Aristocratic house of farmers: the topos of the de re rustica in Sá de Miranda's verse epistles

Abstract

This paper analyses the Francisco de Sá de Miranda's verse epistles according to some historical boundaries. It is clear that Sá de Miranda's main reason lied on the defense of "time of memory", which must be preserved, against the Portuguese expansion and the present time. To do so, Sá de Miranda proposed some doctrinal aspects of "economics" (oeconomia), "house" (oikos) and related subjects, whose vitality was reactivated in the Renaissance, through the literary translation of the so called de re rustica (subject of farmers and peasants). From classical times to the Modern Age, the "house" (oikos) was not only a question of family administration and conservation of the real state, but also of agriculture and friendship bonds.