Saudades da Terra

Saudades da Terra is a manuscript, was published by father Gaspar Frutuoso, which forms a reference work on Macaronesia in the late 16th century.

The manuscript was written between 1586 and 1590,[1] divided into two volumes, based on the author's observations, providing a detailed description of the archipelagos of the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands.

The author writes from the perspective of a typical Renaissance humanist: including encyclopaedic coverage of literary, artistic and musical fields, observed natural phenomena, alchemic experimentations and speculations concerning geology, biology, mineralogy and petrography.

The manuscript changed hands, in the 1920s, in a context of commemorations of the Tri-Centenary of the Birth of Gaspar Frutuoso in 1922, owned by the Praia e Monforte family, which had prevented access to the work, unfeasible for an chance for its publication.

It was followed by a genealogical part of Book IV, published in 1876 by an initiative of Francisco Maria Supico and José Pedro de Jesus Cardoso.