Barros, João de (c. 1496-1570/71)

Portuguese historian and administrator. In 1532 he was appointed head of the Portuguese colonial administration, his main responsibility being to deal with colonial expansion and trade, particularly with the Far East. His most important book was Asia (1552-1616), a history of Portuguese exploration and conquest in the East that influenced Portugal's national poet, Camões.

Barros was born at Vizeu and brought up at the court of King Emanuel I of Portugal, where he was a favourite of the king and also of Prince John, later King John III. In 1525 he was sent as governor to São Jorge da Mina on the Guinea coast, and later visited Portuguese settlements in India. In 1539 he embarked on his own venture in colonialism, an expedition to Maranhão in northern Brazil, but this was a unsuccessful and he suffered severe financial loss when his fleet was shipwrecked.

His first published work was his chivalric romance Crónica do Emperador Clarimundo (1522), dedicated to King John III. Later works include one of the earliest Portuguese grammars (1539), and the humanist dialogue Rópica pnefma (1532), a classic of Portuguese Renaissance humanism.

His major work, Asia, appeared in four parts, each covering a ‘Década’ (decade): 1552, 1553, 1563, 1615. The final part appeared posthumously, completed by Diogo do Couto. Barros, who modelled his style on that of the Roman historian Livy, celebrated his country's overseas discoveries and conquests from the vantage-point of his own position in the colonial administration, and the Asia is still a valuable record of Portuguese expansionism.