Ainda a propósito do soneto O dia em que eu nasci moura e pereça

Abstract

This is a follow-up to a previous essay of mine engaged in a debate that was launched by Vítor Aguiar e Silva in 1992, in the pages of Diacrítica, on the authorship of the sonnet beginning O dia em que eu nasci moura e pereça. My arguments in favour of ascribing this sonnet to Camões are here summarized, and new data is added. The wider issue of authorship of sixteenth-century Portuguese sonnets is also addressed, as I argue for a philological approach that goes beyond textual criticism to assume, as a precondition, the study of ideology in the history of editing Camões and of commenting on his and others’ poetry.