Diogo do Couto


Diogo do Couto was a Portuguese historian.

Biography

He was born in Lisbon in 1542 and studied Latin and Rhetoric at Saint Antão College and philosophy at the convent at Benfica.
In March 1559 he traveled to Portuguese India. As a soldier he took part in the Surat campaign in March 1560, living in Baroche in 1563.
He returned to Lisbon with D. António de Noronha in 1569.
He was a close friend of the poet Luís de Camões, and described him in Ilha de Moçambique in 1569, as indebted and unable to fund his return to Portugal. Couto and other friends took it upon themselves to help Camões, who was thus enabled to take his most significant work, the Lusiads, to the capital.
Couto arrived in Lisbon on board the Santa Clara in April 1570, only to discover that the port was closed due to plague. Upon receiving permission from the King of Portugal, the ship docked in Tejo.
Shortly after Couto returned to India in the Armada of D. António de Noronha he married Luisa de Melo in Goa, and worked in a supply warehouse.
In 1595 Couto was invited to organize the Goa archive, and to continue writing the Décadas of João de Barros, a history of the Portuguese in India, Asia, and southeast Africa.
In his lifetime the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Décadas were published. After Couto died, his other works were in the hands of his brother-in-law, the priest Deodato da Trindade.

Works