Publication of The Lusiads

Timeline

1. c. 1553–1571Lisbon · LisbonCamões wandered for over a decade in Portuguese India, Hormuz, and Macau, enduring imprisonment and shipwreck; legend holds his manuscript was nearly lost at the Mekong Delta. Around 1570 he returned to Lisbon and submitted the long poem—built on da Gama's voyage, fusing Homeric-Virgilian epic structure with Portugal's overseas enterprise—for approval. Apart from two early short poems, this was the main work he supervised through publication in his lifetime.
2. 1572Antonio Gonçalves press, Lisbon · LisbonThe 1572 edition of The Lusiads is dedicated to the young Sebastian I; its ten cantos in ottava rima unfold da Gama's voyage around Africa to India, incorporating divine intervention, sea storms, and narratives of Portuguese conquest. Bibliographers have long debated whether the so-called 'ee' or 'Ee' setting is closer to the first printing; recent sampling suggests the same workshop printed in stages, with some surviving copies containing later imitated leaves.
3. 1572–1580Lisbon · LisbonAfter publication Camões received a modest annuity from Sebastian I, and his poetic reputation was established at court and among humanist circles. The king died at Alcácer Quibir in 1578; Portugal was annexed by Habsburg Spain in 1580, and Camões died in poverty and illness the same year. Despite this turn of fortune, the epic remained a model of Portuguese literature in subsequent centuries and continued to be reprinted and translated across the Portuguese-speaking world.