El Alphonso o la fundación del reino de Portugal (1731) de Francisco Botelho de Morais e Vasconcelos y los avatares de la poesía épica de entresiglos

Abstract

Francisco Botelho de Morais e Vasconcelos (1670-1747) is an important figure in the Iberian literary scene of the last decades of the 17th century and beginning of 18th. He wrote in Spanish a significant part of his literary works, including the epic poems, El Nuevo Mundo and El Alphonso, o la fundación del reino de Portugal, asegurada y perfecta en la conquista de Lisboa. In this study, we are going to analyze the latter one and its complex relationship with the epic of the Modern Age, without forgetting the definition and characteristics of the epic poem. Certainly, the heyday of this genre was in the second half of the 16th and first decades of the 17th, but other authors have created new formulations based on several contaminations with different literary models. Being produced in the period between centuries, this book takes on a special meaning to measure the change of mentality in the transition from Baroque to Illustration. In the edition of El Alphonso (Salamanca, 1731), the author uses the recovery of the peninsular lands of the hands of the Arab invaders as a moment that gave way to the construction of a universal Christian empire, in the light of a messianic and providentialist conception of History. On the other hand, Botelho is open to the influence of modern culture and new scientific theories, but without questioning the respect for the dogmas of religion.