1561. Carta de Fernão Mendes para Lourenço Pires de Távora, embaixador em Roma.

Private letter from Fernão Mendes, to Lourenço Pires de Távora, ambassador in Rome

The auhor tells the addressee that some former news sent by him seem to be nothing but groundless rumors.

The two letters (PSCR0101 and PSCR0102) were sent from Florence by Fernão Mendes to the ambassador of the Portuguese Crown in Rome, Lourenço Pires de Távora, a nobleman who had fought in the Portuguese Africa and India campaigns. In these letters the author gave a wide amount of information he had gathered.

The archival services first considered that this letter had been written in 1511. However, it actually dates from 1561, as the letter itself attests and the comparison with the letter PSCR0102, from the same author, can also prove. Through comparison with PSCR0102 we determined that the place of origin was Florence, Italy. The archival services have erroneously attributed different names to the author of the two letters, considering that the author of PSCR0101 was Fernando Mendes and the author of PSCR0102 was Fernão Martins.

Several letters can be found in the collection "Corpo Cronológico", a documental fund under the custody of the National Archive of Torre do Tombo. It is a collection composed mostly by documentation of judicial and administrative nature, from 1161 to 1696. After the earthquake of 1755 many scattered documents were incorporated in this fund. Just like the name suggests, the main criterion of organization within the Corpo Cronológico is the documents' date.