, he went into Italy, and at Florence
studied under the celebrated Politian. Here he made
great progress in the languages, particularly the Greek,
which he had an opportunity of acquiring more perfectly
from those Greeks, who, at the taking of Constantinople,
came into Italy. About the year 1494, Barbosa returned
to Spain in order to teach Greek, which had long been
forgotten in that country. After teaching it at Salamanca,
with Antony of Lebrixa, for twenty years, he was invited
to the court of Portugal, to be preceptor to the two young
princes Alphonsus and Henry, who were afterwards cardinals, and the latter, king of Portugal in 1578. He remained in this employment for seven years, and afterwards
went home, and died of a very advanced age in 1540.
Barbosa, with Lebrixa and Resendius, contributed very
successfully to the restoration of classical and polite literature in Spain. His works are, 1. “In Aratoris presbyter!
poema de Apostolorum rebus gestis commentarium,
” Salamanca, De Prosodia, relectio, seu de re
poetica, ac recte scribendi ratione
” and with it, “
Epometria, sive relectio alia,
” Salamanca, 4to. 3. “QuodJibeticae questiones,
” a work mentioned by Valerius Andreas, but unknown to Antonio. 4. “Epigrammatum li^
bellus,
” 8vo.